In a letter from the Lions Club to the City, dated January 22, 2025 (attached), the Lions Club requested “that the City of La Habra partner” with them to help reduce the costs assessed by the City in an effort to preserve the fiscal viability of the Corn Festival and Parade. In that letter, the Lions Club proposed that the City “sponsor the parade costs in full” and “revisit the actual proposed costs for the event” to help further reduce City expenses allocated to the Lions Club.

In a subsequent letter from the Lions Club, dated April 6, 2026 (attached), the Club revised its request and stated that “full collaboration with the City is essential for the festival’s survival. If the City were interested in assuming leadership of the Corn Festival as a community event, the Lions would be open to transitioning that responsibility”.

Furthermore, the letter indicated that “the La Habra Host Lions Club cannot move forward with organizing another Corn Festival independently under the current circumstances”. It appears that, based on these letters and conversations with staff, the desired outcome for the Lions Club would be the City taking a direct leadership role in organizing, funding, and hosting the annual Corn Festival and Parade, essentially making this a City run community event going forward.

It is important to note that City staff have no experience organizing and hosting a multi-day community festival with carnival rides, and parade of this size and scope. That said, staff does have extensive experience with planning, organizing and hosting major one day public events such as the 4th of July event and Tamale Festival, and know from this experience that the Lions Club request will likely have a significant impact on City resources, staff time, and operational capacity.

In addition to taking on additional costs, the allocation of additional staffing and resources towards this event may impact the City’s ability to support other programs and community events. Representatives from the Lions Club have indicated that they intend to remain a committed partner and will continue to operate their traditional food booths, such as the funnel cakes, corn, hamburgers and hotdogs, and provide financial assistance to the City to the extent they are able.

The City Council has several policy options available to it regarding the Lions Club request for assistance with the Corn Festival and Parade, each of which has distinct benefits and costs.

Option 1:  Require a 100% City cost reimbursement with no cost sharing arrangement

While this is an option available to the City Council, and would be consistent with the full cost recovery approach taken with other privately organized public festivals in the past, the City has had a long standing Council policy of providing some amount of cost subsidy to the Lions Club in support of their Corn Festival and Parade. Should City Council approve this option, the City could recover its full cost of supporting this annual event, resulting in the reimbursement to the City of approximately $80,000 or more per year, depending on actual costs incurred. This option would also result in the City having no operational control or responsibility for the planning or hosting of the Corn Festival or Parade. The Lions Club has indicated that if it is unable to secure a sufficient cost subsidy from the City it will cancel the Corn Festival and Parade this year, and perhaps permanently.

Option 2: Revert to the City’s traditional cost sharing/subsidy arrangement

Under this option, the City Council could re-establish its prior 50/50 cost sharing split of the City’s expenses with the Lions. Based on the City’s incurred costs during the 2025 Corn Festival, the Lions Club would be responsible to reimburse the City for approximately $43,000 and the City would absorb the other approximately $43,000 in its General Fund. This option would also result in the City having no operational control or responsibility for the planning for or hosting of the Corn Festival or Parade. The Lions Club has indicated that this option is no longer financially viable for their organization and would likely lead them to cancelling the Corn Festival and Parade this year, and perhaps permanently.

Option 3: Consider a larger City cost sharing/subsidy arrangement

In 2025, as part of the City’s Centennial Celebration roster of events, the City Council approved the City’s sponsorship and partnership with the Lions Club to host last year’s Corn Festival and Parade. This plan involved the City waiving 100% of its costs to support the event, not to exceed $100,000. The City’s actual costs last year were approximately $86,000 and were fully funded from a Special Events reserve, established from the General Fund, to help pay for Centennial Celebration events and activities.

Should the City Council agree to provide some level of subsidy above its more recent 50/50 arrangement, the City would again need to absorb incurred expenses of approximately $80,000 or more per year, depending on the level of subsidy ultimately approved by City Council. This higher subsidy commitment option would require the City to budget costs in the General Fund to support this event during the upcoming FY 26/27 budget process.

While this option would lead to the City incurring more un-reimbursed costs, it would avoid having City staff taking over any operational control or responsibility for the planning and/or execution of the Corn Festival event or its associated Parade. It is unclear if the Lions Club would find a higher level of subsidy sufficient to allow them to continue planning for and hosting the Corn Festival and Parade.

