WG business association loses its president

Naegeli: Current board members not committed

By Kate Carter

Karen Naegeli, president of the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association resigned Sept. 21 after six months in her post saying she doesn't agree with recent decisions made by the association's executive board.

Naegeli announced her resignation in a letter addressed to District 6 City Councilman Ken Yeager. In the letter, she said the board's decision last month to cancel the Sept. 8 Founder's Day festival was done without her vote and in disregard for her request for a general meeting of the association's membership.

In her resignation letter she also listed the goals she had set when she became president of the association, which included auditing the association's budget, trimming Lincoln Avenue's trees and bushes and attracting more membership to the association. She said the executive board voted against allowing her to conduct outreach on the association's behalf.

"Although I have a strong commitment to the businesses in Willow Glen, my commitment has not been mirrored by the current WGBPA board," she wrote. "The Willow Glen Business and Professional Association needs to be responsive to local businesses and the community, and I don't think it has. Unfortunately, I am not able to carry out my goals as president."

Naegeli told The Resident she didn't have anything to add to what she stated in her letter.

The association represents businesses in Willow Glen's Business Improvement District, on Lincoln Avenue from Coe to Minnesota avenues. Businesses in the district pay fees to the city which are used by the association to sponsor programs and events to enhance the business district, among them the Founder's Day and Dancing on the Avenue street festivals.

Yeager said the letter was delivered to his office Sept. 21 and he read it late that afternoon. He said he then asked the San Jose Office of Economic Development, which is charged with overseeing business improvement districts, to investigate Naegeli's concerns and report back to him this week.

"I'm concerned about some of the issues she has raised," Yeager said.

He said he didn't know if the other association board members knew of her resignation.

Association Vice President Chris Carris said he didn't know Naegeli had resigned.

"If she felt that way, she should have talked to us," he said. "There's always been an issue between the board and her."

The association said it cancelled this year's Founder's Day festival because of reduced revenues from June's Dancing on the Avenue and fewer event sponsorships. The board also said it didn't have enough volunteers to run and staff the event.

The association also had trouble finding business owners to participate as board members and run for its elected positions earlier this year. Almost all of last year's elected officers were reelected last February for another one-year term, although most had said they would prefer not to serve again. One exception was Naegeli, who took over for former president Bob Waligore, and whose Able Printing business is not located in the business improvement district.

The executive board has been meeting in closed session since the election, board members said, because they have not been able to find people willing to be appointed to the general board. However, because the association oversees the use of special assessment district funds, closed meetings could be a violation of the Brown Act, California's open meetings law.

The association early this year also initiated an investigation into a possible embezzlement of its funds. Waligore submitted documents to the San Jose Police Department that alleged that former association business manager Demetri Rizos took more than $11,000 over the past several years. The case is under investigation by the Santa Clara CountyDistrict Attorney's Office.

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