One of the agreements would be on a fee-for-service contract between the two agencies. In private discussions throughout the summer and early fall, representatives from the city and Chamber have hashed out a proposed deal wherein the city would pay the Chamber about $20,000 a year for the Chamber to provide services to visitors and tourists and distribute information about the city and its businesses, according to Chamber Executive Director Kristin Davis and Mayor Nick Streit. The city would no longer fund Chamber services of general business promotion or information requests from residents, she said.

The other agreement would be on a market-rate, month-to-month rental agreement for the Chamber to occupy the city's historic McWilliams House building on Saratoga­Los Gatos Road, where it is currently located. Also in private discussions, the city has proposed that the Chamber pay about $1.64 per square foot on a monthly basis in rent, Davis said. For the 480-square-foot house, the rent would be about $790 a month, an amount the Chamber would be willing to pay as long as the city makes necessary repairs to the old building, she said. She added that the city has already begun such work.

Streit confirmed Davis' information and added that the only thing remaining was for the two to agree to a format for the rental agreement. The agreement, he said, would be good until June 30 but would allow the Chamber to leave the building with 30 days' notice.

The Chamber has also agreed to log its information distribution activities so the two groups can use that information for a possible renegotiation of the fee-for-service contract next spring, to ensure that both sides are being treated fairly, Streit said.

The proposed agreements are on two of the three areas about which the city and Chamber have been negotiating since last spring. The other agreement would be about the Chamber-sponsored annual street festival Celebrate Saratoga! Davis said the Chamber would like to come to an agreement with the city on that item soon, as well, as they are already beginning to make plans for next year's event, held in September.

Last spring, the city council made it a priority to come up with a new agreement with the Chamber to replace one that had expired several years ago. That agreement allowed the Chamber to occupy the McWilliams House for $1 a year in rent, at a value the city had calculated at $33,000. The city also paid the Chamber about $3,400.

In return, the Chamber provided almost all of the city's business- and city-promotion services, including Celebrate Saratoga!

Since the two made that previous agreement, however, the city has hired a full-time economic development coordinator to take over some business promotion activities. And, last spring, the Chamber chose to endorse March ballot Measure E, a bond for West Valley College that included funds to build a stadium on the campus. The city was adamantly opposed to the measure.

While the council denies that the conflict between the two over Measure E led to a punishment of the Chamber for its endorsement, the conflict nevertheless served as a catalyst for the council to take steps toward creating a new agreement.

Among the requirements, although never written and signed, placed on the Chamber by the council were that it open its meetings and adhere to the rules of the Brown Act, California's open meeting law. The city also required that the Chamber place council members on its advisory board and executive committee in order for the Chamber to continue occupying the house at a below-market rate. The Chamber refused to meet those requirements. But last month the city council approved negotiating a market-rate lease with the Chamber for the house.