Barrett calls for Summerfest to pay full security costs
Mayor Tom Barrett said the city would be asking Summerfest’s presenter to pay the full cost to provide police services at the popular festival after that figure topped $800,000 for the fourth year in a row.
“What is so clear right now is that an agreement with Summerfest, which dates back to 2009, is woefully inadequate to cover the security costs that are incurred on behalf of the visitors to Summerfest by the residents of the city of Milwaukee,” Barrett said at a press conference Thursday.
There’s an “unfairness” to the arrangement that has
a negative impact on the city’s taxpayers, he said. The city will be contacting Milwaukee World Festival, Inc., the festival’s presenter, to ask about covering the security costs.
Milwaukee World Festival immediately pushed back, stressing it is in compliance with its lease — which runs through 2030 — and provides the city with plenty of funds to cover security.
The mayor’s press conference followed a morning meeting of the Board of Harbor Commissioners, during which Milwaukee police and the city’s budget and management director said the city services cost much more than the lease requires Milwaukee World Festival to reimburse. Those hundreds of thousands of dollars are absorbed by taxpayers, city officials said.
The cost to provide Milwaukee Police Department services was estimated at $813,297 this year. The lease dictates that Milwaukee World Festival pay $134,392 this year in a supplemental service fee — less than one-fifth the actual cost.
That leaves a difference of $678,905. “Costs have increased in a way that is larger than anticipated,” Commissioner Craig Mastantuono said at Thursday morning’s meeting.
However, according to two documents — the 2009 lease, and a letter from City Attorney Grant Langley explaining it — the supplemental service fee is intended only to partially offset the rising security costs, not fully cover them.
Milwaukee World Festival said in a statement that it pays the city an average of $1.8 million to use the Henry Maier festival grounds, and the city determines how to allocate that payment. The organization included the supplemental service fee in that calculation.
“Milwaukee Police Department costs associated with safely operating Summerfest should be covered by MWF’s annual rent payment,” the organization said in the statement. “Given an average $1.8 million annual payment, MWF has more than covered MPD’s annual expenses for Summerfest.”
The organization also said it receives no direct monetary public support while maintaining and developing a community asset that millions come to annually.
“Henry Maier Festival Park, Milwaukee World Festival, Inc. and Summerfest have a profound economic and cultural impact on Milwaukee generating an average of $186 million in economic impact per year and helping to define our community’s identity as The City of Festivals,” the organization said in the statement.
Barrett said Milwaukee World Festival is renting what is likely the most valuable property in the state, so rent would be expected for such a prime location. He said he doesn’t buy the argument that paying rent is the equivalent of paying security costs.
“It’s fair that they pay rent because they’re getting a lot of valuable real estate, but it’s also fair that they pay toward the security costs in a much more meaningful way than they have,” he said.
This year’s security costs are in line with the costs in previous years, according to police.
❚ In 2018, the cost was $824,445.
❚ In 2017, the cost was $832,967.
❚ And in 2016, the cost was $841,732. The cost figures only cover the direct costs of festival security, not the additional costs such as back-filling the shifts of officers dedicated to the dayslong event.
“Obviously, when you have a major event like Summerfest, you have to make sure that the public is safe, and so because of that and because of obviously the things that are going on around the country, we pay attention to those things, we’re informed by those things, our deployments depend on that information, we learn from those things,” Assistant Police Chief Michael Brunson said.
Many of the police department’s specialized units are assigned to Summerfest, including the hazardous devices and tactical enforcement units.
Usually, security costs of major events are billed and reimbursed dollarfor-dollar, police Chief of Staff Nick DeSiato said.
The structure differs with Summerfest because of the long-term lease.
The Summerfest lease doesn’t stipulate the level of law enforcement the city provides — it actually doesn’t require the city to do anything, the board’s Vice President Ron San Felippo said.
“But how do you have an 11-day event with 700,000 people?” he said. “Obviously, the city has a responsibility to keep that safe.”
Barrett said the actual costs of security have so outpaced the anticipated costs because of state laws curbing the city’s discretion on police costs, including labor agreements, and the need to ensure there is adequate security, given violence that the world has seen at major events.