That the City Council authorize providing a full subsidy of the City's reimbursable staff and direct costs, and approve an appropriation in an amount not to exceed $100,000 from available Special Event reserve funds to fund these costs in support of the 2025 La Habra Host Lions Club Corn Festival and Parade, which will become a Centennial Celebration signature event for the City.

At City Council's direction, the City’s Centennial Celebration Committee has been working diligently to plan for an entire year of events and activities to celebrate the City’s 100th anniversary. These plans started with the City's very well attended Centennial Kick-off Celebration that was held on January 21, 2025, in the City Hall Atrium. This report will update the City Council on the Committee’s final proposed calendar of events and activities for the balance of 2025. In developing ideas for various celebration events, the Committee was focused on providing both large and small scale activities and events for the community.

The proposed Centennial Celebration activities and events for 2025 are as follows:

At this time, the Centennial Committee is requesting City Council approve and fund an enhanced collaboration with the La Habra Host Lions Club for their annual Corn Festival and Parade.
 

The Committee recognizes that the La Habra Host Lions’ Corn Festival and Parade is a foundational part of the City of La Habra’s history and sense of community, with the annual event beginning almost 80 years ago. Members of the Lions Club and City staff met to discuss a closer collaboration this year to enhance the Corn Festival and Parade with a focus on the City's Centennial Celebration. The proposed theme will be “La Habra’s Always Home”, with the intent of creating a key community Centennial celebration and encouraging La Habran’s who have moved away over the years to come back and visit the City during the Corn Festival this Centennial year.

The Lions have agreed to incorporate the celebration of La Habra’s history into the 2025 Corn Festival activities and to work with the Centennial Committee and Community Services Department staff to help make the event a weekend to remember for the community, especially since the annual Corn Festival and Parade plays such a large role in the community. If approved, this will become one of the signature events for the City's Centennial Celebration.

In 2024, the City Council voted to subsidize 70% of the City's staff and direct costs associated with the City's support of the Corn Festival and Parade. That subsidy totaled approximately $60,000 for police, public works, and recreation staff labor costs, primarily related to enhanced public safety efforts and street closures. Since the La Habra Host Lions Club is a local non-profit, the net revenues they generate from their activities, such as the Corn Festival, are then directed back to the community throughout the year as the Lions Club helps financially support City programs for senior citizens and youth, volunteering to support City events such as the La Habra 5K Race, the City's Easter Eggstravaganza, and at the City's Concerts in the Park. They also direct funding towards specific activities, such as the purchase a state-of-the-art microscope for the Children's Museum, cooking breakfast for more than 600 people at the Museum Guild's breakfast with Santa, and much more. The partnership between the City and the La Habra Host Lions Club is long-standing and has been important to the success of both the Lions Club and the City.

For the 2025 Centennial Celebration, staff is proposing that the City Council authorize a 100% subsidy of the City's staff and direct costs for its support during the Corn Festival and Parade, in an amount not to exceed $100,000. By doing so, the Lions Club will be able to reduce its event costs accordingly, and be able to generate additional net revenues to help support local City and community programs, as well as other services and activities. In exchange, the Lions Club will partner with the City to collaborate on the 2025 Corn Festival and Parade and brand it as one of the City's signature events celebrating the City's Centennial. 

Budget Update and Fundraising Efforts
Earlier this fiscal year, the City Council approved and authorized an initial allocation of $100,000 for the City's Centennial Celebration efforts from available Special Events reserve funds, and directed staff to return to Council if further allocations became necessary. So far to date, the Centennial Celebration events have utilized approximately $55,000 of the Council approved $100,000 budget, in the following areas:

If approved by City Council, the fiscal impact to the City of collaborating with the La Habra Host Lions Club and its 78th anniversary Corn Festival and Parade would increase from approximately $60,000 in 2024 (when the Lion's Club was provided with a 70% cost subsidy by City Council), to an amount not to exceed $100,000 in 2025, representing an additional $40,000 in unreimbursed costs to the City this year. The City has a history of providing a partial subsidy to the Lion's Club for their annual Corn Festival and Parade in order to defray some of the City's labor and direct costs associated with supporting the event. In prior years, these subsidies ranged from 25% of the City's cost to as much as 70% of the City's cost, with the subsidy set at 50% of the City's cost for a number of years. Staff will be recommending that the City Council reduce this subsidy back to 50% for the 2026 Corn Festival and Parade, but will bring that item back to City Council for consideration during the FY 2026/2027 budget process next year.

If this funding request is approved, approximately $45,000 of available funding will remain for allocation towards upcoming Centennial events or merchandise purchases. Staff will return to City Council with additional event planning concepts and additional budget requests, if additional funding is necessary.