Chamber letters drawing fire

Mark R. Madler

Burbank Chamber of Commerce leaders are taking heat from airport

critics for the way they urged members to lobby City Council members

to support a proposed development agreement for Bob Hope Airport.

An e-mail from Chamber President Bill Jacot included examples of

letters members could send that an anti-airport expansion group found

objectionable.

None of the chamber members were forced into contacting the

council members, and it is a standard function of a chamber of

commerce to speak out on issues that affect business and the

community, Jacot said.

“There are people reading far more into this than was the intent,”

Jacot said.

The complaints from Burbank Voters & Taxpayers members became

public Tuesday night during the City Council’s public hearing on the

proposed agreement between the city and the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena

Airport Authority.

The criticism was aimed at how the suggested letters were scripted

and that they didn’t seem “real,” Carolyn Berlin, one of the group’s

founders, said.

Also, the chamber may have overstepped its boundaries by getting

so involved especially since there are members who do not live in the

city, Berlin said.

“A local chamber of commerce is supposed to be about the

community,” Berlin said. “The community needs to make this decision,

not people who [leave the city] every day. It’s about the people who

live here. It’s about the people who do business here.”

Some of the suggested letters contained references to “gadflies,”

“loose cannons who are allowed to say whatever they wish,” and “the

endless parade of council meeting regulars [who] try to whip up

everybody on the Airport issue.”

The content of the example letters was based on comments heard

from chamber members or their employees, Jacot said.

Council members preferred to stay out of the dispute.

“I think they are sorry about the way it was handled,” Council-

woman Stacey Murphy said. “We should be focusing on the issue, and

that’s too bad [we’re not].”

Councilman Todd Campbell said that he received “cut and paste”

letters from both sides and it wasn’t just limited to the chamber’s

members.