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TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Richard J. Veenstra
Corporation Counsel
DATE: January 31, 2024
SUBJECT:
Revisions to the City's Special Events Ordinance.
PURPOSE:
To make various amendments to the City's Special Events Ordinance to address areas of possible legal risk as identified by the Federal District Court and to make other improvements
BACKGROUND:
In 2022, the Aurora Pride Parade was nearly cancelled due to a lack of police officers willing to volunteer for additional overtime assignments. In order to avert cancelation and a high probability of unrest resulting from cancellation, the City offered officers a unique "triple-time" incentive to induce their participation. The incentive worked and the parade commenced as planned.
Shortly thereafter, in compliance with the Special Events Ordinance, the City sent the parade's organizers, Aurora Pride, an invoice for the full cost of the police overtime. Aurora Pride ("Pride") remitted payment to the City for police costs excluding the triple time incentive and conditioned the City's acceptance of the payment as full satisfaction of its financial obligations to the City. The City declined to accept the conditional payment, but offered to set the matter aside while Pride and the City discussed areas of concern with the City's Special Events Ordinance.
These discussions did not lead to a consensus as to what amendments to the Special Events Ordinance were necessary to prevent the situation that occurred in 2022 from reoccurring. In January, and under threat of litigation from Pride, the City advanced an amendment to the Special Events Ordinance to provide for various contingencies in the event that adequate police protection was not available. Pride, dissatisfied with the City's approach, promptly filed suit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. At nearly the same time, Pride applied for a permit to host another parade in June of 2023. City staff promptly began working to process the applicati...
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