Danger ahead, says Jeff Cooper of the sponsoring Exchange Club.
If the downsized City Council fails to grant the Exchange Club’s request for a fee waiver at Monday night’s 7 o’clock meeting, Mr. Cooper said the sixth annual Culver City Classic Car Show “may have to look for friendlier confines. For us, it is just a matter of economics.”
The dispute between the Exchange Club and city staff over total expenses for the 6-hour event, which caused the Car Show to be abruptly dropped from last Monday’s agenda, remains unresolved.
Negotiations this week between the club and City Hall bore a thimble full of fruit, little movement.
Staffers originally maintained that the Downtown show on the second Saturday in May runs to $25,000. Exchange leaders claimed this was an exaggeration of $10,000 to $12,000.
Ever the quipster, Mr. Cooper emerged from this week’s bargaining talks to say that “We have not reached a(c)-cord. We have reached a knot.”
As a result of the talks, City Hall reduced its cost evaluation by $4,000, to $21,000.
Mr. Cooper said the city told him it had budgeted $12,000 for the show that draws hundreds of old classics and10,000 people (“many from out-of-town”) into Downtown.
The Exchange Club netted a modest $2,500 from last year’s show, he noted.
A Frustrating Fiscal Fact
This would leave the sponsor with the questionably bridgeable chore of needing to come up with at least $6,500 — unless the Council grants its request on Monday for a $10,000 fee waiver, as it has in the past.
He is not sure why, but Mr. Cooper feels the Car Show is underappreciated by City Hall. He points out that the Car Show attracts more fans in a single day — especially those much-coveted non-residents — than the more celebrated Summer Music Concert Series does for an entire season.
Mayor Scott Malsin is an officer of the Exchange Club. He says that when Car Show expenses are assessed, the dollars are more closely scrutinized than for other civic-type events with which City Hall is associated.
Because of his club affiliation, Mr. Malsin is obliged to recuse himself from the pivotal vote, further turning the outcome into a crapshoot.
A Deadlock Looms
Three of the four Councilmen are voting on this annual conundrum for the first time, and leanings have not been detected.
Four voting members creates the strong possibility of a tie, which would be a defeat for he Exchange Club.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen Monday, and I don’t know what will happen to the Car Show if the vote does not go our way,” Mr. Cooper said.
”I am a lighthearted kind of guy. I like to be upbeat. But I don’t think Monday is going to be that kind of night.”
