Hispanic chamber funding triggers debate

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press May 24, 2001.

By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Another monthly City Council meeting, another council vote and another council debate - this time over a proposal to provide funds to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Mayor Jim Ledford and Councilman Jim Root are backing a proposal to provide $40,000 a year in redevelopment money to the Hispanic chamber.

The money would be transferred under the same terms that $40,000 is transferred each year to the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce. Those terms are set forth in a written agreement between the city and the Palmdale chamber.

In return for its money, the Palmdale chamber provides quarterly reports that list its efforts on the city's behalf. According to chamber calculations, the city's $40,000 brings a return that is worth more than $92,000 in chamber labor and expenditures.

The question at hand is whether the council should appropriate the same amount through a similar arrangement with the Hispanic chamber. The question will be debated Tuesday, May 29, when the council is scheduled to discuss the city's 2001-02 fiscal-year budget.

Opposed to lump sum
While saying they favor the idea of funding the Hispanic chamber, Mayor Pro Tem Mike Dispenza and Councilman Rick Norris want the funding to be disbursed on a project-by-project basis, not in a lump sum.

Holding his tongue on the matter - as well as the swing vote - is Councilman Rod Penner. According to Penner, he had yet to be told of the proposal when contacted by the Valley Press recently.

"I don't know whether to be concerned about it or not. ... I haven't been briefed on anything," Penner said.

Before espousing a position, "I want to do some homework," he said.

Taking a jocular view, Penner asked, "What is this? Chambergate?"

Taking it less lightly were Hispanic chamber leaders so concerned about opposition by Dispenza and Norris they arranged a private meeting with the two councilmen with the aid of one of their political benefactors, Lancaster businessman Frank Visco.

Visco, Dispenza and Norris all said that, although they favor granting the chamber financial assistance, "they'd like to see us getting project-type funding," Hispanic chamber President Mario Guzman reported.

The three repeated support for that stance in separate interviews.

On a project-by-project basis, the chamber would propose an effort that would benefit the city, City Council members would review the proposal and - if it met their expectations - the city would issue funds, Guzman said.

Visco said he arranged the meeting at the request of Hispanic chamber board member Gil Rojas.

"I just gave them the political implications" of Ledford and Root's proposal, Visco said.

"I don't believe in processes like this, except on a project-type basis," he said. "You've got to be careful about what kind of strings are attached."

Visco: It's political
"This is all political," Visco said of the proposal. He characterized it as an attempt by Ledford and Root to curry Palmdale's Hispanic votes.

Ledford rejected Visco's assessment.

"I'm a five-term mayor. I think people know what I'm about," Ledford said.

Granting funds to the Hispanic chamber would not be enough to sway the votes of every member or Valley resident with Hispanic roots, he said.

"If that was the case, couldn't you apply the same theory to the Palmdale chamber? There is no bloc of votes bought there," Ledford said.

"People who want to play politics with this are the ones doing the disservice to the community," he said. "And if people are going to play a political game of opposing whatever I bring forward, that's a disservice to the community."

Dispenza denied opposing the funding proposal for political reasons.

"That is about the most hogwash I've ever heard," he said. "I am opposed to using government funds - taxpayer funds - to fund any private-membership organization.

"I have informed the president of the chamber (Guzman) and another person that I met with (Rojas) that I would have no qualms about them bringing projects to us that we would know would benefit our residents, and we could fund those," Dispenza said. "But if we are never going to hear from them and they do entirely whatever they want to do with these funds, then I have a problem with that."

His understanding was that the money would be "donated," with no strings attached, to the Hispanic chamber, Dispenza said. "This whole thing was put out there in public view before we even had it set up to talk about it. That is what bothers me the most."

That discussion, if outside the public's view, would be illegal, Root opined.

"Doesn't the Brown Act cover that?" Root asked rhetorically, referring to California's open-meeting law, which governs public officials and their meetings.

"Is (Dispenza) saying we should have done this thing in the back room? When Norris put up the term-limit proposal, we didn't discuss it with him behind closed doors first," Root said.

In this case, a memorandum outlining the proposal was sent to every member of the council.

"That's a lot more courteous that what (Dispenza) has done trying to sidetrack the issue," Root said. "Why didn't we hear about his private meeting with the Hispanic chamber in a memo instead of the grapevine?

