La Jolla will decorate its streets with bright stars, tinsel garlands and banners to express good cheer for the holiday season as usual, but Promote La Jolla — the village’s business improvement district (BID) — is not spearheading the effort this time. Instead, local merchants, residents and activists have stepped up to raise $7,000 to decorate the village since the city began questioning Promote La Jolla’s finances last July. At that time, City Council declined to approve its BID contract with Promote La Jolla, and business owners have not been paying into the BID ever since. The city auditor’s report indicated the group had over-billed the city, as well as defaulted on a loan on a separate foundation the group had set up. All of this has led to a penniless Promote La Jolla with no funds to spruce its streets with holiday cheer. Promote La Jolla Board President Rick Wildman, who arrived last January and opened the books to the city to reveal the group’s financial mess, said the whole community has gotten behind the holiday effort. “We had a full-time person who was paid $80,000 a year to organize that, but she’s not been here since May, so everyone has jumped in to organize everything,” Wildman said. “People with small businesses are spending 10 to 20 hours per week; it’s really been a burden on them… it shows that we have a pretty good community.” The community has contracted the Décor Plan, a banner service, to provide the decorations, which include 55 stars and 50 banners at a cost of $6,400. Last year, Promote La Jolla spent $8,150 for 65 stars and 60 banners, but Décor Plan owner George Heer said he is offering his service for a discount to La Jolla this year. The La Jolla Town Council streetscape committee is seeking contributions from the community to help pay the cost of decorating the village. For more information call (858) 454-1444 or e-mail [email protected].