Escondido Compromises on Convis Funding

The Escondido City Council served notice on the city’s tourist industry that it will expect the businesses that benefit to pay for visitor promotion programs in future years.

Although a motion to cut the city’s allocation for tourism promotion to $100,000 failed on a vote of 2 to 3, the council members made it clear that they would not consider granting the Escondido Convention & Visitors Bureau more than $200,000 in the coming year. The organization had asked for $368,000 to implement its five-point plan to become self-supporting.

The 12-year-old bureau lost its exclusive contract with the city as the sole tourist promotion agency in a 3-1 vote by the council in May.

Spelled the End?

At that time, the council majority indicated that Convis might be cut off from city funding during budget hearings this month. Councilman Ernie Cowan, the lone vote in favor of retaining the exclusive agreement, said the May vote spelled the end of the agency.

Cowan charged that the council’s three-member slow-growth coalition--Jerry Harmon, Carla DeDominicis and Kris Murphy--”is progressively destroying every successful entity in town.”

At Wednesday night’s budget hearing, Murphy split from Harmon and DeDominicis and voted against the $100,000 funding level. Murphy argued that the drastic cutback in funding would reduce the Convis funds “to a point the money would be wasted” because the agency could not provide an effective program.

He supported, however, the transition to independence under which Convis promotions would be funded by the businesses that profit from visitors. He agreed to meet with Convis staff members to study their proposals and to decide what the proper amount of city help should be.

“We have far greater needs in this community than promoting an industry that is capable of supporting itself,” DeDominicis said.

Hotel-Motel Dissent

Escondido hotel and motel owners have severed ties with Convis and set up a competing agency, asking the city for $250,000 to support their new endeavor. The hotel-motel group contends that Convis is failing at its job and is responsible for the high vacancy rate at Escondido-area motels, which hovers at about 50%.

The hotel-motel group says it has established ties with European travel agencies and with airlines and is ready to run a more effective tourist attraction program for the city than Convis provides.

The council took no action on the hotel-motel group’s funding request or on the requests of two dozen other outside organizations, delaying those decisions until the city’s Community Services Commission reviews the proposals and makes recommendations on funding.

City financial advisers informed the council earlier Wednesday that the city faces a $250,000 shortfall during the coming year unless cuts are made in funding city services and outside organizations.