"I think we've got to be open to looking at any organization (for funding) as long as they provide a useful service to the city," he said. "Business attraction is not a one-project thing; it's an ongoing service.

"When we get volunteers working in our community, I will do everything I can to support them and say thank you," Root said. "If it's the taxpayers' money, aren't we supposed to spend it on the citizens?"

The funding would come from redevelopment revenue that, under state law, must be spent on business development, Ledford said.

"This is not sales-tax dollars; it's not property tax dollars," the mayor said. "This is what it's supposed to be used for."

With 38% of Palmdale's population of Hispanic heritage, it would serve the city well to have the Hispanic chamber "doing some outreach and providing information" to potential new businesses and residents, Ledford said.

To perform that service, "they need a stable source of money to work with," he said. "Reimbursing them for placing one ad in a newspaper or holding one meeting with somebody does not guarantee there will be a result, but funding an ongoing program can bring results."

Rather than a private organization, he cited the Palmdale chamber as a comparable public service organization.

"I would use the Palmdale chamber as an example. They provide us with more than we provide them, and they have the stability they need to work business programs over the long term, not the short term," Ledford said.

Because the chamber funding would come from redevelopment revenue, no other municipal projects would be hurt by the expenditure, he continued. "This will not affect the city's budget reserve or its General Fund."

Funding the Hispanic chamber on a project-by-project basis would create a red-tape jungle, Ledford said.

"I don't mean to be critical, but I am on the move, working in a lot of different areas and coming up with a lot of different ideas," he said. "I would rather spend my time developing cooperation and spurring progress than worry about shooting down my colleagues' proposals."

Norris straddled the fence on the issue, saying, "I didn't say I wasn't in favor of (the proposal); I didn't say I was opposed to it. I merely said I'd rather see projects brought to us that show the benefit to our city."

Norris, normally a proponent of Valleywide civic thinking, took issue because the Hispanic chamber's membership is Valleywide.

"I said I would support specific projects, but I would not support an outright gift to the chamber unless it was project-specific because (the Hispanic chamber) represents members throughout the Antelope Valley, not just Palmdale," Norris said.

Other chambers
Asked if the Hispanic chamber should be funded differently than the Palmdale chamber, the councilman said, "I'm not so sure that I'm in support of what (the city) has been doing with the Palmdale chamber, with this gift, because they become totally reliant on it and they don't have to do projects. I want projects."

Further, if the city funds the Hispanic chamber, it should be ready to fund the Greater Antelope Valley Chamber of Commerce as well, because it also has submitted a request for $40,000 in funding, Norris said, adding, "At some point, we have to stop."

Dispenza echoed Norris, saying the funding of the Palmdale chamber may need some scrutiny as well.

"I don't want to perpetuate something that I may not have agreed with before," Dispenza said.

When the members of the council meet to discuss spending for the next fiscal year, "There will be other things we will talk about that are not on the radar yet," he predicted.

"There are a lot of things that need to be done in this city that take priority," Dispenza said, citing the need for traffic lights, more sidewalks near schools, repair of streets and building new recreation centers.

Given California's financial position because of the energy crisis, Palmdale should increase its general fund reserve to 10% in case legislators decide to raid city coffers to bolster the state budget, he said.

Preparing report
Hispanic chamber officials are working on a memorandum of understanding that identifies the returns the city would receive in return for the funding.

"The MOU spells out the items and projects that the chamber is already working on and which projects we plan to be involved with in the future," President-elect Sandy Corrales said. "I'm confident that when you assign a dollar amount, it will far exceed the $40,000 that the city has proposed."

Corrales said she was confident of Ledford's commitment to the Hispanic chamber beyond the political dimension.

"If this was the first time Mayor Ledford and Councilman Root had expressed interest in the Latino community, there might be a reason to suspect the offer," Corrales said. "Mayor Ledford attends 90% of all the Hispanic chamber's functions and already has a history of commitment on an informal basis for the past 4 1/2 years."

"Politics should not be a factor" in this decision, she said. "I'm confident that once Mr. Norris and Mr. Dispenza have a chance to see the report that the Hispanic chamber is preparing and a final version of the MOU, the council will vote to approve it as part of their new budget."