AUBURN — Organizers of Twin Cities festivals, races and marquee events will need to get their information to the City Council in March beginning in 2014, under a proposed policy.

Councilors said they liked the idea of creating a formal application process for special events, as well as some guidelines for their funding.

Police Chief Phil Crowell said the city has not taken formal applications from event organizers in the past. Instead, city officials gave organizers copies of the city’s relevant mass-gathering rules and requested they write a letter, explaining their plan.

Crowell said he and City Clerk Sue Clements-Dallaire have been meeting with event organizers to draft the plan. It creates a formal application, similar to one used in Lewiston, where organizers of events expecting more than 5,000 spectators would need to file at least 45 days before the event itself.

Organizers of events expected to draw even bigger crowds would need to file the permit application 90 days before the scheduled date.

“It’s a lot cleaner, easier for people to understand,” Crowell told councilors. “It matches Lewiston’s process, which helps groups that have events in both cities. It matches our ordinance, so areas where we differ are called out. It works for our ordinances.”

Another part of the policy is aimed at groups asking for monetary support from the city. It sets a $2,500 funding limit for new events, a $5,000 in-kind donation request and requires all event organizers to file their grant requests for city funding by March 1.

Four events — the July 4 Liberty Festival, Great Falls Balloon Festival, Dempsey Challenge and the Holiday Parade of Lights — would be exempt from the funding limit.

“I like it very much, the direction this is going, because it makes it easier for the council to push this to process and gives us an opportunity to say no,” Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said. “It is a bottomless pit of folks that will line up for funding, given the financial reality today.”

But councilors had concerns about one part that would require a council review of events every three years if nothing at the event or the organization had changed.

“I have concerns about making a three-year budget commitment,” Councilor Tizz Crowley said. “As our resources are limited, we may have to look at the budget commitment on an annual basis.”

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