Although summer is six months away, financial and logistical preparations for the city’s Summer Concert Series will soon be underway.
The City Council will consider entering into another agreement with concert producer Gary Mandell at the Jan. 12 council meeting to produce the popular concerts, which have been a cultural mainstay in Culver City for 20 years and have drawn visitors from neighboring cities as well as from farflung communities of Los Angeles.
According to a city staff report, Mandell, who owns Boulevard Music, is requesting a producer’s fee of $6,000 and a sales fee of $2,000 to obtain sponsors. He is also asking for $2,000 as a marketing fee.
Mandell will also ask the sponsors that he is able to attract to make their tax-deductible donations payable to the city’s Cultural Affairs Foundation as a method of off-setting general funds costs of the concert.
“The amount of Mr. Mandell’s agreement is proposed not to exceed $39, 662,” the staff report states.
The city’s coffers could be bolstered by as much as $20,000 if Mandell raises $15,650 in sponsorship sales and $4,350 from sales derived from reserved seating at the concerts.
“Most producers don’t do marketing and bring in spon-sors,” Mandell explained regarding the last two fees.
This year’s budget is slightly less than $2,000 more than last year’s.
While still one of the more popular cultural venues in Culver City, city officials have reduced the number of concerts exponentially during the last several years, going from as many as a dozen eight years ago to six last year, the same number proposed for the 2015 concerts.
According to city documents, if the council decides not to take any action, the concerts who not be produced by the city and not be hosted on city property.