Lee Grisson to Leave Helm of Chamber for State Job

Lee Grissom, president of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, has resigned to take a job with the Administration of Gov. Pete Wilson in Sacramento, several sources said Wednesday.

Grissom’s resignation after 17 years at the helm of San Diego’s largest and most powerful business organization had been rumored to be imminent for the last two weeks. He will take a new post, deputy chief of staff for economic development, and report directly to Wilson, said the sources who asked not to be named.

Neither Grissom nor the governor’s office would comment Wednesday on the job or what his duties will be.

City leaders praised Grissom Wednesday for helping to shape San Diego’s growth over a decade and a half of mostly boom times. He has been closely allied with Wilson, who appointed him last year to the Council on California Competitiveness, a group chaired by Peter Ueberroth that looked into California’s increasing difficulty in attracting and retaining jobs.

But Grissom had detractors as well. Earlier this year, a group of local businessmen led by real estate executive Robert Lichter set up a committee called San Diego Coalition for Business, an organization that one downtown observer labeled a “shadow chamber” and which Grissom himself regarded as usurping the chamber’s role.

Before being elevated to the chamber presidency in 1975, Grissom spent two years in the group’s planning division. Grissom’s resignation, which was handed in a letter to chamber chairman Mel Katz on Tuesday, is effective at the end of July.

The search for Grissom’s successor has already begun, chamber sources said. Possible candidates include Pardee Construction executive Mike Madigan and the chamber’s economic research chief, Max Schetter.

City officials generally were positive in their comments on Grissom Wednesday.

Paul Downey, spokesman for Mayor Maureen O’Connor, said relations between the two started off rocky but “improved over the last few years and reached a pinnacle with San Diego Gas & Electric-SCEcorp merger fight,” a reference to the city’s successful opposition to the utility merger. Grissom led local opposition to the proposal.

O’Connor also had praise for Grissom’s efforts to keep General Dynamics’ Convair missiles jobs in San Diego since the announcement in May that the division will be sold to Hughes Aircraft, Downey said.

Dan Pegg, president of the San Diego Economic Development Corp., the quasi-public agency that is charged with attracting jobs to the area, said Grissom has helped steer San Diego’s growth in a dynamic period.

“In the 17 years that he’s run the chamber, San Diego has seen dramatic changes, and he’s been in a position of taking the initiative to provide policy and direction for the whole region. He’s made a tremendous contribution,” Pegg said.