LA County Board

16. Fiscal Stewardship and Equitable Access in County Fee Waivers Recommendation as submitted by Supervisor Mitchell: Direct the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), in collaboration with the Directors of Internal Services Department, Department of Beaches and Harbors, and Library, to report back to the Board in writing within 90 days on recommendations to establish a Countywide Fee Waiver Policy. The report should include but not be limited to: Criteria to prioritize fee waivers for events with the greatest demonstrated equity impact, including but not limited to: Events that improve quality and access to County services and public amenities (e.g. beach cleanup, public resource fairs); Events serving and directly addressing the needs of disadvantaged communities and/or low-income residents (e.g., homeless outreach events; community health fairs and clinics; food drives; education and training events; job fairs; art and cultural events; advocacy and safety workshops; re-entry events for justice-involved persons; and/or events for foster youth); Events offering activities that are open and free to the community and/or where participation and entrance fees are affordably priced (e.g., less than $10 per person); Events occurring in communities with concentrated disadvantage (i.e., high incidences of poverty, crime rates, or unemployment; lack of quality healthcare; lack of quality schools; high public assistance reliance; and high rates of serious health conditions or environmental hazards), or events led by community-based organizations that primarily serve these disadvantaged communities, or in areas that have historically received fewer County fee waivers; and County-sponsored events Eligibility criteria to determine which types of organizations (e.g., governmental entities, non-profit organizations, official County partners) and events may receive parking and non-parking fee waivers, including criteria for high-value waivers and repeat waiver recipients; Analysis and comparison of strategies to mitigate revenue loss, including fiscal impacts and tradeoffs, such as: Capping the total amount waived per event, regardless of waiver type, especially for large-scale, revenue generating events; Capping the total amount waived as a percentage of gross receipts; Restricting gross receipt waivers to certain types of non-profit or public benefit events; and Partial or tiered parking waivers (for revenue share lots), transit incentives, or other alternatives to full parking fee waivers that may reduce fiscal and environmental impacts while maintaining access. Development of a centralized formal application process, and public facing materials that organizations can use to learn about and apply for fee waivers relating to County facilities; Formal tracking, monitoring, and annual reporting to the Board of all fee waivers as financial and budgetary line items, including the type of fee waived, dollar amount, requesting organization, event type, and event location; and Development of a process that allows each Supervisorial District Office to approve fee waivers for events that do not meet established Countywide criteria, provided the Board Office commits to reimbursing the associated waived revenue using its discretionary funds. (26-1439) Motion by Supervisor Mitchell (Updates Following Cluster)