The gears have begun cranking for Promote La Jolla to be up and running by December since City Council unanimously approved its $133,000 budget on Nov. 23. Promote La Jolla — the village’s Business Improvement District (BID) — won’t be running at full capacity, however, since the city will take $17,500 from the budget to administer the BID. Plus, Promote La Jolla won’t hire a full-time executive director as in past years. Nonetheless, the city will retroactively assess the businesses since it stopped collecting fees in July, and volunteers will no longer be burdened with carrying out Promote La Jolla’s work.  The city continues to investigate the actions of the former board that the city auditor’s report charged with misappropriating $112,070 in funds. A group of La Jollans went to city hall to ask City Council to approve Promote La Jolla’s 2010 budget. “The country and San Diego are experiencing the worst economic downturn that most of us can remember, and La Jolla is no exception,” said Daisy Fitzgerald, who said she was elected to the “reform board” in 2008 as treasurer for Promote La Jolla. Fitzgerald also manages Ark Antiques, an antique consignment store that benefits animal charities. “At a time when La Jolla businesses need all the help they can get, the BID has been unable to function at all.” Rick Wildman, chair of Promote La Jolla who was also elected in 2008, said the absence of Promote La Jolla has brought the community together and created more transparency in the board. “Everyone is very appreciative to see the city come so quickly to our assistance,” Wildman said. In fact, La Jollans completed their fund-raising goal this week to raise $6,400 for lights and banners to decorate the village (see LaJollaGives.org), including the “Season’s Greetings” sign over the throat.  “The silver lining in all these problems is that the businesses realized how much Promote La Jolla did for the village,” said Joe La Cava, president of the La Jolla Community Planning Association, also at the helm to raise the funds to decorate the village.