The Eureka Chamber of Commerce recently sent out letters to its members announcing that its contract with the city had been canceled. As of July 1, 2016 the chamber will no longer receive city funds.
Neither City Manager Greg Sparks nor Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Don Smullen was available to speak on this story, but City Attorney Cyndy Day-Wilson did confirm that the decision was part of Eureka’s ongoing budgetary woes. The city recently tightened its belt to compensate for a $4 million shortfall, eliminating funds for some fire and police services, increasing zoo fees and reducing funding to both the chamber of commerce and the Humboldt County Convention and Business Bureau. Funding to the chamber’s Visitor Center was slashed by 20 percent as of July 1.
In its letter, the chamber says it is reviewing its services from “top to bottom” and asking members to rank their importance. To continue the visitor center without city funding would cost $125,000 annually. The center, located on Broadway, provides information and brochures for out-of-town guests and future residents.
This article appears in Race Day.
Are you kidding me? This is front page news!
Eureka has been inundated with unfunded liabilities for decades and they’ve been gifting millions of public dollars over the years to one of the richest, private, mostly white, mostly men’s club in this county?
Better late, very late, than never.
If Eureka can sell that property for $200,000, they could start a matching-fund at the Humboldt Area Foundation and begin providing troubled youths a stipend to attend HSU/CR…as opposed to the more costly reality of rising crime, homelessness, addiction, incarceration, police services, emergency medical services, mental health, suicides, and the related law suits.
Ronald Clark,
It’s not necessarily “Public Dollars”. Those dollars are earned by the hotels using a 10% transient tax. The purpose of TOT collections is to promote tourism, which, is one of the only viable revenue sources left in this city. The chamber visitor center and HCCVB help attract and keep people in this city so the hotels can collect more transient tax. The visitor center and CVB are attracting and adding revenue.
Your suggestion is to reduce funding to revenue centers and burn it on hopeless expenses. That’s the road to bankruptcy.
It was my understanding, when I was in the audience of the city council meeting where cancelling the Chamber’s contract was first discussed, that it wasn’t being done to totally eliminate the Chamber’s funding. It was to write up another contract that would make any future cuts easier.
Eliminating the Chamber’s funding altogether would be a foolish mistake. A big money maker for the city is the Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT) , also known as the Bed Tax, which only Tourists pay. The Chamber’s services helps increase the number of Tourists that come and stay in our city.
Anyone who says the Chamber’s members are “the richest, private, mostly white men’s club in the county” simply has not a clue as to who & what the Chamber is & does. Ronald Clark, I would be glad to take you to the next Chamber mixer so you can become better informed.
Sorry John, I’ve been there and that’s how I know. There are a few women, I grant you that.
The ONLY way you two can write such nonsense is due to the fact that your assertions are not provable, an accountant should understand that.
If they were provable, the Chamber would have released its supporting documents by now detailing the actual COC expenditures of the TOT taxes that belong to the public.
It is only with that information that the public can determine if other uses might better improve Eureka’s attraction for tourists.
The interesting thing about the COC is that, with sound conservative leadership, the lost revenue could be easily recovered by reaching out to the other half of Eureka businesses that are not members.
Why is that John? Too many “liberals” in charge at the COC??