LA PALMA : Campaign to Focus on Shopping in City

The Chamber of Commerce will soon launch a marketing campaign urging residents to recycle dollars back into the town’s estimated 700 small businesses.

Within the next three months, flyers, posters and T-shirts bearing the messages “Don’t Pass the Buck” and “Recycle Your Money” should begin appearing throughout the city, according to chamber officials.

The campaign, developed in part by the City Council’s Business Assistance Committee, is aimed at reversing the decline in city sales tax revenues. The city estimates that it will lose $110,000 in such revenues this year.

The City Council, acting as the Community Redevelopment Commission, approved $5,000 Tuesday night for the project. Declining sales tax revenue, coupled with a $220,000 reduction in state property taxes, have left the city’s general reserve fund “precariously low” at under $200,000, said Brigitte Charles, assistant to the city manager.

Although officials don’t expect the campaign to single-handedly revitalize the local economy, the commission said it hopes it will at least help.

“If we can educate our local people to shop locally, we will all be better off,” said Councilman Wallace D. (Wally) Linn, who is also a member of the council’s Business Assistance Committee. “I am excited about the project.”

The City Council passed the measure 4-0, with Councilman David Lim abstaining because of a possible conflict of interest.

However, before voting, Mayor Eva G. Miner expressed concerns about supporting such a program in a time of cutbacks. “It bothers me that we are loaning money to a chamber of commerce,” she said. “It bothers me. We don’t have a never-ending pot. We have to be careful.”

But Councilman Larry A. Herman replied that the relatively small amount would be a prudent investment in the city. “We have to spend a little money to make some,” he said.

Ideas for the marketing campaign were supplied by students from Kennedy High School.