Council Approves car show, IndieCade

City Will Pay IndieCade Hard Costs

As in past years, the popular Culver City car show, held every May, and IndieCade, the video game show held in October, will be happening again in Culver City, thanks to a vote by the City Council at its meeting Monday night.

The two events will be designated as Culver City-sponsored events. The car show, produced by the Culver City Exchange Club, will receive in-kind financial assistance with fee waivers provided, for a total amount of $7,311.

IndieCade, produced by Creative Media Collaborative, Inc. (CMC), will also be supported by the City, with the amount of in-kind financial assistance and fee waivers determined to be $4,710. However, in a separate motion, the Council approved the City paying the hard costs of the event ($1,638 in producers’ fees).

The money for the hard costs will probably be paid with monies from the City’s discretionary fund.

On the night’s agenda, the car show and IndieCade had been covered in one motion but the “bifurcation” into two motions was suggested by council member Jeff Cooper after the Council had mulled the particular issues raised by IndieCade’s submitted “wish list” of itemized requests for assistance.

IndieCade had not yet committed to paying permit fees for the events and had not yet set an exact date although Stephanie Barish of CMC said the tentative dates were October 5-7, 2012. Barish said that CMC would like to use the Parcel B site (recently approved for development by Combined Projects) as the event’s central site.

“The ‘wish list’ casts a wide net,” Barish conceded. But she added that CMC’s goal is to cut costs. However, she was concerned that Culver City might not give her organization all the help it needs for producing the event.

“We feel good about bringing this to Culver City,” she explained. “But we’re not sure if Culver City wants us back.”

Council members opined that, to the contrary, IndieCade is an immensely popular event that draws huge crowds, is good for local businesses, and focuses worldwide attention on Culver City.

The problem with CMC’s wish list is that it will take some going over by the City to determine what can and cannot be covered. Of the items requested, the City will be able to waive costs for location rentals (including Parcel B—if it can be verified that Combined’s development of the property will not begin on or prior to October 2012), and provide electrical equipment, directional signage, and any other requested equipment that is already in the City’s inventory.

IndieCade will be responsible for obtaining other items not in the City’s inventory.

Mayor Mehaul O’ Leary said he wanted to personally help find a location for IndieCade, especially as he felt the events’ award ceremony should be held in a Culver City venue (it was held outside Culver City last year).

Andrew Weissman had a number of concerns. He asked for a breakdown of costs involving city staff, as well as the assurance that parking staff would keep to their assigned job of patrolling parking and not be pulled off that task to perform other functions.

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Weissman was the sole member to vote against the second motion, in which IndieCade’s hard costs were to be paid by the City.

In other actions, the Council approved an ordinance authorizing a contract amendment between the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) and the City of Culver City. This will affect newly hired safety plan

members of the Police Officers Association, Police Management Group, Firefighters Association, and the Fire Management Group.

The Council also heard from several local downtown business owners regarding metered parking at night and on Sundays, which they claimed was chasing away customers.

O’ Leary told them that parking issues have been discussed in Council on recent occasions and that these business owners should have been present at those times so they could voice their concerns.

The Council agreed to hold further discussion on parking meters but due to the truncated schedule for meetings during April, the discussion of parking will have to wait until May.

The Council commended members of the GU14 Girls All-Star California State Championship Soccer Team.

Also commended were Alejandro Gomez, Equipment Maintenance and Fleet Services Division Employee of the Year, and seniors in service accepting the proclamation designating March 31 as Cesar Chavez Day.