"Our investment in the
EIDC will ensure we continue to meet our UK and international clients' evolving demands for innovation."
Whatever the outcome, Cluff's legacy will linger for years at the
EIDC. Its exec committee provided little oversight during Cluff's seven-year tenure but it's done an about-face this year, overhauling the agency, paying $300,000 for a KPMG audit and bringing in industry vet Lindsley Parsons Jr.
For Parsons, the task has been four-fold: Manage the
EIDC while a KPMG audit is being completed; start revamping the agency into a more accountable operation; deal with fallout from residents' complaints about in cessant film shoots in certain neighborhoods; and keep the agency focused on its central mission of retaining local, off-lot production of about 45,000 permitted film days.
"It seems that they have been using an elephant gun to shoot a mouse," notes Cluff, who has been at the center of the storm of negative publicity surrounding the
EIDC and is leaning toward quitting.
using
EIDC funds to buy $350 bottles of wine and donate $5,000 to his children's high school?
The idea is for the
EIDC to coordinate the needs of the event with those of local businesses.
"What everyone hopes is that the economy has bottomed out and will begin rebounding in January and February," says
EIDC veep Morrie Goldman.
"From January to June, the numbers were very high," says
EIDC chief Cody Cluff, referring to the production frenzy prompted by the labor unrest.
The actors unions got wise to the practice and alerted the
EIDC.
"We've looked at the production slates for the major studios and other outfits around the world and they're down, too," says Mike Bobenko, a senior veep at the
EIDC, referring to the general retrenchment affecting the industry on a global level.
In terms of total location days, the
EIDC reported that feature filming in the area dropped from 13,980 days in '96 to 11,542 last year, a drop of 17% in two years.
However,
EIDC president Cody Cluff says, "I would expect this year to be fairly flat; I don't expect to see any real growth, but to keep pace with '98."