Option 4: Have the City assume full financial and operational responsibility to plan, staff and host the annual Corn Festival and Parade

This is the preferred option that the Lions Club is proposing the City Council consider, as they feel it will provide the best chance for this long standing community event to continue into the future. While assuming responsibility for the annual Corn Festival and Parade would help preserve a longstanding community tradition, it would also require a significant commitment of City General Fund resources, staff time, planning and liability.

If the City Council directs staff to take on full fiscal and operational responsibility of the Corn Festival and Parade, staff recommends that direction also be given that this become a solely City organized, planned and run event. This would help streamline the planning process and avoid misunderstandings with the Lions regarding who has operational control of the three-day festival and parade. While the Lions Club would be welcome to staff and run various food vending and other associated booths during the event as they have in the past, they would likely do so as a vendor, and there would likely be no additional City subsidy or waived costs associated with their vending activity.

To provide perspective on the potential costs involved, the table below reflects the Lion’s Club revenues and expenses related to the 2025 Corn Festival and Parade, which includes the amount of City subsidy that was waived. Based on this information, had the City assessed its full expenses for reimbursement, the event would have lost over $50,000. 

Table 2

If the City were to take full responsibility to plan, organize and host the three-day festival and parade, staff estimates that the gross cost to the General Fund could range from $140,000 to well over $200,000 per year. Much of the additional expense for the City to run the event would be attributed to staff labor costs, which is an expense that the Lions Club largely avoids as they are a unpaid volunteer organization. It is unclear at this time what the City’s net cost would be as it would be difficult to estimate potential revenues from carnival ticket sales, vendor fees and potential donations and sponsorships. Another impact of this option would be that, unless otherwise directed by City Council, the Lions Club would no longer have any operational control of, or direct connection with, this long-time festival, nor would they be included in the branding of the Corn Festival and Parade, which has been their signature event for decades.

Option 5: Provide some level of subsidy to the Lions Club for costs associated with their three-day Corn Festival and have the City assume full responsibility to plan and host the Parade.

While this option was not proposed by the Lions Club, it could provide City Council with a viable alternative for consideration. Staff discussed this potential option with the Lions Club President and were told that the Lions Club would be willing to consider this option, which would allow them to continue to organize and host the three-day festival portion of the event this year. Under this option, the City Council could choose to establish some level of subsidy to the Lions Club for the City’s expenses related to the three-day festival portion of the event. The City would then be responsible to take over full operational control of the planning, logistics and hosting of the parade portion of the event, traditionally held on Saturday morning of the three-day festival. Staff estimates that the City's cost to plan, organize, staff and run this parade could range from $30,000 to as much as $70,000 or more, depending on street closure costs, staffing and if the City can find and retain a professional parade organizer, as has been done in the past.

While this option would be an added expense to the City’s General Fund, as well as an additional responsibility for City staff to manage, it would limit the City’s responsibility for the Corn Festival to the planning and hosting of the Parade only, and would require the Lions Club to continue to plan for and manage the balance of the three-day festival, as they traditionally have. An added benefit of this option is that the Lions Club could continue to plan, brand and host their annual Corn Festival event to continue a longstanding community tradition for another year; however, it does not guarantee that the Lions Club would be willing or able to continue to hold the Corn Festival in future years. Additionally, this option could ultimately cost the City between $30,000 to well over $100,000 depending on final cost of the parade and the level of subsidy Council approves for the City's costs related to supporting the three day festival portion of the event.

Depending on the direction provided by City Council, the various options described in this report will likely result in gross costs to the City’s General Fund ranging from $0 to well over $200,000 per year, which would need to be included in the proposed FY 26/27 budget.

General Plan Relevance:
CI 6.1 Calendar of Events
CI 5 Community Activities
CL6 Community Events & Objectives

Council Goals:
Goal 6: Objective E: Building and maintaining partnerships and collaborations with local nonprofit organizations
Goal 6: Objective G: Plan and host high-quality, low cost community events
Goal 7: Objective A: Work with civic organizations to support public projects that foster community pride
Goal 8: Objective A: Provide diverse opportunities for cultural arts, recreation and social services programs