By Darcy Ellis
Editor
3-21-2009

After Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jeff Mullenhour’s pleas for leniency failed to move the Board of Supervisors, it was apparently his Bishop counterpart’s impassioned reiteration Tuesday that persuaded the supervisors to fulfill their grant funding requests.

Both the Lone Pine and Bishop Area chambers of commerce were looking at funding denials for their recent Early Opener and Blake Jones Trout derbies, respectively, because of a clause in the Community Project Sponsorship Program barring retroactive funding.
The catch, however, as Mullenhour and later Tawni Thomson explained to the board, is that neither event would have been ineligible were it not for the fact the supervisors put a hold on the grant program on Jan. 13 – one day after an independent review panel concluded its analysis of all 16 countywide grant proposals and compiled a prioritized list for recommended funding. Both derbies were high on that list at the time, but by this Tuesday, had already taken place and thus were no longer eligible for funding.
That was also the explanation given to the board Tuesday by Jon Klusmire, Museum Services director and administrator of this particular grant. He presented the review panel’s final funding recommendations and the two derbies were not included.

According to Klusmire, the list before the board represented the second round of grant funding initially advertised last fall. A total of $35,000 in grant awards was made in June 2008 during the first round for the Fiscal Year 2008-09 Community Project Sponsorship Program, for which $100,000 was budgeted, leaving $65,000 for the current round.
In December, the county received 16 grant applications that were eventually turned over to the review panel made up of four residents – Paul Lamos of Lone Pine, Mary Kemp of Independence and Nancy Upham and Allen Pietrasanta of Bishop – and one county staff member – Karen Kong.
The panel gave the applications a “very thorough going over” with an eye on their compliance with 11 criteria (objective, community support, likelihood of success, scope of benefit, overall merit, leveraging of resources, regional context, etc.) worth a total of 100 points, Klusmire said. To be considered for funding, a project or program must score at least 70.
The Southern Inyo Early Opener, held March 6, scored 80. The Blake Jones, held March 14, scored an 81.
Concern over the state budget, and the county’s own cash flow, prompted the board to freeze the program indefinitely on Jan. 13; it was eventually reinstated on March 3, with funding awards to be considered March 17 – after the derbies had been held. The grant program’s guidelines clearly state that “funding is not available to pay for costs that have already been incurred by the applicant before the grant funding is awarded by the Board of Supervisors.”
With the Early Opener and Blake Jones ineligible, a total of eight projects made the list for recommended approval (see sidebar).
Klusmire and the review panel proposed the board to approve their recommended grant amounts, and then use the remaining $22,387 balance in the program’s budget for a supplement round of grants – an idea First District Supervisor Linda Arcularius said she didn’t “see the need” for since none of the applicants were led to believe during the application process that any additional funds would be available.
Mullenhour wasn’t ready to let any of the available funding go without some of it being awarded to projects for which Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce submitted applications – particularly those he was under the impression were now being rejected because of time issues.
In asking the board to fund both the Early Opener and Fred HallShowretroactively, Mullenhour explained the chamber found itself “between a rock and a hard place” in funding both events – to promote tourism and provide community activity – without guarantee of recouping its costs.
He said both applications were submitted in time and were only now ineligible because of the county’s own actions.
Third District Supervisor Beverly Brown was quick to point out, however, that the Fred Hall Show wasn’t eligible for funding because it didn’t score enough points, while County Administrator Kevin Carunchio reminded Mullenhour that the overriding criteria of the grant program is to have a project that enhances the lives of residents and visitors.
Attendance at “a trade show,” he said, “is not quite there.”
Fifth District Supervisor Richard Cervantes, said he “cannot abide” the refrain that business owners should pay for promotion, especially when Inyo County has so few business owners to do any promoting these days. He said Death Valley, for example, has one hotel – which Fourth District Supervisor Marty Fortney pointed out brings in the highest transient occupancy tax of any enterprise in Inyo County.
Fact checks aside, Supervisors Arcularius and Brown said they weren’t willing to “complicate” the situation by “changing the rules.”
That is until Thomson also voiced her frustration at the application process.
According to Thomson, the Bishop Chamber has always viewed its relationship with the county as a partnership, and wants the board “to feel good about the money you’ve invested.”
All six of the chamber’s current proposals, she said, include significant matching funds from the chamber, whether actual dollars or volunteerism.
And while the chamber is relieved the county’s cash flow situation has improved to the point it can fund the grant program again, Thomson said it’s nevertheless frustrating for a project like Blake Jones to be deemed ineligible when the application was submitted on time.
And, Thomson said, when the county froze the Community Project Sponsorship Program in January that left the chamber with little time to cancel the derby.
The chamber’s Board of Directors made a tough decision to go ahead with the event, not only because it’s expected after 41 years, but because the board believes in its social and economic worth for the county.
Thomson implored the supervisors to consider changing the grant rules “just this once” to retroactively fund the derby.
“I would certainly support that, sounds logical,” Cervantes said.
Brown, on the other hand, was not as easily convinced, telling Thomson she doesn’t believe the county should be the funding source for every chamber of commerce event in Inyo.
  “It astounds me you can’t do one thing without the funding of Inyo County,” she said, adding, “I have a hard time understanding what’s costing $10,000.”
Thomson explained that the Bishop Chamber doesn’t rely solely on the county for funding, receiving funds also from the City of Bishop and its significant membership as well as sponsorships for certain events.
As for the derby costs, she said, the $10,000 will almost help the chamber “break even” after spending about $23,000 on the 2009 event – buying fish to plant at Pleasant Valley Reservoir, purchasing advertising locally and in trade publications, paying for the printing of posters, flyers and sign-up forms, covering the significant staff time that went into planning and staging the derby.
With that, Arcularius called theboard’sattentionto Thomson’s comments about the chamber making a tough decision to move ahead with the derby – and probably the rodeo finals, too – for the good of the community when there was no guarantee the grant funding would ever be unfrozen. Just when it seemed this would be her justification for denying Thomson’s request for a one-time policy change, Arcularius advocated “waiving” the rule against retroactive funding.
The rest of the board agreed, with Fortney taking the opportiunity to request full funding for Laws Museum, which scored the lowest on the review panel’s list for recommended approval.
Following a convoluted, 10-minute math session, the board awarded full funding to Laws, Blake Jones and the Early Opener and granted the panel’s recommended levels of funding for the remaining seven projects on the list, for a total cost of $59,613.
But the spending didn’t stop there, and in fact continued until there was nothing left in reserves for the grant program.
It was also decided the left over $5,387 will be “apportioned on prorated levels” between the Wild Wild West Marathon and Bishop Creek Canyon Summer Classic.