Davis Chamber of Commerce

Location

604 Third Street (corner 3rd & E Street)

Hours

Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM

Phone

(530) 756-5160

Executive Director

Kemble K. Pope

Website

http://www.davischamber.com/

The Davis Chamber of Commerce is a membership organization whose mission is to "promote, support, and advocate the general economic vitality of its membership and the quality of life for the community." The Chamber is sometimes confused with the Davis Downtown Business Association (DBBA); however, the DDBA is entirely separate from the Chamber. DDBA membership is mandatory, with fees from property and business owners who are in the business improvement district (BID). The Chamber of Commerce led the effort to create the DDBA in order to allow the Chamber to focus on a broader set of issues like redevelopment. Chamber membership is voluntary. According to Don Shor, of the 84 downtown retailers, only 13 were members of the Davis Chamber as of April 2012.

The Chamber has over 600 members, including professionals, individuals, retailers, and non-profits. Some are in the downtown area, and others are located in the greater Davis area and beyond. The Chamber believes it is "a vibrant business organization which reflects the vitality, education, community involvement, and quality of life characteristics of our locale."

Under Executive Director Kemble Pope, the Chamber has begun to take a more active role in Davis politics (although it has also played a role in the past). It has revived a Political Action Committee, or PAC, called the Davis ChamberPAC (aka Business Issues Committee). Only Chamber members can contribute to the ChamberPAC (so, given the above statistics, many Davis downtown retailers could not be contributors to the ChamberPAC). The stated purpose of the Davis ChamberPAC is "to support (or oppose) local, county or state ballot measures and candidates which impact the business environment in Davis." The Davis ChamberPAC was created by vote of the Board of Directors in December 1997, edited in 2003 to increase the maximum monetary contribution from $500 to $1000 and edited in February 2012 to broaden the scope of efforts to include support of candidates.

Some have questioned the legality of accepting such large donations; this practice seems (to many) to defy the spirit if not the letter of Municipal Code 12.01.035, which, in general, serves to prohibit wealthy businesses and individuals from having an undue influence on local politics through large financial contributions.

Ironically, the ChamberPAC denies that the 2010 "Citizens United" Supreme Court decision played any part in their recent actions. According to Kemble Pope, "Let's be very clear that the Davis Chamber PAC's ability to raise and spend money in this manner has absolutely nothing to do with the Citizens United ruling." This statement seems strange, given that the controversial landmark decision is probably the most reasonable justification for arguing that the PAC can safely ignore the local ordinance (by claiming it has been trumped). However, given that the vast majority of Americans disagree with the Supreme Court's decision, and that it could significantly alter the traditional Davis political climate, it is probably a wise PR move for the PAC not to mention it. Furthermore, nearly half of the country's states are currently trying to argue that the SCOTUS decision might not apply to elections on the state and local level.

It wasn't until May of 2012 that much of the PAC's legal reasoning became clearer to the general public. The PAC believes that it is legal and acceptable to bypass the normal reading of the law by slipping candidate names into relatively small spaces of Measure D advertisements. Under this interpretation of the law, the PAC can spend thousands of dollars more on candidates than they would normally be allowed, simply by being subtle.

Measure D is the Parks Renewal Tax, which the PAC (as well as most of the community) believes benefits many local businesses and the general Davis community. The proposition is the extension of the original Measure D of 2002 that passed with a whopping 79% of the vote. To most people, this would imply that an extension would not require any advertisements in order to gain support, even during an economically tough time.

In the May 20th, 2012 edition of the Davis Enterprise, the ChamberPAC released its first print advertisement. Although it is primarily an ad for the populist Measure D, it also includes the names of the PAC's endorsed candidates for city council. The ad states that the endorsed candidates support Measure D, while ignoring the fact that the other candidates support it as well. In an official public disclosure, the PAC claimed candidate expenditures of only about $40 on the nearly $600 ad. This adds more fuel to the fire of the existing controversy of whether or not the PAC should have legally been allowed to co-mingle funds for both the candidates and Measure D in the first place.

