By Robert Haugh
After a really, really bad year, the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce has changed its name. They are now the Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce.
Earlier this week, we reported how the Chamber canceled its annual Outlook Conference/State of the City last spring. But that was just the beginning of their problems.
In September 2018, the City officially terminated the Chamber as the contractor for the Convention Center because of mismanagement and malfeasance.
In October 2018, we reported that the Chamber PAC failed to file campaign reports with the City as required by law for four years.
In November 2018, the California Fair Political Practices Commission announced they would investigate the Chamber PAC for its reporting failures. That same month, they blew almost all of their PAC budget on attacking Mayor Lisa Gillmor with a brochure. She won 75 percent of the vote.
That same month, a City audit uncovered more fiscal mismanagement.
A few months ago, the Chamber told the PAC to take a hike and stop using its name. (We wonder if the PAC can use the name now since the Chamber has abandoned it.)
No local leaders can remember an organization doing so poorly in a short period of time. Some have suggested that the problem was the leadership, not the name.
But the Chamber board remains the same. There have been no leadership changes. It’s like the Titanic kept the same crew:
Jan Eric Nordmo, Chair
Off the Wall Soccer
Christopher Boyd, Chair-Elect
Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center
Joe Siecinski, Immediate Past Chair
ActionCoach of Santa Clara
Christian Pellecchia, Treasurer
Slatter Construction, Inc.
Harbir Bhatia, Chair
2018-2019 Community Relations Committee
Selectiva Systems
Ravinder Lal, Chair
2018-2019 Economic Development Committee
The UPS Store #4636
Jamal Newborn, Chair
2018-2019 Membership Services Committee
Exposyour
Lou Mariani, Chair
2018-2019 Government Relations Committee
Mariani’s Inn & Restaurant
Arlyne M. Diamond Ph.D
2018-2019 Service Committee
Diamond Associates
[…] and City staff. They also steered the operation like the crew of the Titanic. In fact, in 2018, the Chamber couldn’t have had a worse […]
[…] We reported that it was done after a couple of years of making big mistakes and political blunders — a lot of them. […]
everyone of of these ‘shipmates’ should be investigated … sinking ship …
What function do they provide? Based on the members in this article, ineptness training is all that comes to mind.
Bon voyage!
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet … and dead fish by any other name would still stink.
Not a good year indeed. I wish them luck in their rebranding and hope they can change more than the name. As Bill Shakespeare, said “What’s in a name?”