Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Editorials

Town Chamber takes an evolutionary step

Sheri Lewis, the new executive director of the Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, will be doing her Chamber work out of her business office at 1-800 Procolor Inc. Visitors who want to check in with the Chamber of Commerce will continue do so at a desk in the Bank of America building.

Clearly, the organization that represents the Los Gatos business community still has a ways to go.

Nevertheless, the changing of the guard is a significant event in the evolution of the local Chamber.

Following the demise of the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce in 1995, the Los Gatos business community was left with no official voice to represent its interests in the town. Although the Downtown Association spoke for downtown merchants, that organization, for all intents and purposes, also went out of business.

Under the auspices of the San Jose Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce (now the Silicon Valley Chamber), a fledgling Town Chamber was born several months later. An autonomous board of directors guided the organization through its first hesitant steps. But its parent organization was never out of sight.

Silicon Valley Chamber staffer Linda Asbury eventually took on executive director duties for the local Chamber, but she shared her time with the parent organization. Asbury left recently to head the Cupertino Chamber.

During her tenure, Asbury helped get the local Chamber on its feet; she, with a strong board, helped the Chamber move beyond struggling baby steps. The Town Chamber now boasts some 150 paid members; monthly mixers are lively and well attended. Several times, the Chamber has taken a position on issues before the Town Council--and its voice has made a difference.

Although Lewis is an independent contractor rather than an employee of the Town Chamber, it is significant that her sole focus is on the Los Gatos Chamber; she has no staffing duties with the Silicon Valley Chamber. The local Chamber and its new executive can now grow and become as influential as their ambitions permit. That's good news for the Los Gatos business community.

Getting on the Bus

With its unanimous vote last week to recommend a shuttle service for downtown employees, the Planning Commission made a commitment to ease downtown's chronic parking problems. In the past, proposed solutions--including paid parking in public lots--ended up dying because business owners ultimately feared the plan would burden their employees. This is a plan with employees in mind.

Commissioner Joe Pirzynski was right on target when he said of the plan: "Sometimes you hear people talk as if Highway 9 was a big river with nowhere to cross."

Crossing that river makes a lot of sense.

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