Chamber-city dispute drags on

I read the letter regarding the Chamber being left out of the city stakeholders meetings at city hall regarding the General Plan and sign ordinance.

There is no question that when the Chamber and business community speak, the city does not listen. The city, along with its General Plan Advisory Committee, is more interested in the views of former Chamber board members who took the Chamber to the brink of bankruptcy and are still upset that the Chamber is now thriving. These past board members were invited to the city stakeholder meetings.

This is consistent with the city giving $15,000 to a now defunct "newspaper," rather than a thriving local newspaper and/or the Chamber, to sponsor the now-defunct City Springfest. Only in Agoura Hills would a councilperson write a letter to The Acorn equating Agoura's "support" of local schools with the support voluntarily given by Calabasas, when the Agoura Hills' contribution cited is mandated for cities which have redevelopment agencies.

The city does not even attend Chamber functions. When I was on the Chamber board a couple of years ago, the city criticized the Chamber for holding events honoring our local teachers and law enforcement personnel ("That's not the proper function of a Chamber.")

If the city gave the Agoura Chamber a fraction of support that other cities provide their Chambers, the Agoura Chamber could afford to more regularly staff its office and field telephone calls allegedly made to it by the city.

Old Agoura is a great place to live. However, the old Old Agoura crowd still controls Agoura Hills and since that has not changed since the city incorporated, our neighboring communities will continue to attract businesses that generate taxes to support quality city services, while leaving Agoura Hills in a dustbowl of endless office space. Kenneth Kossoff Oak Park