The ChamberPAC has endorsed Stephen Souza, Dan Wolk, and Lucas Frerichs for the 2012 City Council Election. The Vanguard has questioned these endorsements, given that "[i]t was Stephen Souza who, on the brink of the economic collapse, insisted that the city had a balanced budget and a 15% reserve, despite at that time what was $13 million in deferred maintenance" and that "[i]t was Stephen Souza who helped pushed through not only the budget in 2009 by a 3-2 vote, but the series of MOUs in 2009 and 2010 that did little to change the status quo. He was the swing vote on all of those and went against the side of fiscal sustainability." Souza also actively promoted Second Street Crossing (the site of Target) in 2006, which some believe has harmed Davis businesses such as the now out-of-business Alphabet Moon.

Some members of the community have asked the ChamberPAC to provide a more detailed description of the internal voting process and how it led to the endorsement of the selected candidates. Specifically, the public would like to know which candidates each Chamber PAC member voted for and how this led to a collective decision. Thus far, it is unclear if a unanimous consensus was achieved or if there was even a formal voting process at all. According to Kemble Pope, "There was hours of discussion, dissent and arguing. We came to consensus on Frerichs, Wolk & Souza for a variety of reasons that have been stated over and over again."

The voting members of the ChamberPAC are: Steve Greenfield (an engineer for a construction firm), Kemble Pope (consultant, Souza's 2008 campaign manager), Gregg Herrington (real estate developer), Michael Bisch (real estate agent) and Tom Cross (property management).

It is interesting to note that all three endorsed candidates are contributors to executive director Kemble Pope's blog, The Davis Voice. The two unendorsed candidates have never contributed. Furthermore, Pope was a campaign consultant for endorsed candidate Souza's 2008 election bid. How these factors do not represent a conflict of interest is anybody's guess.

This Vanguard article lists donors to the ChamberPAC in 2012 as of early May, 2012, noting in particular that West Yost Associates, who just landed another multimillion contract to handle the wastewater project for the City of Davis, contributed the maximum amount allowed by the PAC, $1000. Around the same time, the mysterious Alyce LLC, also contributed the maximum amount. Since then, there have been two more contributions of $1000 each.

• To help create a strong local economy
  

• To promote the community
  

• To provide networking opportunities
  

• To represent the interests of business with government

The Chamber puts on an annual event Celebrate Davis on the 3rd Thursday in May at Community Park from 4:30 to 9:30 pm, with food and information booths from local businesses and non-profits, ending with a fireworks show. It also hosts Chamber Day on the Quad, an event held early in the school year on the UC Davis campus in conjunction with the Student Activities Fair. Chamber of Commerce member businesses offer freebies, games, prizes, and information as a way to introduce themselves to students new to the city.

• Rose Cholewinski — Chair — SwimAmerica Davis

• Gregg Harrington — Vice Chair — Yackzan Group
  

• Don Palm — Secretary — Sacramento City College Davis Center
  

• Kristen Hill — Treasurer — Ink Monkey Graphics
  

• Cary Arnold — Immediate Past Chair — Doug Arnold Real Estate, Inc./Davis Life Magazine

• Bill Alger — Woodland Healthcare Davis
  

• Cara Mengali — The Mortgage Resource Team at Comstock Mortgage
  

• Jeremy Brooks — Brooks Painting
  

• Nancy Hannell — The Davis Enterprise
  

• Diane Archer — Tandem Properties
  

• Doby Fleeman — Davis ACE Hardware
  

• Rebecca Brandt — PG&E
  

• Mabel Salon — UC Davis Community Relations
  

• Antony Johnson — Premier West Bank
  

• Jennifer LaPlante — Carbahal & Company

• Christina Blackman — Yolo Federal Credit Union
  

• Marty O'Hara — Owen-Dunn Insurance Services
  

• Charlie Swanson — The Davis Graduate
  

• Raul Zamora — Creme de la Creme

Comments:

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• 2007-09-09 00:50:17   DDBA is entirely separate from the Chamber. DDBA membership is mandatory, with fees from property and business owners who are in the business improvement district (BID). Chamber membership is city-wide and is voluntary. — DonShor
  

2005-05-18 15:18:24   It is interesting to note that the Government Relations Committee was the only community organization in the entire county that opposed Yolo County moving from PG&E over to SMUD. This was in opposition to every city and county government body in Yolo County that voted on this proposal. This now make sense with you see that a PG&E employee is on the Board of Directors and serves on the Government Relations Committee. Nevertheless, the Chamber of Commerce is a decent group of business leaders who do a lot for the community. — SharlaDaly

2009-08-07 18:09:35   DonShor, you are correct. Although we have regional members as well. For more information, please visit our website: www.davischamber.com. —ChristiSkibbins