The circus is in town and it brought with it, an issue for the Española City Council to fix.
The city’s circus and carnival ordinance and fee schedule are out of date, according to several councilors and Mayor John Ramon Vigil. Despite this, the council approved Citystar Circus’s permit during a special meeting on Nov. 17 to operate for a series of shows Nov. 20-30 in a big, pink tent at 505 N. Paseo de Oñate.
City Manager Lauren Reichelt and Planning and Zoning Director Ernesto Martinez presented the permit to council for approval, which led to a more than 40-minute conversation about the fees, city sponsorship of events and the role of committees in the decision-making process.
In total, the circus will pay $205 a day in fees to hold their event.
Reichelt saw this as an opportunity to bring something to the area for children, and said the circus owner, Gaston Jacques, agreed to provide free tickets to children through the schools. In total, they gave away 1,350 tickets and also ran a limited-time promotion allowing families to receive one free adult ticket through social media.
“We haven’t updated this code since 2019,” District 4 Councilor Samuel LeDoux said. “Those numbers probably were just estimated by the code that was written, probably like 40 or 50 years ago. I think it’s a failure on us that we have no consistently updated codes to meet modern realities. So when (Jacques) applied for this permit, which is the one that he’s seeking, he did so with the expectation of the code as written.”
In order to get the permit approved, Martinez said the city’s recreation director, street supervisor, city manager, Española Fire Department and the Española Police Department had to sign off on the event.
According to the ordinance, a circus or carnival is supposed to pay for security at $50 per day, per office. This was waived because Citystar provides its own security. They are also required to pay a $125 permit fee per day, $25 for trash and additional fees for things like water and electricity, as well as a $500 deposit.
During her presentation with Martinez, Reichelt said the city could bring down some of the cost for the circus through a city sponsorship. Vigil did not agree with this due to the message it sends to the community and outsiders.
Local food vendors are charged a daily fee, and they continually support the community, Vigil said.
“We’re going to pretty much open the doors for someone from out of town to come and make money off our community, take his money and leave,” he said.
Vigil also said that staff is able to calculate the true cost of events ahead of time, and that they did something similar for the Fiesta Council, to supply the city with an accurate cost. One of the most expensive costs for city-sponsored events are porta-potty rentals, he said, which can cost $3,800 to $4,200 per week. Considering how much the city has spent, he would like them to consider purchasing a bathroom trailer instead of continually renting them.
“I agree that we should look into (this),” Reichelt said. “This gentleman would like to come back annually, so we could keep track of what our expenses actually are, so then we can have a whole year to discuss with him what it will cost next year.”
District 2 Councilor Peggy Sue Martinez brought up concerns about the event being held on city property. Ernesto Martinez and Reichelt did not have all the information regarding Citystar Circus’s insurance on hand. Prior to the vote on the permit, the question was amended to clearly state the issuance of the permit required all proof of insurance to be presented. According to the ordinance, carnivals and circuses are required to pay a $500 deposit to cover any location cleaning costs that can only be returned upon inspection. They must sign a written agreement to protect the city from legal responsibility, in addition to carrying a $1 million per claim policy listing the city, and its employees, as additional insured.
Although the ordinance did not require this decision to go through a committee prior to coming before the full council, LeDoux said much of this discussion could have been avoided, had it been.
“My issue is that you were approached several weeks ago with this proposal, and we’re hearing about it in a special city council meeting that was supposed to be to an unrelated issue, and it couldn’t have gone to a committee?” LeDoux said.
Reichelt said she did not attempt to set up a special committee meeting with District 2 Councilor Nanette Rodriguez to review this prior to Nov. 17, but instead took the issue straight to council.
“I’m also cognizant of all of your time, and so I don’t want to call a special committee meeting every time something comes up,” Reichelt said.
Several people posted concerns about traffic and the circus on an Española social media page due to its proximity to the closed Oñate bridge. Reichelt said that traffic in the area should not be an issue and there was a lot of parking on Main Street and at the Española Transit Center Park & Ride facility on Hunter Street.
Citystar started its run of shows in New Mexico on May 8 in Artesia, according to its Facebook page. Since then, the circus has traveled to Carlsbad, Roswell, Hobbs, Socorro, Belen, Grants, Gallup, Aztec, Bloomfield and Taos. Jacques donates a portion of revenue from the shows to a person in need at each location. During the city council meeting, Reichelt and the councilors briefly discussed donating the proceeds to a group seeking improvements of the local skate part. No decision was reached during the meeting.