Long Beach Convention Bureau Chief to Resign

Amid charges of mismanagement and falsified hotel bookings, the head of the embattled Long Beach convention bureau plans to resign later this year to avoid what she calls a “calculated and deliberate” campaign to discredit her.

Linda Howell-DiMario, 51, stated in a letter last Friday to her board that she will step down as president and chief executive officer of the Long Beach Area Visitors and Convention Bureau on Sept. 30. She has been with the agency seven years.

“I have personally and professionally withstood a calculated and deliberate campaign to discredit this bureau and me,” Howell-DiMario wrote. “I have been publicly libeled, slandered, unfairly and very harshly judged, brutally scrutinized, harassed, insulted and maligned.”

Howell-DiMario, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, heads an organization that books hotel rooms and banquet facilities for organizations and businesses interested in holding events in Long Beach.

She “has been a driving force in the development of a new Long Beach,” said City Manager Henry Taboada, who is a member of the convention bureau board. “It is with great regret that I have learned” about her planned resignation.

Taboada and other city officials credit Howell-DiMario with revitalizing the city’s sagging hotel and convention business. But her record has been marred over the last several months by reports of mismanagement and disclosures that hotel bookings for 1998 and 1999 were inflated.

Two convention bureau employees, one former and one current worker, have said the figures were deliberately falsified under the direction of Howell-DiMario and Tom Dorsett, a vice president of sales.

Dorsett resigned a few months ago. Howell-DiMario has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.

An audit released in September found a variety of management problems and revealed that the bureau gave its sales force undue credit for almost 50,000 hotel bookings, almost 8% of the bookings it claimed. Consequently, members of the sales force were overpaid bonuses totaling $19,500.

In her resignation letter, Howell-DiMario wrote that she accepts responsibility for the misreported sales figures, but blamed them on “outdated systems and misunderstandings.” The problems, she added, have been corrected.

Howell-DiMario wrote that the overstated sales figures are fueling an effort to discredit her by the local media and a few members of the convention bureau board.

Despite the controversy, Howell-DiMario wrote that she was proud of her work at the bureau. Under her leadership, she noted that hotel occupancy rates went from 48% in 1993 to more than 71% today, and revenue from the city’s hotel bed tax has more than doubled to about $13 million a year.