It appears the Oakley Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a City Council Candidates Forum on Tuesday, September 18; the only problem is that some of the candidates only found out about the debate through an email last night.
The Chamber has apparently played favorites early in the vetting process as a date was set by checking with a single candidate while others were given a choice to show up or not. Via communications, the email also did not state who the moderator would be. This is clearly unfair to new candidates while I would hope additional information will be provided shortly.
What the Chamber should have done was phone/email all candidates and get a consensus of when a good date and time would be. In speaking to multiple candidates, this was not done.
On a side note, the Chamber is actually not a good organization to host this type of forum due to the many conflicts of interest–specifically you have members and board members running for local offices while one candidate has a Breakfast with the Mayor each month.
I would encourage the Chamber to bring in an outside moderator in order to promote
Forum Information
When: Sept. 18, 2012 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm
Location: Oakley Recreation Building, 1250 O’Hara Ave, Oakley
Website: Oakley Chamber of Commerce
13 comments
This is why Kevin Romick must not be re-elected. It’s crap like this that makes the guy a crook!
Burk, you don’t refer to them at the “Chamber of No-Commerce” for no reason. Another thing they can’t get right. I wouldn’t have even noticed this unless you pointed it out. This really is not fair to any candidate think it would be geat if none of them showed up except for Kevin Romick. Imagine a forum with one candidate.
I am sure this is just an oversight and not a big deal. You are making a mountain over a molehill. They show, they show, they don’t, they don’t. Politics isn’t fair, its who you know and Romick used this to his advantage, can’t blame the guy. You would probably do the same thing.
This is the same Chamber that cancelled the Almost Festival and Citizen of the Year under Doug Scheer and others. Does it really matter? They have proven to be a self-interest organization under this leadership. Burke and I finally agree on something, this is just wrong.
Classic Burk, always complaining about something. At least you raised awareness to this fraud of a forum.
Conspiracy theorist much Mike? But you do raise some valid points that should be sorted out in the name of fairness. I would like to know which candidates you spoke with because it does not say.
My personal opinion, So what!! Do you really think people are going to show up for this? until we actually get people involved and voting this is a non issue. Look at the voter turnout for Measure S.
Ain’t that the truth Barbara. They probably get 10 people there if they are lucky, 11 with Burk writing everything down LOL
To Whom it May Concern — I am speaking NOT as a representative of the Oakley Chamber of Commerce but as myself, an individual who happens to only work at the Oakley Chamber of Commerce. The Meet Your City Council Candidate evening was created to simply educate the community ON ALL CANDIDATES, not just one! And we were in NO WAY trying to exclude any candidate. We were given one date in September to use the Oakley Recreation Building – September 18th. In hindsight, MY action to contact the one individual to ask if the 18th worked was an error – I did not think that this would cause some of you to yell, “Conspiracy Theory”. I am actually appalled that in today’s times this would attract so much attention when I believe there are so many other things that would warrant attention. I apologize for the drama or distrust this has caused and hope everyone knows this is not a reflection on the Oakley Chamber of Commerce. It was simply an innocent communication and not intented to hurt the reputation of the Chamber Board of Directors nor to taint the City Council election. There was no alterior motive to this action. The Chamber of Commerce has only tried to do the Community a service by offering a forum for the candidates to all get together and address questions the community might have. We have received 5 YES RSVPs to date. I have contacted the 6th candidate 3 times by email and once by phone call and am hoping the last candidate will be able to attend as well. I have also sent an email to our members asking them to send in questions they’d like the candidates to answer and have received only 2 responses so far. I encourage all of you to submit questions you may have but please realize we only have a little over an hour for questions and your question may not be picked as one of the top. I also encourage all of you to attend this evening (9/18) and ask your question during our Q&A time at the end. NO CANDIDATE will be given the questions ahead of time. You may submit your questions via email at [email protected] or by FAX at 925-625-4051. Again, I sincerely apologize for the drama this has caused and take full responsibility.
I am offended that you are offended. You made the mistake and you owned up to it. Good for you. But then you get on us who called you out on this. Say your sorry and move on, don’t blame others for looking into an act that was not right BEFORE you clarified.
For the mystery 6th candidate, I think we should know who it is since this forum is kind of a big deal and highlights how unresponsive they may be to the public if elected.
Reasons why God invented press releases:
1) To disseminate information in an equitable manner to all interested parties
2) To avoid confusion caused by failing to adhere to item #1
3) To avoid having to later put out PR fires for failing to adhere to #1
4) To avoid labeling others as conspiracy theorists as a result of a personal failure to adhere to #1
It’s s longer list, but those apply here. Not understanding how the Chamber’s image is helped by calling everybody else wrong on this instead of owning the mistake and just moving on. If I attend a Chamber function do I get chastised for fashion faux pauxs too?
Since we’re nitpicking now, consider using paragraphs in those PRs. It comes across as more professional. Your post as written is hard to read.
08/30/2012
REBUTAL: Oakley community – City Council Candidate Night / Almond Festival / Citzen of the Year
Part of the Oakley Chambers function is to help provide access to anything going on in the city. This year there are three City Council seats. This is a very important election for the City of Oakley.
