Plans for Pageant Continue : Council Fights Over Lawndale Chamber Funds

As it has done for the past 18 years, the Lawndale Chamber of Commerce is soliciting applications for the annual Miss Lawndale Pageant.

But this year, chamber officials are not sure they will be able to go through with the contest, which provides the winner with a $1,500 scholarship and the chance to compete for the title of Miss California, 1989.

As the Sept. 15 application deadline draws near, chamber officials are hoping the City Council will allocate $25,000 for four community events, including the pageant, that are traditionally put on by the chamber.

Chamber Funds Cut

Also in question is $45,000 that the chamber had expected to receive from a 25% surcharge Lawndale businesses pay on their business-license fees. The council and the chamber are in dispute as to whether the money goes to the city or to the chamber.

In a budget-slashing session last month, a three-member majority of the council cut the chamber out of the city’s $7-million budget, arguing that every expenditure should be examined closely as the city struggles to recover from a $1.68-million investment loss last year.

Councilmen Harold E. Hofmann, Larry Rudolph and Dan McKenzie took the chamber’s funding out of the budget and insisted the nonprofit organization justify its expenses before funding would be considered. Mayor Sarann Kruse and Councilwoman Carol Norman dissented.

This was the second time in two years that a divided council has fought over chamber funding. In 1986, Hofmann, Rudolph and McKenzie outvoted Kruse and then-Councilman Terry W. Birdsall in cutting chamber funds, but a month later the council reversed itself, voting unanimously to restore the money.

Three-Year Contract

It is just this kind of funding uncertainty that the chamber hopes to eliminate this year by seeking a three-year contract from the council, chamber officials said.

In a confrontational meeting between the council and the chamber Thursday night, Hofmann, Rudolph and McKenzie were intent on finding out whether the chamber has made a profit on the community events it has organized for the city. They asked the city staff to report at next Thursday’s meeting whether the city might be better off running the events itself.

“I can’t see the city paying somebody to make money, if that’s what you’re doing,” Rudolph told chamber officials Thursday.

Retorted chamber President Mel Greenstein: “If you can find somebody to do it for less, be our guests.”

Costs Would Double

In an interview Friday, Chamber Director Jerry Enis said he did not wish to state how much the chamber makes from the events “while we are still negotiating with the council.” But he said that it would cost the city twice as much to put on the events because the city would have to use paid staff while the chamber relies heavily on volunteers.

He listed the chamber’s expenses in fiscal 1987-88 for the council: $1,726 for a Santa’s Sleigh holiday program; $2,750 for a Man and Woman of the Year dinner; $5,076 for the Youth Day Parade and $14,798 for the Miss Lawndale Pageant.

With expenses totaling $24,350, the chamber’s balance from the amount the city contributed for the four events is $650, chamber officials said.

When pressed by the three councilmen to reveal how much the chamber made from ticket sales and other revenue-producing aspects of the events, Enis said: “In my opinion it doesn’t matter whether the chamber made $1, $15 or $15,000.” The only thing the council should be concerned with, he said, is that the chamber held the events and thus fulfilled its end of the $25,000 contract.

Chamber Deserves Support

He called the profit “minimal” and said it pays part of the chamber’s annual budget of $110,000 a year. Other sources of revenue include different categories of memberships costing $25 to $240, and community fund-raisers such as a carnival at the Youth Day parade, Enis said. The chamber deserves city support, he said, because it fosters growth in the business community, which, in turn, provides about $2 million a year in sales- and business-license tax revenues that pay for city services.

It is short-sighted, he said, for the council to antagonize the business community and jeopardize communitywide activities that promote Lawndale.

The Miss Lawndale pageant started in the 1960s as a beauty contest but since 1971 has been designed to provide scholarships to young women in recognition of their “talent, character and accomplishments,” Enis said.

Good Publicity

The Lawndale pageant has produced top-10 candidates in the Miss California contest for several years in a row, including the 1986 Miss Lawndale, Marlise Richardos, who won the 1988 Miss California pageant, he said. Richardos was Miss Lomita this year, when she won the Miss California title.

“This is pretty good publicity for a little town like this,” Enis said. (Lawndale is a blue-collar city with a population of about 26,000.)

The chamber and the council are also arguing about whether the chamber is entitled to receive the $45,000 raised through the 25% surcharge local businesses pay on their business-license tax. In 1984, when the council first authorized a surcharge on business-license fees, the documents did not specify the surcharge was to go to the chamber.

City Manager Daniel P. Joseph said that because the council’s apparent intention was not specifically stated in the enabling legislation, it is “a matter of opinion (whether) it is legally binding.”

Unstated Intent

Kruse, Norman and Rudolph agreed that the intent, if unstated, was that the surcharge levied on businesses was specifically for the chamber. But Hofmann and McKenzie questioned whether the money belongs to the city.

Jim Ramsey, who was a member of the council at the time of the original decision, reiterated the council’s intent was to raise money for the financially troubled chamber. Local businesses at the time said that they would be willing to pay the surcharge in order to provide a reliable source of income for the chamber, he said.

Ramsey said that he believes the business community would have grounds for a suit if the council now attempts to divert the surcharge to the city for general use.

The council is expected to decide Thursday whether to give the chamber $25,000 for the four community events. In a few weeks, the council will consider an ordinance specifically allocating the 25% surcharge to the chamber.

Meanwhile, chamber officials are proceeding with the Miss Lawndale Pageant in the hope that funds will be approved.

“We have to asssume a positive attitude that they are going to go ahead and (approve funds) that are so important to the community,” Enis said.