The Sparks City Council did a little haggling with Hot August Nights executive director Bruce Walter Monday. Walter stepped into the council chambers asking for a three-year agreement for a city sponsorship for his event. After a little argument, he left with a two-year agreement.

Hot August Nights has been bringing thousands of classic cars to the streets of downtown Reno and Sparks for about 23 years. The city of Sparks got into the classic car action by becoming an event sponsor in 2002. Now, the city is looking to rebuild the terms of its involvement.

Starting this year, the city will give a $60,000 sponsorship to the event. This agreement will expire after the 2010 Hot August Night event. What Walter originally asked the city for was a sponsorship term of three years.

“We are always one year in advance,” Walter told the council. “We have long-term commitments that we have to make with our car people. … We need the long-term planning.”

Walter would not agree to a one-year sponsorship agreement. After some discussion, Walter agreed to meet in the middle with the two-year agreement.

When asked how the council’s vote might change this year’s event, Walter said, “We are going to plan for two years now.”

Walter told the council that he had been instructed by his board of directors to “look for alternative positions if we cannot come to terms with the city of Sparks.”

“We don’t want to do that,” Walter added. “It (Victorian Avenue) is a pretty venue.”

If approved, the city would have given the event $60,000 every year for three years. The city’s financial obligation would not substantially go beyond that amount, according to city staff.

Following the vote for contract approval, with Councilman Ron Schmitt abstaining and Councilman Ron Smith absent, Hot August Nights will be responsible for all of the event’s production. The approval also means that HAN will be responsible for 100 percent of city service costs. This includes police and fire support.

The council member’s concerns over three-year funding centered mainly on equality with other events.

According to Councilman Mike Carrigan, another event planner came to him and asked why Hot August Nights was receiving its full funding from the city while his event was only getting half the funding it usually receives.

Due to an ongoing funding issue between the city and the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority, those events that are given money from the city’s tourism and marketing committee received only half of the allocation they got last year.

“It’s an equality issue,” Carrigan said. “It is a very important event to the city.”

Councilwoman Julia Ratti and Schmitt agreed that funding for Hot August Nights needed to be considered in the committee’s meetings along with every other special event that hits the streets of Sparks.

According to Stan Sherer, city parks and recreation director, funding for the special events can be considered in the committee. However, the final funding approval must come to a vote of the city council.

According to Walter, Hot August Nights will need to pay more to put on the event this year.

“We will be paying out substantially more,” he said.

Walter did not have exact figures at the time of the meeting regarding how much more the event will be paying.

Regarding what people will see this year, Walter said that the particulars will be unveiled on June 9 at a press conference.

Currently, 6,000 cars are registered for the event.