West Hollywood : Two Festivals Canceled

The City Council voted to cancel the famed Garlic Festival and West Hollywood’s Street Festival as part of an effort to reduce an anticipated citywide shortfall of $1.5 million in the 1991-92 fiscal year.

The council’s action, which is expected to save about $110,000, came at the urging of City Manager Paul Brotzman, who has asked all city departments to tighten their belts to make room for a drop in state revenues next year.

Brotzman said that the loss of funding should occur after the state begins using more accurate 1990 population figures to determine allocations.

Since incorporating in 1984, he said, West Hollywood has been receiving an outsize share of state and federal revenue for a variety of programs.

Because there were no 1980 Census figures on which to base these allocations, he said, they were set by a formula derived from the number of registered voters. West Hollywood, however, has an unusually high percentage of voters in its population because it has many one-person households and very few children. These formulas had the effect of treating the city as if its population were about 65,000; city officials estimate the true population at 38,000.