Future of Taste of Des Plaines up in the air

On the heels of another successful year for the Taste of Des Plaines, Mayor Marty Moylan says he would like to outsource the annual community festival to a private group now that Special Events Commission Chairwoman Linda Forman is stepping down.

For 10 years, Forman has overseen the Taste's growth from a couple of hundred attendees to attracting about 25,000 visitors over the three-day festival.

This year's event, held earlier this month, was Forman's swan song. With her departure, the future of the event remains in limbo.

Forman said the main reason she's stepping down is that she is unhappy with the idea of the festival being privately run.

"I don't know what's going to happen to the Taste of Des Plaines next year," said Forman, who has invested countless hours in her pet project. "It's time for somebody to come in with new, fresh ideas. It's a bittersweet ending for me. I can walk away with my head high knowing that I put on this great event for 10 years."

Moylan said he is looking to partner with private entrepreneurs who would takeover the operation and pay the cost of running the festival so that the city doesn't risk losing money on the event.

He said a few groups have expressed interest but did not name them.

"The city is trying to get out of the entertainment business, and trying to focus on our core business, which is taking care of the streets, potholes and alleys," Moylan said. "There's a lot of cost that the city has to incur, and with the staff being decimated by the cuts in personnel, it's harder and harder for cities to perform some of these events."

Moylan said the city's public works staff and other employees are tied up working the Taste when they could be taking care of residents' requests.

"When I started to get involved in this, we started to get a complete accounting of all the expenses," Moylan said. "That's when we started to realize how much it's costing the city."

Yet those employees get overtime compensation from funds raised through the festival, Forman said.

This year, the city billed the Special Events Commission $22,000 for time spent by 13 public works employees working the festival.

"The Special Events Commission is paying for the staff time," Forman said. "I bill them for nothing. My time is priceless."

Neither the city nor Forman could give a total count for the number of paid city employees who work during the festival.

Forman said the Taste pays for itself.

The cost to put on the festival is about $80,000. It was covered by an estimated $65,000 in proceeds from this year's event and $15,000 from an escrow fund the city maintains for the Taste. That fund currently has $45,000 in it raised over the past nine years of Taste, Forman said.

Monies leftover in that fund also have for the past two years paid for Fourth of July fireworks, which cost $16,000.

The only way the city becomes responsible for any festival costs is if the escrow fund runs short, which hasn't happened yet, Forman said.

"We get no money from the city of Des Plaines," Forman said. "We have gone out and raised (money) for these events."

Forman will still serve as chairman of the Special Events Commission until September.

It's Moylan call whether the commission continues its work on the Taste or disbands, she added.

Moylan said there will always be a need for the commission, but it will partner with a private entity instead of the city.