Bradenton City Council approves 2017 Bradenton Area River Regatta

BRADENTON -- The Bradenton City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the 2017 Bradenton Area River Regatta without placing any financial restrictions on the event but pledged to revisit what the city is spending by 2018.

Ward 3 City Councilman Patrick Roff raised the concern last week that the potential cost to taxpayers was about $100,000, primarily for public works and Bradenton Police Department personnel.

The first regatta in 2015 had about a $4 million economic impact, and an additional $400,000 was raised in sales taxes. The 2016 event was marred by bad weather.

Roff said he didn't think he had the votes to set a cap for the 2017 event, "but it would be prudent for this enterprise to manage without government funding. If we can't do it this time, we should let them know that the expectation next year is that they will be responsible for public service costs."

Roff said the city did the same for developers when impact fees were cut, but reestablished as the city emerged from the recession.

"We gave them a full year's notice that we were going back to business as usual so as a board of stewards, we need to put that same message out there that this event will learn how to fund on its own," said Roff.

Ward 1 Councilman Gene Gallo has been Roff's ally on setting a cap on taxpayer investment. Knowing that the majority of costs are associated with staff, Gallo said public works and the police department need to "reevaluate how many personnel we really do need to provide. The first year was a lesson for us. The second was not a good test, so this will be our second test and we can reevaluate what we've done and reduce costs and let the promoters understand that we are going to track the tax dollars. We may very well come back the following year and put a cap on it."

Event organizer Mike Fetchko, ISM USA president, said on behalf of Formula 2 Power Boat Racing and the event partners: "We are pleased the city of Bradenton has joined Palmetto in formally approving the Feb. 4 Bradenton Area River Regatta. We sincerely appreciate Mayor Wayne Poston for his continued community wide vision and the overall leadership of both cities and the county for their civic partnership, especially the contributions of public safety officers, public works, EMS, U.S. Coast Guard and many, many others involved."

Mark Young, Herald urban affairs reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7041 or follow him on Twitter@urbanmark2014.

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 2:17 PM with the headline "Bradenton City Council approves 2017 Bradenton Area River Regatta ."