Sequim Chamber of Commerce audit finds red ink
By Diane Urbani de la Paz, Peninsula Daily News
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The chamber took in $214,116 in membership dues, and other income, including the city of Sequim's $44,000 for the chamber's operation of the Visitor Information Center at 1192 E. Washington St., and the city's $9,945 payment for "economic development" activities.
The chamber's operational expenses amounted to $224,358 last year.
That included $91,547 in payroll, and $17,573 in member services, according to the audit conducted by NFP Accounting of Bremerton.
The chamber's Irrigation Festival spending included $11,329 on the parade float, $4,817 on the festival queen and princesses, $12,674 on the logging show and $47,262 on "other Irrigation Festival expenses."
The costs of the May events totaled $110,671, while the income amounted to $100,521.
Chamber board president Bill Littlejohn did not, however, express dismay.
Instead he emphasized that his board is poised to hire a new executive director.
It could happen this week, Littlejohn said, when the board holds a special meeting to interview three finalists.
A selection could be made after the meeting on Thursday.
Step forward
The audit, expected to cost $6,000, is in one sense a step forward, Littlejohn said, that allows the chamber to move beyond recent trials.
The board ordered the audit after a group of angry business people, who named themselves the Concerned Chamber Committee, demanded it in February.
After the board fired executive director Lee Lawrence Jan. 18 — without supplying enough reasons to satisfy some chamber members — the CCC formed to call for greater accountability from the organization.
A months-long uncivil war between the CCC, led by Gil Simon of Sequim Village Glass, and the board led to the chamber membershipwide election of eight new board members in April.
Later, Littlejohn replaced interim board president Walt Schubert, who'd replaced Joe Borden, the president of the board that fired Lawrence.
When asked how the chamber might improve its financial health, Littlejohn said, "Hopefully we can increase our membership.
"There's things we can do . . . and I'm encouraged. I know we have a good board, a responsible board.
"We have a good staff," led by office administrator Jeri Smith and interim executive director Carolyn Cooper.
The current 12-member board is a blend of people from diverse professions: Borden, a retired military man who's chairman of the Irrigation Festival, real estate broker Ron Gilles, Olympic Music School director Deborah Rambo Sinn, Blue Whole Gallery artist Lizbeth Harper and attorney Ron Bell among them.
Simon angry
Simon, however, blasted the chamber and its board when he heard the audit results.
"The Irrigation Festival cost them 5 percent of their revenue," he said.
That's not the way I'd run a business."
Simon called the spending on the festival a misuse of his dues, and said he probably won't renew his membership.
Chamber dues range from $170 for a firm with one to five employees to $575 for 51 or more on staff.
"What good does the Irrigation Festival do me out here? How does it promote my business?"
Simon added that if the board "ends up with some storefront business owners on it," he might reconsider the value of belonging to the chamber.
He added that new board member Stephen Rosales, 2007's Sequim Citizen of the Year, is a stupendously kind man.
But "he's never run a business. What can he do for my business?"
Emily Westcott, a volunteer seen at a variety of community events through the year, was also elected to the board.
"She's planted a lot of flowers," Simon said. But to him, she's another non-business person.
In fact Westcott owned the Red Ranch Inn in Sequim for 23 years.
Rosales, for his part, responded to Simon's assertion by pointing out that he's president of the Sequim Food Bank, which he said spends $100,000 per year on fresh food and basic expenses.
People donate nonperishables, Rosales said, but the bank must buy meat, milk and bread.
"We're not a profit-making business, but we're a business," he said of the pantry at 144 W. Alder St.
Rosales retired from a career working for Texas state agencies with multimillion-dollar budgets; now he's a volunteer at the food bank and at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula.
His chamber board position is also unpaid.
Board president Littlejohn owns several businesses including Olympic Ambulance, Sherwood Assisted Living, the Lodge at Sherwood Village and the Fifth Avenue Retirement Center.
Together, they employ about 600 people, he said.
As for the loss incurred by the Irrigation Festival, Rosales said, "We have to figure out how to make it break even. The festival is a great thing for this town."
Simon said he has no plans to take the chamber board to task again.
"I've moved on," he said.
Simon's now active in the Sequim Sunrise Rotary Club, and said its many community service projects give him a "warm, fuzzy feeling."
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: July 19. 2008 9:00PM