Convention chief under fire for expenses, lost business. (Up Front).

Staff members at the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau have been waging a major battle.

The objective: save their boss's job

Their boss is George Kirkland, who has been president and chief executive of the LACVB since 1990.

For several months, Kirkland has taken much of the heat for the bureau's failure to woo enough conventions to the Los Angeles Convention Center and for not enticing more tourists and corporate travelers to L.A.'s hotels, some of which are experiencing one of their worst years ever.

"When the team is losing, it's the coach's job that is in jeopardy," said Alan Rothenberg, a downtown attorney and chairman of the 15-member LACVB board, which has the final say over whether Krikland keeps his job. Rothenberg backs the LACVB chief.

The 59-year-old Kirkland has also been roundly criticized for the bureau's lavish travel and entertainment expenses that included $835,000 on a dinner for travel agents in Scotland, bonuses to sales people for conventions that later canceled, and discounts given to big conventions booking the Los Angeles Convention Center.

City Controller Laura Chick's office is auditing the bureau, whose $26.9 million budget is supported by $14.4 million in city hotel taxes. Deputy City Controller Rob Wilcox said the results of the audit would not be released until October.

The missteps have caught the attention of Mayor James Hahn and Troy Edwards, the deputy mayor of special projects who oversees the LACVB. Although Hahn does not have the power to fire Kirkland, downtown hotel and tourism officials say that pressure from the mayor's office could sway the board. Because city money is used to run the bureau, some LACVB board members fear that Hahn could try to pull the funds if he wants Kirkland fired.

Major monitors situation

"We are very concerned with what is happening with the convention center and citywide bookings," said Edwards, who says he wants to make sure the city's hotel taxes are used effectively under Kirkland's leadership.

Kirkland was on vacation last week and his staff would not relay a request to interview him. None of the LACVB staff contacted would talk about Kirkland.

The bureau appears to be responding to the critics. It recently hired a consultant to survey 1,000 meeting planners about their convention and meeting needs. The results will be presented to the LACVB in early October. Another consultant was hired to figure out what to pay the sales staff if the bonus system is shelved.

The LACVB has also whittled down its board from 30 to 15 and formed several committees to fashion new policies on travel expenses and sales bonuses. Recommended changes were approved in August.

"We've diffused the political side of this," said John Stoddard, a member of the LACVB board and general manager of the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown L.A. who supports Kirkland. "The unknown is how the internal audit by Laura Chick will turn out (in October)."

New policies

To clarify the travel expense policy, a trade mission task force devised a travel policy for both individual staff members and business development missions. Some of the guidelines include approval by Kirkland of any expenditures over $5,000. The policy also defines who gets to stay in an expensive hotel suite and who gets a regular room.

For now, however, convention business continues to slip.

There were only 28 conventions for the fiscal year ended June 30, down from 35 the previous year. Plus, there were only 12 bookings made for future dates, down from 29 in 2001 and 74 in 1999.

This does not bode well for the downtown hotels that depend on large conventions to fill their rooms.

"I'm still not a supporter of George Kirkland," said Peter Zen, owner of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel. "I've spoken to the mayor and the city council about George. I've been at it for over a year now because of the dismal bookings we've had and the cancellations of conventions."

Zen, whose FIT Investment Corp. bought the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in 1995, was appointed by Hahn earlier this year to sit on the Los Angeles Convention Center Commission.

Last week, a handful of downtown hotel general managers drafted a letter to the LACVB board requesting a meeting to discuss changes to the bureau's business practices to help get more hotel rooms filled.

But despite attempts to fix things at the LACVB, Kirkland's fate may ultimately hinge on the mayor. "We certainly are trying to monitor the feelings of the mayor," said one board member. "We have different people talking to him."