Bend Chamber responds to council vote to drop membership

After lengthy debate, the Bend City Council voted 4-3 Wednesday night to drop the city’s $2,000-a-year membership with the Bend Chamber, as a slim majority said public taxpayer funds should not go to the increasingly political organization in the wake of its new “council scorecard” rankings.

Late Thursday afternoon, the Bend Chamber issued its response, provided here in full:

The Bend Chamber, a 501(c)(6) funded by membership dollars, respects that the Bend City Council has the ability and authority to drop the City of Bend’s Bend Chamber membership.

“The City of Bend will be welcomed back with open arms if they choose to rejoin in the future,” states Bend Chamber Chairman Brian Fratzke. “The Bend Chamber believes in having representation from the City, as they are a significant employer in our community. However, we appreciate the councilors’ due diligence in examining whether or not dues paid to organizations such as the Bend Chamber, are within the rules and directives of the City of Bend.”

The Bend Chamber is a 501(c)(6). As a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation in Oregon and a business league under IRS rules, the Bend Chamber is organized for the benefit of its defined membership.

The mission of the Bend Chamber is to be “a vital strategic partner creating resources and opportunities for member success, quality of life, engagement and meaningful impact.” The vision is “to gather, equip and mobilize our business community to drive a prosperous economy and unmatched quality of life.”

Therefore, it is the Bend Chamber’s role to advocate for its broad spectrum of members and their employees.

One pillar of the Bend Chamber, is the Bend Chamber Advocacy Council. This 10-member council identifies, evaluates and recommends positions to the Bend Chamber Board of Directors on issues impacting our community. An item of responsibility under the advocacy council is the management of the City of Bend Council Scorecard. The goal through the quarterly publication of the scorecard is to educate Bend Chamber members and the community about how the councilors’ votes align with the Bend Chamber Advocacy Council positions, as well as set a precedence for accountability and a platform for an open dialogue.

“The Bend Chamber Board of Directors takes seriously the chamber’s duty to inform its 1,250 members, who represent over 24,000 employees, regarding City of Bend actions that impact Bend’s business climate,” Fratzke said. “As a politically diverse board and membership, we believe it is critical for organizations to listen to and learn from a wide variety of viewpoints. It is our intention to continue to communicate about, and work with, the City on issues of importance to our membership.”

The Bend Chamber PAC establishes its own funding through direct donations. The purpose of the PAC, which was recently reformed, is to identify and support city council candidates who are both business-friendly, and also make sound and informed decisions based on good policy that will have a long-term, positive impact on the community.

“The Bend Chamber is proud of the fact that we exclusively answer to our members and receive no government funding, which allows our organization to represent our membership,” Fratzke said.

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The council scorecard, in the Bend Chamber magazine’s June issue, looks at 18 votes and gives Nathan Boddie the lowest score, at 41 percent on pro-business votes, and Victor Chudowsky a 100 percent grade (though absent for three of those votes). Casey Roats gets a 94 percent grade, Doug Knight a 72 percent mark, Sally Russell a 61 percent score and Clinton and Campbell grades of 56 percent.

NewsChannel 21 asked Fratzke about the last sentence of their statement, considering that the $2,000 from the city could be considered “government funding” of the organization.

Fratzke noted that Bend’s chamber is one of the few in the states that don’t receive government funding as part of their operating budget.

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Here’s the rest of Wednesday night’s story:

“I’ve concluded the city can’t be a dues-paying member of an organization that works in the political arena to undermine the policies of city councils, not just in the present but in the past,” said Mayor Jim Clinton, who made the motion to take the $2,000 the in chamber dues and put it into the street maintenance fund instead. Colleague Barb Campbell seconded the motion.

The mayor took his criticism a step further, saying he believes the chamber, a nonprofit, is “skirting IRS rules” with inadequate separation between the chamber and its political action committee, the Chamber Advocacy Council, which he said has the same address and personnel.

But he also reached back several years, to when the chamber “vigorously opposed” the equal rights amendment councilors eventually adopted.

Part of the scorecard that rankled the majority of councilors took them to task for putting the gas tax on a special March ballot, on which it resoundingly failed; the chamber had taken a neutral stance on the measure.

The chamber has said its advocacy council will publish city councilor voting records each quarter. “The goal through the scorecard is to educate our members and the community about how the councilors’ votes align with pro-business positions,” the organization stated in its monthly magazine.

Colleague Nathan Boddie said when he’s been involved with a nonprofit, “we were very careful about the dividing line between education and advocacy.”

But Councilor Victor Chudowsky brought up ties between the city and the group Bend 2030, which supported the gas tax. Later, colleague Sally Russell said that group is different in that it “builds community consensus across the community.”

But Chudowsky asked: “Would you have felt differently if the chamber supported the gas tax?”

Earlier, Clinton asked of Chudowsky, “Do others come up with a political hit piece with their name on it? That’s beyond the pale.”

But Chudowsky noted city council relations with the chamber extend to other aspects, such as speaking at their various events.

Campbell said, “The chamber says it’s neutral on the fuel tax, but then it scores us” on it, noting that some other parts of the scorecard were acceptable to her.

Russell said the question is broader than just the chamber: “The question for me is, is it appropriate for us, with taxpayer dollars, to fund any organizations that are actively, politically engaged? To me, it wouldn’t matter what organization. That is an appropriate question.”

Assistant City Manager Jon Skidmore noted that he is an ex-officio member of the chamber board, and said the organization has an interim director, Sandy Stephenson, in the wake of Tim Casey’s departure. He suggested having Stephenson and chamber board Chair John Fratzke answer some council questions about what positions the chamber has taken and why.

That may still happen — but for now, Clinton pressed on: “You just can’t have taxpayer money going to these organizations that get involved in these political battles.”

City Attorney Mary Winters told councilors, “You have very limited general fund monies at your discretion, and you hold those in public trust. If you have an organization ranking you, you can start spending money based on political reasons. … But when they have crossed the line over into politics, that should not be the basis of a decision on what to spend public monies on.”

Winters said in other states she’s worked in, “You couldn’t give money to the chamber unless it was a contractual relationship. I guess that’s the Oregon way.”

The chamber has a mission statement of “enhancing the economic vitality of Bend,” and Councilor Doug Knight said it sounded to him like the situation has become a “mission statement gone awry. … I don’t see their mission as ranking councilors.”

But later, Knight said, “I will not be voting on anything tonight until I hear from the chamber how this (scorecard) satisfies their mission.” He even made “a motion we don’t vote.”

But the mayor noted his motion was already on the table, and it passed 4-3, with Clinton, Boddie, Roats and Campbell in support and Chudowsky, Knight and Russell opposed.