To assist DD in the review of the budget provided to me by CVD Director Geraldine Mauthe, I entered the information on a spreadsheet along with my comments.

One thing that surprised me is that only 15% ($17,000) of the entire budget goes to direct advertising. By contrast, 13% ($15,000) of the budget is paid to the Chamber of Commerce for providing the CVD Director a desk and telephone, and another 3% ($3,000) is paid to the Chamber of Commerce to maintain the Chambers web-site, although it contains no information on CVD, other than Ms. Mauthe’s photograph and title.

When I classified expenses and separated direct promotion vs. indirect expenditures (overhead), I was astounded to see that at least 65% of the budget goes toward indirect expenditures.

I don’t know if these percentages are typical of other CVD offices. This is one of the benefits of working with a consultant that has worked with many other cities. They will be able to tell us if our CVD expenditures are typical. If they are not, it enables them to help us make adjustments so that we can use the CVD funding more effectively.

For a look at the complete CVD budget just click below.