Huntington Beach chamber chief announces retirement

Jerry Wheeler said this week that he will be retiring from his position as Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive and moving to Sacramento in April.

Wheeler, 68, would have been with the chamber five years come June, when his contract expires, but he will be joining his wife, Celia, who works for the Orange County Division of the March of Dimes and has been offered a promotion in Sacramento.

Wheeler’s last day with the chamber will be April 8.

Wheeler leaves knowing that he righted ship at the chamber, which was experiencing low membership numbers and money trouble when he took his post.

In his role, he didn’t hesitate to try to influence city politics. In 2013, Wheeler started a political action team for the organization to give the business community a bigger voice in government.

During the 2014 election, the PAC endorsed Barbara Delgleize, Mike Posey and Billy O’Connell for the City Council. All three won seats.

“We felt that after the 2012 elections that businesses had gotten the short end of the stick, because we really didn’t have a voice out there,” said Patrick Brenden, chairman of the chamber. “A lot of us felt that it was time for us to step up and join the game and give pro-business candidates a better chance at success.”

During his tenure, Wheeler also advocated for repeal of the city’s plastic bag ban and has been a proponent of the highly controversial proposal by Poseidon Water to build a desalination plant in the city.

Recently, an official with Rainbow Environmental Services was selected to be the chamber’s Business Person of the Year, drawing criticism from community members upset over odors and dust from the company’s trash facility, which is located in a residential neighborhood near a school.

“This was going to be my last chamber, and at my age I have to think about what’s next,” he said. “My contract was coming up in June and was pretty sure it was going to get renewed … but it just seemed like a really good time for me to support my wife, so it’s off to Sacramento we go.”

Wheeler said the move might give him an opportunity to do some work in public relations. He added that 20 years of working for chambers of commerce is enough for him.

Before moving to Huntington Beach, Wheeler was the head of the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce in Oregon. He started his career in 1996, working for the Elk Horn Chamber of Commerce in his home state of Wisconsin.

Brenden said Wheeler’s ability to develop relationships with government officials, his professionalism and his “gregarious personality” have helped the chamber create a team of people who know how to grow the organization.

Brenden said the search for his replacement has already begun.

“We’ve launched a nationwide search, working through various chamber executive organizations around the country,” Brenden said. “If you were with a small chamber, you might not [search nationwide], but Huntington Beach is a pretty big chamber and it warrants taking a little more time to look around and look a large pool of candidates.”

Wheeler said that he would have stayed in Huntington Beach had his wife not taken her promotion with the March of Dimes. He added that he believes his time with the chamber has made a positive difference and hopes that his successor will do the same.

“We love Huntington Beach,” he said. “It’s a great community and we hate to leave it. It’s just another adventure for us in a new direction, and who knows where it’s going to take us.”