Huntington Park : Chamber Subsidy Trimmed

The Huntington Park City Council has voted to cut the Chamber of Commerce’s $9,000-a-month budget by almost one-third. The move came one week after the council voted to cut 13 municipal positions and tentatively agreed to borrow money to offset a projected shortfall in this year’s budget.

The Chamber of Commerce is a private agency that the city hires to promote its existing businesses and bring in new ones. “To be able to give up that kind of money a month it really cuts into the quality of our services,” Executive Manager Dante D’Eramo said.

D’Eramo said the chamber will raise revenue through other “ways and means.” One potential way, he said, is to hold a carnival. Another is to resume a practice of bringing Circus Vargas to perform in Salt Lake Park, D’Eramo said.

The circus did not come last year because of a then-new council policy barring nonprofit agencies from using the park for fund-raising activities for more than 24 hours at a time. The council rescinded that policy this week, however, and D’Eramo said the chamber will try to book the circus for a March, 1988, performance.

Meanwhile, City Administrator Donald Jeffers said the City Council will consider resuming full funding for the agency when it holds budget hearings next year.