[Vision2020] City of Moscow Gives Moscow Chamber of Commerce $10, 000

Nancy Chaney nchaney at moscow.com
Sun Jan 23 17:14:39 PST 2005


All,

The City Council-Chamber Board discussion last Tuesday included lots of
questions, promises, and expectations of transparency, accountability,
and fairness. It generated quite a bit of heat and rendered the issues
more public. I am confident that the Chamber will comply with
stipulations in the pending memorandum of understanding.  

Chamber Director Paul Kimmell agreed that "in the next few weeks," the
COC will amend its bylaws to include statements requiring practices of
nondiscrimination and equal employment opportunity. The Chamber will
provide quarterly statements to demonstrate value for the City
taxpayers' investment. Chamber President Janice McMillan indicated that
in the interest of transparency, the COC will comply with a request to
post financial statements and tax returns on <www.guidestar.com> The
board has already posted Hayden Ross' review of financial statements for
the fiscal year ended 6-30-04. At the request of disenchanted Chamber
members, the COC Website (updated 01-10-05) now includes an overt
invitation to members to attend board meetings. I also note that the
next election of board members will be in March 2005. All of this points
to the prospect of positive change.

I think the Chamber of Commerce serves a valuable purpose by, among
other things, being a familiar source of information for visitors,
tourists, residents, and prospective new residents and businesses.
According to the COC, referral services for the City account for 35-40%
of its inquiries each day. We don't have another service in place to do
those things for the City. Chamber board members who spoke at our
meeting last week acknowledged financial problems and that they can do a
better job of demonstrating accountability, transparency, and fairness.
I think they will.

As always, I invite your comments. 

Nancy Chaney
Member, Moscow City Council

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Janice Willard
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 11:22 AM
To: johnd at moscow.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
Cc: jmack at turbonet.com; lpall at moscow.com; nchaney at moscow.com;
pegh at uidaho.edu; comstock at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] City of Moscow Gives Moscow Chamber of
Commerce $10,000

Hi Visionaries,

This may be naive, as I don't know the entire history of this issue.
However, it seems to me that, besides expressing displeasure, there is
little that can be done about the decision that has been already made.
However, many people have brought up some issues at the Chamber that are
not
in line with our city administration.  Two issues have been mentioned:
the
lack of an anti-discrimination policy (and evidence that they adhere to
the
policy) and the lack of fiscal responsibility and transparency.

The City of Moscow does have an anti-discrimination policy (and is
expected
to follow it) and is answerable to its citizens for a transparent and
responsible use of taxpayer funds.  Therefore, the city should not be
giving
taxpayer money to entities that do not live up to these standards.

It seems to me that the city council should pass some form of
legislation
that states the minimum standards that an organization must demonstrate
before it can receive city funds.  And these minimum standards should at
least have a stated anti-discrimination policy and show transparent and
fiscally responsible accounting practices.  If this legislation were
passed
before the next time that the Chamber asks for money, then the council
has
"a legal leg to stand on" when they question the distribution of these
funds
to the Chamber (or any other entity with questionable accounting of
funds)
unless the Chamber can demonstrate that it has "cleaned up its act."
The
Chamber then would be put on notice that it has X amount of time
(starting
when the legislation is passed) to demonstrate adherence to these
minimum
standards or their next request for funds will be denied.  Community
leaders
could assist the council in drafting the minimum standards.

This would make this less of an issue of personalities and more of an
issue
of policy.

JW




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Melynda Huskey" <mghuskey at msn.com>
To: <johnd at moscow.com>; <sslund at adelphia.net>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Cc: <jmack at turbonet.com>; <lpall at moscow.com>; <nchaney at moscow.com>;
<pegh at uidaho.edu>; <comstock at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 9:23 AM
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] City of Moscow Gives Moscow Chamber of
Commerce
$10,000


> Dear John,
>
> Thanks for the information about the Chamber's request.  It seems that
some
> of the confusion I have about the funding stems from my confusion
about
what
> the Chamber is, or does. I thought it was a non-profit association
which
> promoted local businesses, and which generated its own funds to do so.
I
> assumed it was accountable to its members, not to any outside agency.
>
> But if we've got some kind of agreement or contract with the Chamber
to
> provide Visitor Center and "information clearinghouse" services for
the
> City, that's obviously a different kettle of fish . . . and surely the
City
> provides some level of oversight or management for those services.
I'd be
> interested in knowing more about that relationship, and about the
Chamber's
> accountability to the City, and to taxpayers, for services provided.
>
> I'm very troubled that the Chamber has failed to establish an
> equal-opportunity and non-discrimination policy.  As others have
pointed
> out, there's nothing very complicated or time-consuming about creating
such
> a policy; it was mentioned by the auditors as a step the Chamber
needed to
> take; and given concerns expressed in the past about patterns of
religious
> discrimination in hiring and contracting at the Chamber, it would have
been
> a good-faith step on the part of Chamber leadership.  Apparently they
didn't
> feel that it was a priority.  That disturbs me a great deal.
>
> Melynda Huskey
>
>
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