Every week we are treated to a new gripe from a cabal of retirees who’ve never had it so good, yet all think they should have it better. And by better, I mean by making it worse for the people who live and, get ready for it, make a living here. Laguna Residents First PAC Founder Emeritus Michael Morris, who has been a resident for all of eight years but incessantly rants on how bad things are, recently wrote a letter to the editor bemoaning the fact that the Chamber of Commerce has enjoyed free rent in their tiny basement office of the library for 50 years. Oh the horror! Never mind that the Chamber gifted the library site and former building to the city back in 1937 in exchange for free rent in perpetuity. A property that is now worth around $10 million. But Michael did some sleuthing, and tells us that in fact the Chamber was forced to sell because they were in arrears on their mortgage. So what? A deal is a deal. And helping the local business community is something cities have done since they were formed.
But according to Morris, the Chamber is an evil enterprise because it helps businesses that may attract tourists. This despite the fact that the vast majority of members are resident serving businesses. He complains that the Chamber has been the beneficiary of community assistance grants. But those grants did not come from taxpayers. They came from the transient occupancy tax, you know, the one the overnight tourists pay. But remember, business = bad; retired and complaining = good. And the irony of this muckraking fiscal conservative is that, when confronted with the option of saving residents $50 million over the next 25 years by rejecting a lease with the County to operate the library, he defended the spend by proudly disclosing he had a newly minted library card, and then lectured us on the immeasurable value of driving to other libraries to pick up books.
Then of course he was roundly applauded in the comments section by those chronically complaining cohorts you see week after week bemoaning the Promenade, the renovation of Hotel Laguna and the Coast Inn, the artist live/work project in The Canyon, the purchase of Ti Amo, the deal to build a parking structure at the Presbyterian Church, and of course loudly championing the BLAH BLAH BLOZD ballot measure that would take control of Laguna commercial improvements away from elected officials and grind every new idea to a halt. All under the guise that some phantom mega developments are on the horizon that Council will fast-track. Here is some of their dopey logic regarding the Chamber.
Deborah Laughton, wife of Councilmember George Weiss (the other Founder Emeritus of Laguna Residents First), proclaimed that perhaps we would feel differently about the subsidy if we could “redirect the Chamber to promote our local businesses more rather than our local beaches and beautiful trails for the money we’ve been spending.” Say what?! Are you confusing them with the Visitors Bureau? The Chamber is composed of roughly 300 members, 90% of whom are resident serving small businesses and services, like dentists, eye doctors, law offices, printing companies, real estate, architects, hardware stores, and nonprofits. You know, the stuff we need here to make our life easier. And I’m pretty sure most locals benefit from successful restaurants as well. Promoting each other through networking and putting on community events, including the wonderful Hospitality Night, is all they do.
And then there’s self-styled visitor hater John Thomas, hectoring us about how a Chamber subsidy may have been a good thing in 1937, because we were still a small town and local merchants needed help, but that today’s business owners don’t live here, because only rich retirees can afford it. Thomas likes to trot out arcane statistics to support his narrative, but failed to produce any when proclaiming that “the employees and owners of Laguna businesses are overwhelmingly people who do not live in Laguna—and people who live here seldom work here.” Tell that to long-time local residents and Chamber members like banker Jeffrey Redeker, insurance broker John Campbell, filmmakers Barbara and MacGillivray, attorney Larry Nokes, jeweler David Rubel, design/builder Julie Laughton, realtor JJ Ballesteros, and many more. Here’s a statistic for you: just these long-time residents and Chamber members alone have contributed more time, philanthropy, and goodwill to our town then everyone at Laguna Residents First combined.
Lest you think I’m biased, I run a tourist facing businesses, and I’m not a member of the Chamber. It’s too local-serving for me. But I’m glad to see the organization thrive. Small businesses in California are under constant assault from high costs, high taxes, onerous state regulations, and cheaper online options. But our local merchants soldier on, and make our lives infinitely more efficient, convenient and enjoyable. Thank you to our city for honoring the commitment made 85 years ago and continuing to support our local heroes who work so hard to make the quality of life for retirees so good. No complaints here!
Billy hosts Laguna Talks on Thursday nights on KXFM radio. He’s also the CEO of La Vida Laguna, an E-bike and ocean sports tour company. Email: [email protected].
Fact checking Billy could become a full-time job. Partially, I think, because he’s lazy with his research, but mostly, because I believe he intends to deceive through half-truths and omissions.
Where to begin:
1) Free space to the Chamber – my LTE indicated 85 years. Not 50 years Billy
2) “…the Chamber gifted the library site…”. Not true. The City paid the CoC the appraised value of the land and improvements.
3) “…property now worth $10 million…”. It’s not. Primarily because the soon-to-be-foreclosed parcels sold to the City were not the entire site, but only 1/2 of the parcels.
