Audit Requested on Group Running L.B. Celebration

City Councilman Ray Grabinski called this week for an audit of the nonprofit corporation running the city’s centennial celebration to allay some of the fears that have been expressed by some of the event’s sponsors.

Grabinski asked for the audit at Tuesday’s council meeting during a presentation by Richard J. Sargent, president and chief executive officer of International City Celebration Inc. The group is the organizer of the $1.6-million, multi-event gala designed to promote the city on its 100th birthday.

“I don’t anticipate that . . . any major problems” will result from the audit, Grabinski said in an interview afterwards. He said that it would answer “the mumbling and grumblings” he has heard in the community about the way the celebration has been organized.

The city has the legal authority to conduct an audit because it has donated $200,000 to the celebration, Grabinski said.

Sargent and the centennial organization drew criticism earlier this month when several restaurants and the Long Beach Ballet claimed they had been misled into believing that by becoming contributors they would receive substantial advertising support. Some business leaders said they were withholding sponsorship payments. And IDM Corp., managing partner in the World Trade Center, confirmed that it had withdrawn its $50,000 sponsorship pledge for unspecified business reasons.

Sargent--who served as vice president of operations for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and now receives a $108,000 annual salary from the centennial firm--told the council that newspaper reports have exaggerated the concern among the centennial’s patrons, and the unhappiness that was expressed was a caused by a misunderstanding of the committee’s role.

“No sponsor has ever come to me directly and said there was a problem,” Sargent said. “When you are dealing with 150 different sponsors, certainly somebody is going to think they got less than they expected.”

He said that the committee spends $10,000 to advertise events where tickets are sold, such as the ballet, and that free events are packaged together into a monthly publicity campaign.

Councilman Clarence Smith said he is concerned about the lack of minority representation in the celebration.

“I just feel that the city’s minorities need to be more involved,” Smith said in an interview.

Although minorities make up almost 40% of the city’s population, Smith said, centennial participation by the Latino and Asian communities has been minimal and “the black community has not been involved at all.”

Smith said he is organizing several black groups to write a history about blacks in Long Beach.

Sargent said that several centennial events are designed for minority participation, including a Cinco de Mayo celebration.

“But we need people to come to us” to suggest other possibilities, Sargent said.