Documents obtained by the News Enterprise revealing financial details of the Wings, Wheels, Rotors and Expo event have led to questions regarding the annual event and what the City of Los Alamitos provides the Los Alamitos Chamber of Commerce. These questions have been brought up in recent council meetings. Some residents have questioned the potentially favorable treatment given the chamber by virtue of not being required to pay for city services.
The Wings, Wheels, Rotors and Expo is the biggest event of the year in the city and was reported to have approximately 50,000 people in attendance to the one-day event in October according to the previous chairman, John Osborn. But some residents have questioned things such as traffic control and added police and public works time that were taken on by the city at the expense of taxpayers.
The Chamber of Commerce sponsors the event, which by design is to raise charitable funds to benefit the Joint Forces Training Base¹s Morale Welfare Recreation fund, supporting military personnel and families on the base.
“I think this event has been very beneficial to the city,” Chamber CEO Johnnie Strohmyer said.
The event goes back 11 years before many of the current chamber of commerce Board members and staff were involved. Strohmyer said she has never known of any agreement from the city to provide civic services without added cost to the event.
Other events in Los Alamitos produced by non-profit organizations are required to pay the city for various services such as traffic control and extra police.
Los Alamitos Mayor Warren Kusumoto said he was unaware that the city did not extend similar courtesies to other non-profit organizations regarding providing city services. He was also unsure how the city came to donate those costs from the beginning.
“I don’t know how chamber of commerce came to expect that the city would cover these expenses,” Kusumoto said.
Also, while the event raises money to help the MWF (Morale Welfare Fund) at the Joint Forces Training Base, only 30 percent of the net proceeds are donated to the charity. Chamber officials are unsure why the donation is not more, even up to 100 percent of the proceeds.
Current Chamber President, Sherry Kropp has served on the chamber’s board of directors for a year and a half. The origins of how the event chose 30 percent are unclear, yet Kropp admits that in her time on the board, the issue hasn’t been brought up to revise the amount.
“We¹ve never talked about giving more than that to them,” Kropp said.
The chairwoman said it is certainly a potential topic of discussion, should a board member choose to discuss the subject. She theorized that when the 30 percent was determined, it probably seemed like a generous offer.
This past October, the Wings, Wheels, Rotors and Expo donated a check for $19,000 to the MWR, down from $22,00 the previous year. That figure included approximately twenty-five percent of the donated amount or nearly $5,000 that was collected via direct donations by individuals at the gate. The MWR gets 100 percent of the gate donations. The chamber’s 30 percent was just over $14,000 including the tax payers’ donation by virtue of city service costs of approximately $6,500 being waived. A separate donation was made, bringing the figure up to an even $19,000.
Strohmyer said that while it is a chamber event, they have worked hand in hand with the city and the JFTB to organize and manage the annual event including post event custodial tasks. Strohmyer went on to say that while there has been some criticism, she thinks the chamber has also provided assistance to the city when they can. “We all have to get back to the point of what is good for the community”, Strohmyer said.
Kusumoto said that he expects the council to take a closer look at the issue in the coming year. He noted a current issue of the city trying to fund a school resource officer at Los Alamitos High. He said that with the money from the WWR event is approximately 6 percent of the cost of funding the school officer.
“I would rather do that,” Kusumoto said.