4) Community Assistance grants do come from tax-payers, in that they are funded by the City’s lease with the Festival of Arts. Monies from the TOT are a separate bucket. Do your research.
5) “…saving residents $50 million over the next 25 years by rejecting a lease with the County to operate the library…”. This is perhaps the biggest whopper and reveals Billy’s fiscal ignorance. The portion of property-tax which goes into the County’s library fund is mandatory. If LB were to forego a library, tax-payers wouldn’t be getting a “refund” on the small portion of property-taxes that are earmarked for County library services.
Fried attempts to wave away a civic issue (gifting of public funds over 85 years to a private organization) by attacking the messenger and all others with whom he disagrees. If this guy is the best defender the entrenched business elite have going for them, they’re in trouble. {No wonder he was awarded a couple of OC Press club vanity awards for fiction writing in 2021}.
Today’s column from the Fact-Free Zone states John Thomas failed to produce any facts when proclaiming that “the employees and owners of Laguna businesses are overwhelmingly people who do not live in Laguna—and people who live here seldom work here.” The writer seems to have an issue with what he refers to as arcane statistics. So, here are some simple ones from the US Census Bureau:
• Total Workers working in Laguna Beach: 13,904
• Total residents of Laguna Beach who work somewhere: 11,726
• Workers who lived and worked In Laguna Beach: 3,797
Arithmetic suggests:
Of the 13,904 people working in Laguna, 10,107 do not live here.
Of the 11,726 people who live in Laguna and work somewhere, 7,929 do not work in Laguna
So, the employees and owners of Laguna businesses are overwhelmingly people who do not live in Laguna—and people who live here seldom work here.” Them’s the facts. If you disagree, or if you just don’t like the facts because they don’t conveniently fit your pre-conceived notions, please take this up with the US Census.
And while the Chamber of Commerce may be a wonderful organization doing many wonderful things, we may never know if the claim in the column is accurate “that the vast majority of members are resident serving businesses” because, to use the words in the column, the writer “failed to produce any facts when proclaiming” that.
And, finally, the column identifies me as a “visitor hater.” That is simply not true. People have as much right to visit Laguna as residents have a right to live here. In fact, some of the sights and sounds of people enjoying what Laguna has to offer can be delightful. The issue with visitors is that they should pay their fair share of the substantial costs they create.
It’s one thing to be a “Fact-Free Zone”, it is something entirely different to be a “Truth-Free Zone.”
Jiminy Crickets! For somebody who’s criticizing others about being chronic complainers complaining, Billy wastes 746 words just complaining.
Michael: So I’m right , right?
John: So nearly 4,000 residents work here? Thank you for that. That’s nearly 20% of our population. Way more than I thought. Of course the front line workers can’t afford to live here. Duh. But thankfully, they have jobs provided by our local business owners. Another reason to support the Chamber. And yes, the Chamber themselves confirmed that 90% of their members are local serving businesses. How’s that for data? Thank you got agreeing that the Chamber of Commerce is “a wonderful organization doing many wonderful things” So why demonize them?
Jerome: Wait, you actually counted the words?
The original LTE which you took pains to trash didn’t “demonize” the Chamber. It was raising the legitimate question of whether tax-payers should still be providing them with free office space (i.e., free rent) after 85 years, especially when:
a) the City did them the favor of taking over (and paying fair market value for) their property which was going to go into foreclosure
b) the City continually, over 90 years, has provided the Chamber with funds through outright tax-payer-funded grants (Community Assistance grants), and exclusive contracts aimed at increasing tourism.
These are fair questions to raise and many tax-payers believe that a private organization aimed at benefiting private businesses shouldn’t be funded by tax-payer money. Its also a relevant question to put to Council candidates for seats in the Nov 2022 election.
If you have a point, why don’t you just make your point? Why make stuff up? And why stoop to ad holmium attacks? When have I demonized the Chamber of Commerce? You call me a “visitor hater” and now you say I “demonize” the Chamber. Neither is true. Why do you feel you need to say stuff like that that is not true?
What I have said is that a lot has changed in 85 years and that, with a few exceptions, helping the Chamber of Commerce today seldom means helping Laguna residents – certainly not helping from the standpoint of helping most residents make a living. That is because “the employees and owners of Laguna businesses are overwhelmingly people who do not live in Laguna—and people who live here seldom work here.” The census data confirms the statement that.
The term that gets tossed around – “the economy of Laguna” – needs some better definition. What is often meant by that term is the economy of the businesses in Laguna, but that is much different than the economy of the residents of Laguna. With a Laguna Beach per capita income of $95,570 and a population of 22,795 the total income of the people living in Laguna Beach is about $2.2 Billion per year. The total gross revenue of Laguna businesses is a fraction of that and most of that Laguna business revenue gets shipped out of Laguna to pay the people who work here but do not live here, for rent to building owners who do not live here, to suppliers located somewhere other than Laguna, and others. So, we should not confuse the revenue of Laguna businesses with the revenue of Laguna residents.
