By Christia Gibbons | InMaricopa.com
The Maricopa City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to honor the current agreement through the fiscal year ending June 30 – it could have given the chamber 30 days notice and not paid out the remainder of the $40,000 it has annually been funding the chamber for nearly seven years – but then to sever funding.
Through an agreement with the state, but using city money, the chamber runs the local tourism bureau.
Mayor Christian Price said the city has budget problems of its own and wondered how the city could justify funding a group of businesspeople who should have figured out how to fund themselves.
“At what point do we decide if taxpayers should continue to fund (the chamber),” he said.
New chamber board chairman Mike Richey, who owns Maricopa Ace Hardware, was before the council Tuesday during a quarterly review of the group’s public service agreement with the city and said he knew, “Personalities, egos and an unwillingness to participate from the chamber’s viewpoint” has hurt the chamber’s image.
