LAKEPORT — The Lake County Fair (LCF) agreed to provide management services to the Dixon May Fair from February through May.
The fair, located in the Solano County city of Dixon, is scheduled for May 10 to 13. The fair has been without a chief executive officer since September, when the previous CEO left to pursue other opportunities.
State budget issues caused operational changes at fairgrounds throughout California. Many state fairgrounds have made extensive operational changes to deal with the loss of all state funding. Payroll is the largest expense at most fairgrounds. The LCF issued layoff notices to half of its full-time staff last February. Many of those issued layoff notices opted to retire and the LCF left those positions vacant. The Dixon May Fair also reduced staff at a similar rate.
The fair”s board of directors decided not to fill the CEO position immediately. Instead, the board requested an agreement with the LCF for CEO Richard Persons to provide managerial leadership.
Persons, the LCF CEO since November 1996, is expected to spend two days per week in Dixon as well as the entire week of the fair. The agreement specifies a maximum of 42 days of work between February and the end of May. The total agreement has a value of $27,300 if all 42 days are used.
The fair will reimburse the LCF for 100-percent of Persons” salary, benefits and retirement for each day he spends in Dixon, as well as cover all travel and other costs associated with the arrangement. A longer-term agreement may be possible if the arrangement is successful.
“The timing with Dixon is perfect,” Persons said. “They are hitting the really busy time before the annual fair now. Then, just as they return to normal after the May Fair, we hit that really busy time in Lakeport starting in June.”
Persons said the arrangement would result in cost savings to both fairgrounds.
“Besides the obvious financial benefits for each fair, this arrangement also allows me to see how things are done at another fairgrounds and to help them with my knowledge of what works well here,” he said. “The two operations are very similar, with nearly identical size fairgrounds and similar-sized staffs. Unless the state finds a way to fund the fairground facilities it owns, I think there probably will be more cost sharing arrangements like this in the future.”
The Dixon May Fair board of directors approved the agreement Feb. 8. The LCF board of directors gave its approval Monday.
