Chamber Studies Bias Complaint : Business: The group’s attorney is investigating charges that its chief executive officer has unduly favored young, white female employees.

The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, the designated voice of the city’s business community and a leading player in efforts to draw such major events as the Super Bowl to Pasadena, has been shaken by allegations of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.

An investigator is looking into charges that the chamber’s chief executive officer, Bruce Ackerman, has displayed favoritism toward a close circle of assistants characterized by one critic as “young, white females with whom he often shares social and recreational activities and sometimes close personal relationships.”

Ackerman, 46, a dashing figure in the city’s business community since he took over administration of the 1,700-member chamber in 1987, would not comment on the charges on the advice of his lawyer, although he said he welcomed the probe.

The charges, first raised by an employee in a formal grievance, were supported by several other employees and a board member in interviews with The Times. They criticized Ackerman’s behavior toward women, saying that he has asked female employees to share hotel rooms with him on business trips in order to cut travel costs and that he has caressed them in job-related situations.

One member of the chamber board said she witnessed Ackerman massaging a female staffer during a meeting.

“It isn’t fair to put an employee who depends on him for her job in a position of saying, ‘Don’t touch me,’ ” the board member said.

The woman, who said she had complained about the behavior to board executives, asked that her name be withheld because of a board decision to refer reporters’ questions to Chairman Steve Ralph.

Ralph said that the investigation by the chamber’s attorney, Carolyn Carlberg, should be completed in a few weeks. “We’re seriously concerned,” he said. “We want to be fair.” Ralph declined to answer specific questions until the investigation is done.

Ackerman also said in declining to comment that there was an additional constraint in that the allegations involve personnel issues.

“I have to wait for the results of the independent investigation,” said Ackerman, who reportedly earns slightly more than $100,000 annually. “I wholeheartedly support the investigation. I welcome it with open arms, because I know what it will show.”

Female employees who are close to Ackerman said they had also been advised by an attorney not to discuss the chamber with a reporter. But Program Manager Kathi Spaulding denied that any sexual harassment took place in the office.

“I’ve been here for five years, and I’ve been treated very fairly,” she said.

The investigation, which was ordered by the chamber’s board of directors, was prompted by contract employee Allison Bedell, who has filed a grievance with the chamber board, charging that she was the victim of employment discrimination. Bedell, who is black, said that despite her superior experience and qualifications, she was passed over for a managerial position in favor of a younger white woman whose previous experience was as a cocktail waitress.

Bedell, who earns commissions for bringing in new members but receives no job benefits or regular salary, says she recruited most of the chamber’s minority-owned businesses in the last three years, as well as dozens of non-minority members.

“It’s frustrating to know that you don’t have the same opportunities that some other person does, be it because of age, race or sex.” said Bedell, 42, in an interview in her lawyer’s office.

Chamber members and former employees generally speak highly of Bedell’s abilities and of her commitment to the chamber.

“She’s an extremely valuable employee, a very educated and sophisticated lady, who has worked very hard for the chamber,” said Ann Mooney, former director of the Transportation Management Assn., a chamber affiliate.

In addition to her work at the chamber, Bedell was a saleswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California for eight years, and she ran a business providing services for developmentally disabled people for two years.

She said it was only recently that she concluded that she was the victim of overt discrimination.

Bedell and two other women, both white, were potential candidates last year for the job of membership manager, she said. Ackerman appointed Kary Garner, a personal friend of Ackerman’s who briefly lived in his home after a divorce, according to fellow employees. Bedell said she initially had decided not to complain because a white woman had also been denied the job.

“I felt, with both of us having received the same treatment, for once race wasn’t the issue,” she said.

But Bedell said she recently learned that Ackerman, whose only discussion of the job with her was to inform her of Garner’s appointment, had called the other candidate into his office to ask if she were interested in the job. At that point, Bedell said, she decided to file the grievance.

The woman, asking that her name be withheld, confirmed Bedell’s version of the events. She said Ackerman unwittingly revealed that he had never considered Bedell for the job. “When I said I wasn’t interested in the job, Bruce said something like, ‘Good, in that case I won’t have to open the job up to outside candidates.’ ”

Ackerman then appointed Garner without inviting other employees to compete for the job, she said.

Under a recently written procedure, grievances are referred either to Ackerman or his second in command, General Manager Janet Whaley.

Although Ackerman would not comment on the specifics of Bedell’s complaint, he said that he had recently hired a black woman as the chamber’s liaison with Old Pasadena. The chamber’s staff of 12 also includes two Latino men, one of them a part-time employee, he said.

The chamber is frequently praised by local business owners for its aggressiveness in protecting business interests.

“It’s probably one of the finest chambers in California,” said Richard Plotkin, president of Pasadena Vacuum & Sewing and a board member. “Just walk in there and take a look. Feel the atmosphere. It’s an exciting place to be. You can just feel it bubble.”

The chamber was accredited for the 20th consecutive year last year by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and praised by Richard L. Lesher, president of the national organization, for continued strong leadership in Pasadena.

Ackerman is often cited as a good day-to-day administrator with an easy grasp of the issues facing the business community.

But some employees and former employees said that under Ackerman’s leadership, the chamber has become a “clubby” place, with the chief executive officer at the center of a lively social scene. Parties and shared vacations are a frequent topic of conversation in the office and at staff meetings, they said.

It is those who participate, most of them under 30, who are most readily promoted, the former employees said. “Some people were part of the family and some were not,” complained one woman, who said she resigned because of her disgust with the lack of professionalism around the Colorado Boulevard offices.

Most of those who talked about Ackerman’s relations with his employees asked that their names be withheld because, they said, they feared legal action or they were concerned about being blacklisted for jobs.

One who did talk for the record, Stephen Downs, worked at the chamber for 16 months as a computer expert. Downs said that the social scene frequently spilled over into the office. “The thing you got to know real quick was that there was a tight in-group,” said Downs, who left the chamber last fall.

Downs said he had observed Ackerman taking liberties with female employees. On one occasion, he said, he had seen Ackerman in conversation with a young woman as he fumbled with her blouse. “She had these pearly buttons on her blouse, and he was going down her front, fingering these buttons one by one,” Downs said. “Her face was scarlet.”

Downs said that the woman has since returned to her hometown in the Midwest.

Other employees recounted similar experiences. One woman said she had rebuffed Ackerman when he sought to stroke her hair or her neck. “I looked at him as if I’d slap a lawsuit on him,” she said.

The board member who said she had witnessed Ackerman massaging another employee said she had assumed that Ackerman and the young woman were involved in a relationship. “Later I found out that they didn’t have a relationship,” she said. “Perhaps one could say that the woman shouldn’t allow it. But I would say that a manager just doesn’t do things like that.”

Downs and others said that it was common knowledge that Ackerman asked female employees to share hotel rooms with him as a cost-saving measure. “Most people were on pretty low wages, but they’d want to go to these things (conferences), hoping it was a career move,” Downs said. “Bruce would say: ‘Sure, I’ll pay for the expenses. But here’s the catch: you have to sleep in my room.’ ”

Chamber Operations Manager Jan Maez, who has been to conferences with Ackerman, said a lawyer had advised her not to discuss whether she was required to share Ackerman’s room. “That doesn’t mean it’s true,” she said.

The board member who criticized Ackerman said three employees told her about the practice, including one who had shared a room with Ackerman.