Gilroy
– A miscarriage of democracy has occurred at the Gilroy Chamber
of Commerce. Or was it just a
”
hiccup
”
in bureaucratic process? It depends who you ask.
Gilroy – A miscarriage of democracy has occurred at the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce. Or was it just a “hiccup” in bureaucratic process? It depends who you ask.
In a recent letter to the editor, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Joan Spencer accused the chamber of being undemocratic.
“Afghanistan, Iraq, and The Ukraine. Three places that hold free, open, and fair elections,” she wrote. “Cuba, North Korea, and The Gilroy Chamber of Commerce. Three places that don’t.”
The harsh indictment grew out of a situation that took place last summer, when the chamber’s board of directors overturned the political endorsement of Simón Salinas for State Assembly, following a recommendation by a special subcommittee established to select pro-business candidates.
Similar concerns have been raised by Chris Coté, a chamber member who worked on Salinas’ campaign and voted to recommend the endorsement.
In his recent application to serve on the chamber’s endorsement committee, Coté said he would only serve if the committee went “back to counting all members’ votes.”
But selecting candidates and setting political policy has never been the prerogative of the chamber at large, according to Tim Day, chair of the chamber’s board of directors.
“We had a hiccup,” Day said, referring to the endorsement committee’s voting procedures. Board guidelines only allow the handful of members on the endorsement committee to actually vote on political endorsements. He admitted that even he made a “mistake” in allowing a general vote to take place.
In the past, chamber members have informally passed on recommendations on ballot measures and individual candidates to the chamber’s board of directors.
“A few years ago, it became more and more evident we had to stop being reactive,” Day said. “If the state was going to pass a bill, we would find out a week before and be scrambling … We had no endorsement mechanism.”
The chamber began forming a policy about three years ago, according to chamber president Susan Valenta, who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the business association.
The chamber at first contemplated creating a separate political action committee to set political policy and funnel campaign contributions to pro-business candidates.
Instead, the chamber decided to go with a less formal endorsement committee to review candidates and make recommendations to the board of directors, which retained final authority on any endorsements.
That system worked fine the first time around, according to both Coté and Day. In 2002, the endorsement committee recommended Al Pinheiro over Peter Arellano in the mayoral race. The chamber board signed off on that recommendation, and Pinheiro went on to win the election.
Problems with the endorsement committee did not crop up until the summer of 2004, when the group invited state assembly candidates Bob Perkins and Simón Salinas for an interview panel.
The committee could not find a convenient meeting time for both candidates, and ended up interviewing each candidate individually. The biggest procedural mis-step occurred at the second meeting, Day said, when the endorsement committee met with Salinas.
“Unfortunately, we made a couple of mistakes,” said Day, who at the time served as Vice President of Public Affairs, a voting member of the endorsement committee.
“A bunch of people got together with the idea that an endorsement vote would be taken,” Day said.
The crowd of nearly two dozen included Coté, who at the time was working on Salinas’ political campaign.
“We forgot that it was only supposed to be this small group voting,” said Day, referring to the handful of people who make up the endorsement committee. Instead, Day and other members of the endorsement committee joined other chamber members in a split vote that favored Salinas.
But after reviewing Salinas’ voting record, the chamber’s board of directors found many of his positions to be “anti-business,” Day said. In a unanimous vote, they decided to overturn the endorsement recommendation and, in the end, did not endorse either candidate.
“Assemblyman Salinas is a dedicated public servant,” Valenta stressed. “As a chamber, we have the highest respect for him, even though we may not agree with his voting record on business issues.”
Coté does not criticize all of the endorsement committee’s past actions.
“I think the endorsement of Al Pinheiro was an excellent endorsement,” Coté said. “I trust the integrity of judgment of Tim Day implicitly.”
But for Coté, the issue has grown bigger than a single candidate or a single bureaucratic slip-up.
“It’s fair to allow everybody’s opinion to be expressed through open, free, and democratic voting,” he insisted.
Valenta and Day argue, however, that the chamber is not an open forum. The chamber serves as advocate for a very specific segment of the community and, as far as Day and Valenta are concerned, requires no changes to allow more democratic expression.
“We represent business interests,” Valenta said. “Our agenda is very clear.”
