Records reveal Dickinson's 'Red, White and Bayou' budget ballooned and barely generated revenue

DICKINSON, Texas (KTRK) -- An annual event in Dickinson returned, but documents reveal the city spent more than double what was first proposed and generated revenue that was only a fraction of what it projected.

"Red, White and Bayou" in Dickinson left one neighbor in shock. Not because of what happened during it but what Tami Steambarge found out after it.

"They made $27,000," Steambarge explained. "That's all they made from that event. $27,000. And they went over their proposed budget by over 100%."

The event took place around Labor Day at Dickinson City Hall. About a month before, a proposal shows what the city would spend, and make off it. The plan shows the event would cost taxpayers about $150,000, and it would make back about $150,000. It turns out the city spent more than double and only made about $30,000.

"I think if we're going to spend in two days and plan it for a month, I just don't think that's being responsible with the money," Steambarge said.

Mayor Sean Skipworth said the original proposal wasn't a done deal. After they started to plan, the costs climbed.

"In hindsight, given there were so many unknowns about costs, we should not have put out such an arbitrary number for a budget," Skipworth said. "We should've done more to price it out to know."

City leaders said it used hotel-motel tax money aimed to boost tourism. The goal, they say, wasn't to generate money off the event.

However, they plan to make changes to this year's Red, White and Bayou.

"Now we know. We just didn't know before," Skipworth said. "It wasn't a drunken spending binge; it was not knowing what things cost for the event and where there were with that is really more of the issue."

The event might not have lost so much money if it had been able to get weather insurance funds. It rained the weekend of the event. It couldn't collect the money, though, because the policy was based on rainfall at Hobby Airport and not Dickinson. On Monday, a city spokesperson told ABC13 that Hobby Airport was wrongfully selected. On Wednesday, city leaders said that was wrong, and policy made them select Hobby Airport.

As for this year's event, city leaders said they plan to possibly increase ticket prices, scale down the size, and do more in-house work instead of outsourcing. After discovering the ballooned budget from this year's event, Steambarge says she'll watch what happens this year.

"There should be accountability," Steambarge said. Which is why city leaders say they'll present a more accurate proposal this year and give themselves months to plan instead of weeks.

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