Rivals Face Hurdles in Plan to Boost Tourism : Economy: Lancaster and Palmdale hope to set up a visitor and film panel. But negotiating the project may be difficult.

On one point, Lancaster and Palmdale leaders agree: An aggressive, well-financed campaign to lure tourists, film crews and conventions to the Antelope Valley could give the region a badly needed economic boost.

But putting this idea into action is turning into a tough challenge.

Organizers say they must come up with a marketing plan that will satisfy city officials and business owners in the rival cities of Lancaster and Palmdale. In addition, they must figure out who will run the proposed Antelope Valley Tourism and Film Commission--and who will pay for it.

“It would be a wonderful success it if can happen,” said Lancaster Councilman George Runner. “But there’s a lot of land mines out there that they have to avoid.”

Runner will represent Lancaster on Wednesday at a meeting of the new Antelope Valley Regional Partnership. The organization is slated to discuss the proposed Tourism and Film Commission at that meeting, which begins at 2:30 p.m. at Antelope Valley College.

The Regional Partnership group was formed as a result of a recent study commissioned by Antelope Valley officials. In it, Chicago-based PHH Fantus Consulting urged the two cities and the county to pool their resources and work together to improve the region’s economy, which has been hit hard by setbacks in the aerospace and home-building industries.

One key recommendation was the creation of an Antelope Valley Tourism and Film Commission, a nonprofit organization directed by a board with representatives from the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster and the chambers of commerce in each city.

The group would try to attract to the Antelope Valley more movie makers and conventions, which would bring in needed money for local hotels, restaurants and other businesses.

To finance this new organization, the Fantus report urged that the cities use transient occupancy tax money, sometimes called bed taxes, collected from guests at local hotels and motels. Lancaster’s bed tax is 7% of the room charge, while Palmdale’s is 10%.

In theory, bed taxes are collected to offset the cost of providing city services, such as street maintenance and law enforcement, to non-residents who are staying at local inns. Palmdale and Lancaster both put this tax money into their general fund for day-to-day city operations.

By bumping up its bed tax from 7% to 8%, Lancaster could provide about $114,000 annually for the proposed Tourism and Film Commission, city officials said. Palmdale, which has fewer hotels, could provide another $50,000 by allocating 10% of its current bed tax income to the commission.

Both of these changes require the city councils’ approval, but local officials say they won’t tinker with the bed tax unless local hotel operators approve.

Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said the innkeepers in his city believe that Palmdale and Lancaster must charge the same bed tax before they will endorse its use for the Tourism and Film Commission.

“They’re looking for a level playing field,” he said. “What I would suggest is we meet halfway” at 8.5%.

Cheryl Duggan, director of sales and marketing at the Holiday Inn in Palmdale, said that when a movie crew wants to reserve dozens of local rooms, the higher bed tax in Palmdale puts her at a disadvantage.

“Financially, it’s beneficial for film crews to go to Lancaster because the tax is less,” Duggan said.

If the bed-tax issue can be resolved, local leaders must still determine who would run the Tourism and Film Commission.

Positioning itself for that job is the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. Two years ago, the chamber asked the Lancaster City Council to raise the bed tax by 1%, then give that money to the chamber to promote tourism and attract film crews.

But the council rejected that idea, saying local hotel owners did not support the bed-tax hike.

Today, with the economy still sluggish, the marketing proposal is more likely to win approval, said Sandra Dack, executive director of the chamber.

“I think the hotels are ready to make a move up” in the bed tax, Dack said. “Now, it’s just complicated by what the relationship with the city of Palmdale and the Palmdale chamber will be.”

Using its own staff, funds and volunteers, the Lancaster chamber has already set up the Antelope Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau and High Desert Film Commission, which hopes to provide filmmakers with information on shooting locations and local actors and extras.

Dack believes the chamber could put more money into marketing than an independent organization in a separate location because it already has a building, phone lines, office equipment and clerical workers.

Gary Fischer, co-owner of the Desert Inn in Lancaster, said he wouldn’t mind if the proposed Tourism and Film Commission shared space and some staff members with the Lancaster chamber. But he does not believe Dack could simultaneously oversee the chamber and the Tourism and Film Commission.

“I don’t believe it’s a conflict,” he said. “I think it’s a pure and simple time problem.”

Although Dack believes the new organization could serve Palmdale and Lancaster in an evenhanded manner, some local leaders are worried that its ties to the Lancaster chamber would lead to a preference for hotels and businesses in that city.

“I don’t believe this effort can withstand even the perception of that,” said Ledford, Paldmale’s mayor. “The reality is that we need to be very clear to both cities and both chambers that we have a clearinghouse with equal representation.”

Ledford pointed out that Palmdale and Lancaster recently put aside their rivalry to set up a joint program to attract new industrial employers to the area. He said the same sort of cooperation will be needed to set up an Antelope Valley Tourism and Film Commission.