As to the issue of what percentage of the 3,797 laguna residents who work in Laguna are in what you refer to as “tourist facing businesses”, according to census data 3,797 of the 22,795 people who live in Laguna – 16.7% of the population – work in Laguna. But what we don’t know is how many of those 3,797 are involved in “tourist facing business.” You point out that the front-line workers can’t afford to live here. Though I have not been able to locate in the census data information on how many of the 3,797 work in tourist-facing businesses and are, therefore, dependent on visitors, the census does provide the following information on the 11,000 or so who live here and work somewhere:
• Management, business, and financial occupations: 4,121
• Computer, engineering, and science occupations: 1,192
• Education, legal, community service, arts, and media occupations: 1,928
• Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations: 496
• Service occupations (Healthcare and protective – Firefighting, law enforcement): 1,134
• Sales and office occupations: 2,285
• Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations: 331
• Production, transportation, and material moving occupations: 337
While this does not provide definitive information on the share of the 3,797 who are in tourist facing businesses, based on the occupations listed, it is likely that a very large share of the 3,797 are involved in occupations that are not dependent on visitors to Laguna – are not involved in tourist facing businesses in Laguna.
As to how representative the Chamber is of businesses that are in Laguna, the Chamber reported 287 members in its “Year in Review” (2021) report. That’s 7.9% of licensed businesses in Laguna, 7.6% of the 3,797 people who work in Laguna; 2.4% of people in Laguna who work, or 1.2% of the population of Laguna. Members of the Chamber with resident serving businesses do make a contribution to the life of the residents. But, while the Chamber may be an important representative of its members, few of the people who live in Laguna are dependent for their livelihood on its members, and even fewer are dependent for their livelihood on the members who are in tourist facing businesses. A lot has changed in 85 years.
Thank you, John. As I stated, 90% of Chamber members are local serving businesses. In other words, a healthy business community helps us – the 22,000 residents who patronize them. Your logic that a subsidy only benefits the businesses and their employees is skewed. It’s the same logic that comes from your colleagues at LRF that the Forest Ave Promenade only benefits four restaurants while neglecting the broad benefit to our residents of having a quiet, clean, walkable town center to gather. I just can’t fathom this battle to make the Chamber the bogeyman and renege on a contract to provide free rent at their tiny office. I wish you would apply your considerable data gathering skills to something meaningful, like our traffic problem, fire suppression, clean water and water security. Something we can all agree on.
Billy Fried, collecting data to refute your half truths and outright lies would not, of course, be “meaningful” or advantageous to you. But many residents appreciate the service John Thomas provides. It is a welcome counterbalance to people like Michael Ray, you and others who continually seem to be challenged by facts. Remember believing that something is a fact does not necessarily make it so. Would that you all would follow John’s and Mike Morris’s principled approach with facts instead of stating beliefs to be facts. Remember Ray’s assertion that Ann Christoph voted against the water tank which led to the destruction of many homes during that devastating fire? Whether he believed that outright lie or whether it was a continuation of the vilification of Village Laguna started by his and other developers’ PAC, Liberate Laguna, for at least the last four years is anybody’s guess. Unfortunately once a lie is stated as fact many people who have read the lie never see the retraction or correction. Which is why stating lies and half truths will continue from you, Ray and the rest. You can do better if you wished to do so as your are clever with words.
Billy, like you there is a large number of businesses throughout our city who are not members of the local Chamber. I’ve spoken with many, including South Laguna and they shared that they just don’t see any member ROI and that the Chamber seems geared towards real estate, hotels and primarily downtown tourism serving businesses.
I personally appreciate the analysis details that John Thomas provides. It helps the entire community to understand the propose and value of our local Chamber and it should be considered important feedback information for the Chamber Board and members as well. I’ve looked at their website and annual reports and this type of drilled-down information is nowhere to be found. IMO – capturing only 7.9% of our business representation market in such a small community doesn’t seem like success story. I’d actually like to know what the attraction issue is if they add such an important value to business bottom lines.
Fact is, all LB stakeholders are entitled to their opinions about the use of taxpayer funds. Sharing opinions shouldn’t include degrading others. I am in agreement that “gifting of public funds over 85 years to a private organization” is a valid concern. Especially since this private organization does not support ALL businesses in our city only those that pay to belong even though they accept a taxpayer public fund subsidy. I agree that this should be included as a city finance/community benefit discussion question posed to candidates in the 2022 election.
Finally, both Mike Morris and and John Thomas offer professional expertise and well-researched topic analysis to city leaders and residents on many important issues we face in our community in the areas you mention – traffic, fire suppression, clean water and security and much more. I thank them for this objective and free community support. We can all learn a lot from each other. Thanks for listening.