City will have a booth at annual World Hippo Day, but not sponsor it
HUTTO — In the wake of claims a nonprofit may have “hijacked” the city’s annual World Hippo Day, local leaders have committed to working more closely with such organizations on future events.
“In an ideal world, we all come together in a community and then we all do these things together,” said Mayor Pro Tem Peter Gordon at the council session Feb. 6.
The controversy began when the nonprofit Hippo Foundation announced it was hosting a World Hippo Day event held downtown. Before, the town government itself sponsored the annual observance at City Hall.
The foundation created a festival featuring activities, live music, food trucks, sponsorships and vendors. Confusion ensued about whether the city would host a competing event, whether it was involved in the Hippo Foundation event or had been shut out of its own celebration.
Ultimately, city officials agreed to have a booth at the foundation-led event but will not be funding it.
World Hippo Day is Feb. 15, and this year it falls on a Saturday, creating an opportunity for a larger celebration, organizers said.
Hutto’s and the Hutto Independent School District’s mascot is the hippo, based on a local legend that a hippo escaped from a circus train in the early 20th century. Others say it alludes to the formidable size of a long-ago local football squad.
Mayor Mike Snyder is a founder of the nonprofit and still volunteers.
“My team has been working with Parks and Rec Department since October when we came to them and gave them the idea that we wanted to do World Hippo Day and we wanted to work together. Everybody is invited to participate and collaborate,” said Amy Patin, president of the foundation.
Patin said rather than shut the city out, her group’s goal was to have the city, the Hutto Chamber of Commerce and the school district cooperate.
The foundation has a permit approved by the city to hold the event downtown. City Manager James Earp could have refused to grant the permit, but added such an action could potentially lead to claims of unfair treatment or political bias.
He added there are no written guidelines for when to exercise such an option.
The council discussed the idea of disallowing any other private organizations from holding events on dates when the city has its own taxpayer-funded celebrations, which would mean only the city hosts July Fourth, Memorial Day and World Hippo Day observances.
Council members voted to direct city staff to set a policy on how outside groups can participate in planning and carrying out events in conjunction with City Hall on holidays.
“We give a quartermillion dollars to nonprofits. They’re trying to figure out how to make money and they’re willing to do things for it. We just have to include them,” Snyder said.
Gordon said his main objective making the motion was to ensure the city clearly articulates what events it wants to own as a municipality.
He also noted there was a precedent of a private entity taking over a public celebration for a few years and then not being able to continue the tradition, causing the city to lose out on honoring a holiday.
“We want to all work together and make the city better. We want one nice big event for the city. We don’t want to have two different events called the same thing in two different parts of the city,” Gordon said. “If another organization comes in and wants to have an event on one of our days, we can work with them on how they’re going to partner with us.”
He added, “We just need no more ambiguity. Going forward, let’s figure out a process of how we’re going to do that.”
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“We want to all work together and make the city better.”
— Peter Gordon, mayor pro tem
