Convention Promoters Urged to Help Fill Office Buildings

The organization that uses city money to promote the convention center and hotels has been urged by the city auditor to take on an added job: luring permanent businesses to vacant downtown offices.

Auditor Robert Fronke said the Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Council receives enough public money “that they can take on another goal.”

Fronke said he recommended the added duties because the organization “has been so successful and aggressive with covering the convention business.”

Officials said money generated by tourists and convention delegates in Long Beach has jumped from $60 million in 1983, the group’s first operating year, to more than $340 million in 1988. While most of the money goes to private hotel and restaurant operators, much of it ends up in city coffers as taxes and other fees.

The organization this year has received more than $2.5 million from the city, a 62% increase since 1987. The money is from the bed tax--a levy placed on hotels.

The proposed expansion of duties was one of several recommendations in the audit, which was submitted last week to the City Council.

But group and city officials criticized the proposed expansion of duties. “That’s off the wall,” said D. Christopher Davis, president of the convention and visitors council.

The organization does not have the resources, he said, to take on the added assignment of trying to coax businesses to move downtown, where the office vacancy rate is 18.6%.

City Councilman Evan Anderson Braude sided with Davis. “We’re expanding the convention center, and we need all the help we can get in that area,” said Braude, whose council district includes the center.

City Manager James Hankla told the City Council that other organizations--such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Redevelopment Agency--are already working on attracting business downtown.

“We’ll have too many cooks stirring the pot,” Hankla warned.

The audit also recommended that the organization’s 24-member board of directors be expanded to include a broader mix of business representatives. The group’s bylaws require that two-thirds of its 24 directors be from the hotel industry. A more diversified board would prevent the group from becoming too “self-serving,” Fronke said.

The audit suggested that local colleges, transportation and the defense industry could also have representatives on the board. “It’s bound to add some dimension to their planning process,” Fronke said.

Organization officials said in response to the audit that they would consider expanding the board.

Members concede that the transience of hotel officials can hamper such an organization. “It’s always a problem the way hotel people move around,” said Sam King, a member of the board who is the co-owner of several area restaurants, including the Pine Avenue Fish House.

Auditors also recommended that the council tighten accounting policies and control of its cash. Fronke said he found no evidence that the council misused public money, but he said the “potential” is there if changes are not made.

The audit criticized the practice of having one person receive payments and sign checks and said some expenses were being recorded in the wrong budget periods.

The report also said the organization had paid $33,000 in bonuses without authorization of directors.

The group is adding an employee to handle accounting, but officials questioned the comment about bonuses, saying there are clear criteria for awarding bonuses.

The visitors council was formed in 1982, four years after a similar group, the Promotion and Services Corp., dissolved because of financial problems.

City officials praised the council’s efforts.

“The city has a whole new thriving industry as a result” of this council, said John Williams, deputy city manager, who oversees the city’s contract with the visitors council.

Williams wrote the organization’s response to the audit.