City and Chamber Fail to Reach Agreement, on a Contract
At issue: Two sections of contract the city wanted
Chamber wants fee increase
By Kara Chalmers
The Saratoga City Council has flip-flopped on the issue of increasing the fee it pays each year to the Chamber of Commerce for visitor services. It almost did it again on July 5.
On May 9, the Chamber asked the city to reinstate a contract that had lapsed in 1997, with a provision for an increase from $3,400 to $10,000 annually to run the city's visitor information center. At the time, the city was beginning its budget process for fiscal years 2000-2001 and 2001-2002.
When a draft contract was submitted to the council a week later, the three members present decided to allocate $10,000 in the city's budget, but not disperse the money until the whole council approved an agreement. On June 21, the council changed tack and decided to allocate only $3,400 in the budget and to increase the fee only if the two sides reached an agreement.
Meanwhile, the Chamber's executive board in June accepted the contract the city had drawn up but deleted two sections of it. On July 5, when Interim City Manager Bill Norton brought the contract to the council for approval, council members said they wanted the sections, or a rewording of them, included in order to give the Chamber the $6,600 fee increase.
A majority of council members expressed an unwillingness to accept the contract so they directed Norton to return to the negotiating table.
"I guess I'd feel more comfortable--and I'm the one who's going to come out and say it--I'd feel more comfortable if [the Chamber] were more in sync with the way this city council and this city is moving," said councilman Evan Baker on July 5. "And yet they're asking us for a giant increase but they're fighting us tooth and nail on the Mountain Winery issue, they're fighting us on Azule Crossing ... it just seems that they're not in sync with the city council and I have a hard time swallowing a 300 percent increase."
Chamber member Kristin Davis, whose family owns the Azule Crossing Shopping Center, responded in an interview that the Chamber is not fighting the city "tooth and nail."
"We take stands on issues that affect the business community," she said. "We're not trying to take on this adversarial role that they seem to think we're in, and I don't think any of us are willing to be intimidated by that."
The one-year contract the Chamber's executive board agreed to had only one difference from past contracts with the city: that the Chamber should work with the city manager or the city manager's designee to retain and recruit new businesses to the city.
This provision refers to the economic development coordinator that the city plans to hire, Norton said. The city has allocated $100,000 for economic development and revitalization in this fiscal year and, according to Norton, two-thirds of the allocation will fund a coordinator to work with existing businesses and prospective businesses.
Councilman Nick Streit said on July 5, that a $6,600 increase is a "drop in the bucket" and that, if the increase ensures the support of the business community which the council needs, he's all for it.
"I think the $6,600 is a small number to pay to get the business community behind the economic development we want to do," Streit said. "If it doesn't work, we should move it back to $3,400 and move on."
According to Norton, the $6,600 increase reflects not only the additional responsibility of the Chamber--to help recruit and retain businesses--but also the actual costs the Chamber has incurred over time answering questions of people interested in moving to Saratoga.
"We felt that that sum more accurately reflects the costs the Chamber incurs," Norton said July 5.
The Chamber's executive director Abby Krimotat says that the Chamber asked for the $10,000 since the city has not increased the amount in five? years. She said she estimates that one-third of her and her staff's time is spent on visitor services, since there is no other tourist office in the city.
The Chamber staff answers many inquiries on tourism and other city information, and $3,400 is just not enough, she said. In addition, the nonprofit Chamber's main function is to advocate for the city's businesses, and Krimotat says that the staff does not have the time to focus on that duty.
One of the sections of the contract that the Chamber did not agree with stated that the city would measure the Chamber's effectiveness by monitoring sales and business license tax revenue.
The other section that the Chamber rejected stated it would act as a liaison between the city and city businesses, and resolve issues of noncompliance with city codes when requested by the city. Norton said he initially included this section since he thought that businesses might be more open talking about noncompliance issues with the Chamber rather than the city.
Krimotat said the Chamber's executive board felt that the two sections imposed too much. According to her, it would be unfair for the city to base the fee on performance criteria such as sales tax revenue and business license tax revenue. She also said that trying to resolve issues of noncompliance with city code might be a conflict of interest for the Chamber.
"I hear this council asking for something here," said Mayor Stan Bogosian on July 5. "And it's probably the first time in 12 years that a council has asked for something for this money... [The Chamber] is a special interest and I think we have to keep that in focus. But those interests coincide with the city's interests in having a vital economy and for those reasons, I think we can work together and work something out."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
