Agoura Hills City Council seeks Chamber of Commerce pact with Thousand Oaks

After years of acrimonious relations with its current Chamber of Commerce, Agoura Hills is considering changing its alliances and starting a new business relationship with the Thousand Oaks/ Westlake Village Regional Chamber of Commerce.

T.O Chamber officials broached the idea with Agoura Hills City Council members John Edelston and Bill Koehler, who serve on the city’s economic committee. Edelston said the presentation was attractive enough to give the T.O. Chamber the green light to present a full proposal to the City Council last night.

The rocky relationship between city and the Agoura/Oak Park/Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce has lingered throughout much of the current decade.

In 2003, former Chamber president Alex Soteras campaigned for a seat on the Agoura Hills City Council, but ran afoul with city officials when he mailed a Chamber newsletter that went to individuals rather than businesses. At the time, the city was helping to pay for the Chamber newsletters and saw the Soteras action as a misuse of funds. City funding to the Chamber soon ended and the rift between the two groups began to widen.

Edelston said if the city decides to join forces with the Thousand Oaks Chamber, it will be based on what the T.O. group has to offer Agoura Hills in terms of services and not what the Agoura/ Oak Park/Conejo Valley Chamber has or has not done in the past.

The move is not intended to punish the Agoura Chamber, Edelston said.

“This would provide local businesses an array of services that we think the City Council should look at and move forward with,” Edelston said. “We want to have a bilateral relationship with all Chambers.”

Louis Masry, Agoura Chamber president, told The Acorn , “After over 25 years as a city, our Chamber is glad that Agoura Hills has finally decided to support a Chamber of Commerce. Their attitude and record towards the business community speaks for itself.”

In the ongoing war of words, both sides claim to be a friend of the business community.

Edelston said the city’s business task force over the past two years has implemented a “buy local” program, relaxed sign ordinances, and kept business fees among the lowest in the region. The Agoura Chamber says it has been active in helping local companies obtain assistance from the Small Business Administration. The Chamber also holds frequent networking mixers.

Cities and their Chambers of Commerce across the Conejo and Las Virgenes valleys have had a history of cross-pollination. While the city of Westlake has teamed with the Thousand Oaks Chamber, the Agoura Chamber, following the encouragement of Soteras, has sought a close relationship with the city of Calabasas. The Agoura Chamber receives $5,000 in annual assistance from Calabasas, but nothing from Agoura Hills.

Individual businesses owners, meanwhile, often choose to belong to several Chambers at once.

The strain between Agoura Hills and its Chamber has been no secret to the community.

Edelston thinks it time for the city to move on.

“We’ve not had a formal relationship for six years, but the Chamber has had a link on the city website continuously,” Edelston said. “This is not a consideration of one Chamber over another, but based on the request of the (Thousand Oaks/ Westlake) Chamber to work with the city of Agoura Hills. The Thousand Oaks/Westlake Chamber has a significant presence in the marketplace, and they have a strong relationship with each of the cities they work with.”

Masry said the city’s decision is strictly political and based on lingering resentment over Soteras’s bid for City Council.

“Council members, instead of doing their job for the city, take stances against certain candidates who may be pro-business and may not go along with the council member agenda,” Masry said.

But he doesn’t see the city’s move to another Chamber as a problem. Because his Chamber has a healthy membership that includes businesses throughout the Conejo Valley, Masry said the Agoura Hills action was not a “big deal.”

“Nothing changes,” he said. “For us it’s business as usual.”

T.O. Chamber president Jill Lederer wrote in a letter to Agoura Hills City Manager Greg Ramirez: “Here at the Chamber, we have always felt that we represent the whole Conejo Valley, of which Agoura Hills is such an important part. Over 15 percent of our members are already in Agoura Hills and we think that a contract of services between your city and the Chamber would benefit all of us.”

Lederer said a partnership with the city would be a “natural transition” for the T.O. Chamber.

Agoura Hills Mayor Denis Weber met with the T.O. Chamber’s governmental affairs committee yesterday and said he was looking forward to hearing the group’s full proposal.