REDLANDS - Organizers of the Redlands Air Show and the city can agree on one thing - both are disappointed that Saturday's scheduled show at Redlands Municipal Airport has been canceled.

Where they can't agree, is who is responsible for the cancelation.

Dennis Brown, the show's chairman, said Saturday an additional fee of more than $4,000 forced the group to call off the show.

Brown said the organizers were aware of a $1,600 fee to pay for four-off duty police officers to monitor activities at the show, a fee it agreed to pay on Sept. 21.

"That was the only stipulation set (by the city) at that time," said Eric Wroolie, treasurer for the committee.

On Thursday the group learned about the additional fees, Wroolie said, and it announced on its Facebook page the show was being canceled.

Carl Baker, the city's public information officer, disagreed. He said the committee was aware of the fee amount and that the city had notified event coordinators of the added charges in mid-September.

"The fees are primarily for public safety reasons because there have been a couple of high profile incidents recently at air shows and the plane crash at the (Redlands) airport (recently)," he said. "We wanted to make sure that we took every reasonable precaution necessary for public safety."

Forty-five minutes after making the Thursday's decision to cancel the show, Brown said he received a call from the city informing him that an agenda item had been added to Tuesday's City Council meeting to discuss waiving the air show fees.

"It wasn't a council decision or city's decision to cancel the event, the group made that determination," Mayor Pete Aguilar said Sunday.

"I asked for city staff to put the item on the agenda Thursday afternoon when the issue of fees was brought to our attention," he said. "City staff (can) not waive, defer of adjust any fees and we informed the group of that, which is city policy. Apparently the group decided to cancel the show and the soonest we could have acted, since the group did not put a request in for a fee waiver, was this Tuesday.

"Subsequently we found out they canceled the event," Aguilar said.

Brown said he could not wait until Tuesday for an answer because if the city said no, the committee would have lost even more money. The group is obligated to pay performers who were under contract for the show.

Baker said the City Council has approved fee waivers for many organizations over the years, including the Redlands Bike Classic and Martin Luther King Jr. Walk. "I have never once seen one denied," he said. "From our perspective, there is no reason for them to cancel the show. The fees that we are charging are reasonable for public safety because this is a high profile event."

"It would be fairly unheard of for the council to not grant a fee waiver. We feel it (the show) is a value to have these community events in town. And we're willing to continue granting fee waivers if groups are willing to request (them)," Aguilar said.

Brown said the event's cancellation hurts local businesses, as mom and pop stores in the area had planned to participate in Saturday's event.

Brown said he does not know if the air show, which drew around 7,000 people last year, will continue. The first show was held in the 1975.

The mayor said he and his family will miss the air show.

"I am disappointed that we're not going to have the event. My family (and I) have attended (the air show) in the past and it's unfortunate. Hopefully there will be (shows) in the future," Aguilar said.

The committee plans to address the issue with the City Council at Tuesday's meeting.