The San Rafael Millennium Party was supposed to be the biggest celebration in the history of San Rafael, but it has turned into one of the biggest losses of revenue the city has ever seen.
City officials announced last week that the city lost approximately $1.2 million on the New Year's Eve party. The event featured upscale catering and big-name entertainment, including performances from Bonnie Raitt, Huey Lewis and the News and Jerry Lee Lewis.
"We didn't see it coming," said Mayor Al Boro.
"At the time we began planning this, nearly two years ago, the national move was to celebrate the millennium," Boro said. "It held that way through the summer, and we sold many tickets with no publicity. But it turned in the last 60 days, with the national warnings about terrorism, and the situations in Seattle and Sacramento. A lot of people just stayed home."
Officials were quick to assure residents that no city services will be cut because of the $1,196,876 loss. According to a report delivered by City Manager Rod Gould, San Rafael's booming economy has created a healthy budget surplus which should come close to covering the loss.
Gould said the city did everything in its power to make the party a success. "We relied heavily on the advice of those who put on big events every day." When ticket sales fell off in the fall, the city didn't worry. "We were told that people make decisions about these things around the holidays."
But as other cities were forced to downscale or cancel their own parties because of flagging ticket sales, "Suddenly we were the event," Gould said. "In response, we increased security measures to prepare, and just the opposite happened. We sold maybe 80 tickets the night of the event."
Those organizations which did hold parties on New Year's Eve, like Bill Graham Presents, which organized San Francisco's party, also lost money that night. "Their ticket sales were nil the week before," Gould said. "They'd never seen anything like it." According to Marin Scope columnist Ralph Holmstad, Antenna Theater lost $4,500 on the party it threw in Sausalito.
To make matters worse, the city underestimated the number of tickets it would have to sell in order to break even on the event, which was originally intended as a fundraiser to build a water feature in the Court Street Plaza, which is currently under construction.
In December, it had sold approximately 6,000 tickets, including all of its $300 passes, which included dinner and entertainment. The city thought that if it sold 9,000 tickets it would break even, but $460,000 of in-kind contributions were misfigured into the total.
In fact, the city needed to sell 11,000 tickets to make back its money, although officials were confident they would easily sell all 12,000. Only 6,100 tickets were purchased.
Earlier this month, the Marin Independent Journal filed a complaint with the city, citing the Freedom of Information Act and demanding the city turn over its final figures as to the revenues or losses relevant to the party.
"We were not holding back," Gould said. "We wanted to give an honest and accurate account, and we're now doing that."
However, Gould said that being expected to produce results on such an elaborate event within three weeks was unreasonable. "[Marin County Fair organizer] Jim Farley says it's five to eight weeks after a fair before he knows the numbers. Most feel that when invoices are involved, 30 days is the minimum."
Nancy Mackle, head of the San Rafael Redevelopment Agency, stressed that the numbers have not been finalized. "This figure is still an estimate. The bills will continue to trickle in for months," she said.
As news of the loss rippled across the city, residents and business owners were divided about the cost of the millennium party.
"It was certainly not the city's intention to lose money," said Elissa Giambastiani, CEO of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce. "Parties across the country, hotels, restaurants, casinos, all lost money because no one thought people would stay home."
However, Giambastiani was quick to defend the party itself. "It was a wonderful event that brought a lot of nationwide attention to our community. It's so easy for people to say they should have done this or that, but clearly no one was happy because money was lost."
Resident Susan Ballard, who didn't attend the party, was sensitive to the loss. "I know the city planned it with the best of intentions, but when it came to going out on that particular night, people just got scared. Some parties go, and some parties don't, and there's nothing you can really do about it."
Other residents are fuming about the news of such a serious financial loss. Tami Griffith, who grew up in San Rafael, said she was angry about the party itself, let alone the financial repercussions.
"I felt that it is very synonymous with how the city has run itself for the last eight years, which is very focused on catering to the rich and drawing in these wealthy neophytes to pretend they're the lords and ladies of Marin," Griffith said.
She added that this sentiment was reflected in the high ticket prices. "The attitude was, 'We're so great, we're so rich, we're so awesome, we're going to have the best party of the century and we're not going to share it with the general populous.' When I saw the headlines that San Rafael may have lost money, I thought 'This is what happens when people get cocky.' They could have used that $1.2 million to throw the kind of party that's inclusive," she said.
Gould said the next step for the city is to hold a special study session on February 7 to review the financial figures and determine the best course of action for covering the loss. It will then make an amendment to the city's budget on February 21.
"Because the economy has been so beneficial, we can pay for these losses," Gould said. "That doesn't mean there isn't an opportunity cost. We could have used these monies for childcare or parks or more police. But it is still true that nothing that has currently been promised to the residents is being jeopardized."
"Over the last five or six years we've done a lot of risky things downtown," Boro said. "We've been fortunate up to now. We had no inkling this would happen. If we had, we would never have had the party."
This article was originally published in the San Rafael News Pointer.