Visitors Bureau Gets Smaller Budget Boost Than Requested

A request by the Culver City Convention and Visitors Bureau to increase its 1986-87 budget by $68,000 was cut back to $25,000 by the City Council.

The council, which created the bureau in 1983, set the bureau’s budget at $250,000, up from the $225,000 it had established earlier this year. The bureau, which receives all its funds from the city, had a budget of $180,000 in 1985-86.

The council also decided to extend its funding agreement with the bureau by five years. Councilman Paul A. Jacobs, the only member to oppose the new agreement, said he preferred approving the bureau’s budget on an annual basis.

In May, the council returned the bureau’s budget request, asking the bureau to determine whether some of the city’s hotels could help support it since they stood to gain from its activities. The bureau spends its funds on promoting Culver City as a site for tourism and conventions.

Bureau officials later reported that the three major hotels in Culver City did not want to contribute directly to the bureau’s budget. It reported, however, that the manager of the Pacific Hotel pledged to increase the hotel’s 1987 promotion budget from $477,000 to $525,000, and that the manager of the Howard Johnson Lodge decided to raise his promotion budget from $45,000 to around $50,000.

Councilman Richard R. Brundo, who made the motion to approve the bureau’s budget increase, said that the city benefits from increased tax revenue due to promotions the hotels do on their own.