Yuma Approves Caballeros Fee Waivers and $60,000 Community Commitment

Yuma City Council approved another five years of facility rental and catering fee waivers for Caballeros de Yuma on October 7. In exchange, the organization commits to producing community events and putting at least $60,000 annually toward community betterment.

The city describes the arrangement as a longstanding partnership that benefits Yuma. But the public approval records leave one part of the exchange unanswered: how much are the waived fees worth?

The council approved the agreement 7-0 as part of its consent agenda. The staff report does not provide a valuation of the waived fees.

The eight-page agreement attached to the council item has blank signature and date lines. It says it takes effect upon council approval. The terms below are the terms the council approved. A signed, executed copy was not verified.

What the city provides

Section 2.2 waives facility rental and facility catering fees for six events: Midnight at the Oasis, the Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival, Holiday Pageant & Tower Lighting, Bull of the Desert Strongman Competition, Territorial Marathon, and the Independence Day Flag Retirement & Flag Raising Ceremony.

The facilities named are Yuma Civic Center, Ray Kroc Complex, Pacific Avenue Athletic Complex, Yuma City Water Tower, Friendship Park, Armed Forces Park, and what the document calls "Main Street West Wetlands Park." The agreement does not assign every event to a specific facility, and it does not itemize each reservation.

Other Caballeros-produced or co-produced functions can get rental waivers case by case. The city will consider nonprofit functions expected to benefit businesses subject to its 2% special-use transaction privilege tax. Functions sponsored by for-profit organizations pay the applicable fees.

The agreement also provides Ray Kroc clubhouse office space at no charge during the listed events, identifies equipment-storage space, assists with marketing and scheduling, and attempts to accommodate event priority. Applications and facility-use forms are due at least three months ahead.

The city generally keeps concession rights. But the agreement lets Caballeros keep food and beverage revenue at Midnight at the Oasis, the balloon festival and other qualifying major events, and use its liquor license.

The value stays unpriced

The staff report lists $0 in fiscal requirements while acknowledging waived fees and city resources subject to annual budget appropriations. That is not an accounting of what those things are worth. A waived charge is money the city agrees not to collect, not cash it spends.

The city's rental page links an outdoor and athletic facility rate schedule. Its listed nonprofit/resident rate for West Wetlands Park is $112 an hour, with park fees capped at $1,200 a day. Those rates alone cannot price the deal. You would also need to know which events reserved which spaces, how many billable setup hours applied, which facilities were actually used, and what catering charges would have been. A complete Civic Center rental-and-catering schedule and the event-use billing records were not obtained. No defensible annual or five-year waiver total could be calculated.

Waived fees, lost revenue and actual city costs are not necessarily the same thing. A facility with no alternative paying customer might generate little or no lost rental revenue despite having a published rate, while staffing, utilities and maintenance could still create costs.

Caballeros has to supply and pay for event cleanup materials, equipment and labor, including grounds and adjacent parking lots. It covers office-use maintenance and cleaning, and must return venues in their prior condition or better. The city handles non-event cleanup and maintenance and repairs. Improvements need written approval and become city property.

Staffing, policing and utility costs are not separately allocated or priced in the agreement. If city support costs run above the average for the same or similar event over the preceding five years, Caballeros will "consider" covering the excess. That wording does not guarantee reimbursement.

A 2020 Tunes and Tacos amendment proposal explicitly assigned city labor, police traffic control, lighting and power to the city. Those historical allocations cannot be assumed to carry over to the events covered by the new agreement.

A five-year deal that can run ten

The term is worth keeping in view. The agreement runs five years and automatically renews once for five more unless either party gives timely 90-day nonrenewal notice. The city can also terminate at any time, with or without cause, on 90 days' written notice.

So the arrangement could last a decade. That makes the missing annual valuation more consequential, not less.

What the $60,000 promise actually covers

Eligible uses include youth activities, park and Ray Kroc improvements, city-sponsored events, public-safety needs, community and nonprofit donations, and other major funding. Caballeros decides where the money goes with city input. The commitment does not require a $60,000 payment into the city treasury.

Caballeros must file an annual report of amounts and how community-betterment funds were used. The agreement does not specify a reporting deadline, supporting receipts, an audit process, or rules for valuing donated services. So it does not clearly settle whether services count toward the annual minimum. Noncompliance can trigger cancellation, termination or suspension and possible ineligibility for future city agreements. No automatic shortfall repayment formula appears.

A 2021 amendment report described an agreement dating to 2017 and added Tunes and Tacos to earlier waivers covering Ray Kroc, West Wetlands and the Civic Center kitchen. Tunes and Tacos is absent from the new automatic-waiver list. The full predecessor agreement and the annual reports to the city were not located, which prevents verifying the earlier minimum and compliance.

Caballeros is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit. Its Form 990 for the year ending June 2025 reports $113,969 in grants and assistance, including $78,469 to domestic organizations and governments and $35,500 to individuals. Those reported expenditures do not identify which amounts satisfied the city agreement.

Caballeros pays for liability coverage of at least $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, plus liquor and balloon-event coverage where required. The city must be an additional insured. Liability protections preserve an exception for city negligence.

Caballeros has a number to meet: at least $60,000 annually toward community betterment. The city has not provided a comparable valuation for its waived fees in the public approval records.

The agreement could continue for ten years. Residents can see what Caballeros has promised, but they still cannot put a dollar figure on the city's side of the arrangement.