Six candidates running for office. Many of whom may not be known to the citizens of this community. The Chamber Board, decided to provide a venue for the citizens to meet the candidates – to ask their own questions directly. Recently we hosted the Assembly Candidates, many attended, many liked it and thanked us for hosting the event.
Regarding scheduling this event, the Board decided not to ask each candidate individually. The office staff who works in the Oakley Chambers office – was directed to send out an email to ALL candidates at the same time inviting them to this event.
Kevin Romick, (Oakley’s Mayor) participates in a lot of chamber events, he’s involved with multiple duties and responsibilities. The office staff, however, took it upon herself, thinking as a courtesy, to check with the Mayors busy schedule before sending out the invitation. Unfortunently – This should not have happened; it was not approved or sanctioned by the Oakley Chamber of Commerce Board or Board President. We are dealing with this internally.
The Oakley Chamber Board members look forward to meeting the candidates – in order to make an informed vote.
This event needs a mediator. If you are interested, we would love to have you volunteer. Anyone who wishes to participate and help with the event in other capacities can call us at 925-625-1035.
We are always looking for help, positive volunteers to work with a variety of events. The Chamber Board Members can’t do these events alone.
Response: 2012 Almond Festival and the Citizen of the Year event.
Why the Chamber no longer is hosting these’s huge events. There are multiple reasons why this event was cancelled and some are listed below, mainly due to economics. There is nothing that the Chamber Board is hiding, no hidden agendas – from our good citizens in the City of Oakley. The reasons for cancelling these two annual events are simple – the math.
1. Financial – we barely broke even.
2. Lack of Participation. We have partnered with the City to make next year’s event bigger and better. If you wish to participant and partner with the Chamber please come and volunteer.
3. For the record, for the last Citizen of the year event, we sent out 12,500 ballots in the mail to Oakley citizens. This was to vote for their choice of Citizen of the year. We also advertised in the newspaper and the city board. There were zero ballots returned. Not a one. It was obvious, Oakley is not interested in the event and we cancelled it.
The Oakley Board and I as your President, is open and would hope that any concerns can be voiced directly to us, not through a social media tool. Every Oakley Board Member has jobs or businesses, families to support just like you do. We all work hard on your behalf. With no compensation, but many many hours of service. With the limited funds that are left over after the events, we’ve been able to hire a staff member to work part-time in the Oakley Chamber office.
Remember – it’s not what the Oakley Chamber can do for you – it’s what you as a positive hardworking volunteer and business owner can partner with the Oakley Chamber of
Commerce! Together – the Oakley Chamber of Commerce will remain strong and healthy.
If you have any questions – please don’t hesitate to call me directly at the Oakley Chamber of Commerce 925-625-1035, if you get our voice mail, I will call you back after work.
Thank you for your Support,
Doug Scheer
President, Oakley Chamber of Commerce
January 2010 to December 2012
08/30/2012
REBUTAL: Oakley community – City Council Candidate Night / Almond Festival / Citzen of the Year
Part of the Oakley Chambers function is to help provide access to anything going on in the city. This year there are three City Council seats. This is a very important election for the City of Oakley.
Six candidates running for office. Many of whom may not be known to the citizens of this community. The Chamber Board, decided to provide a venue for the citizens to meet the candidates – to ask their own questions directly. Recently we hosted the Assembly Candidates, many attended, many liked it and thanked us for hosting the event.
Regarding scheduling this event, the Board decided not to ask each candidate individually. The office staff who works in the Oakley Chambers office – was directed to send out an email to ALL candidates at the same time inviting them to this event.
Kevin Romick, (Oakley’s Mayor) participates in a lot of chamber events, he’s involved with multiple duties and responsibilities. The office staff, however, took it upon herself, thinking as a courtesy, to check with the Mayors busy schedule before sending out the invitation. Unfortunently – This should not have happened; it was not approved or sanctioned by the Oakley Chamber of Commerce Board or Board President. We are dealing with this internally.
The Oakley Chamber Board members look forward to meeting the candidates – in order to make an informed vote.
This event needs a mediator. If you are interested, we would love to have you volunteer. Anyone who wishes to participate and help with the event in other capacities can call us at 925-625-1035.
We are always looking for help, positive volunteers to work with a variety of events. The Chamber Board Members can’t do these events alone.
Response: 2012 Almond Festival and the Citizen of the Year event.
Why the Chamber no longer is hosting these’s huge events. There are multiple reasons why this event was cancelled and some are listed below, mainly due to economics. There is nothing that the Chamber Board is hiding, no hidden agendas – from our good citizens in the City of Oakley. The reasons for cancelling these two annual events are simple – the math.
1. Financial – we barely broke even.
2. Lack of Participation. We have partnered with the City to make next year’s event bigger and better. If you wish to participant and partner with the Chamber please come and volunteer.
3. For the record, for the last Citizen of the year event, we sent out 12,500 ballots in the mail to Oakley citizens. This was to vote for their choice of Citizen of the year. We also advertised in the newspaper and the city board. There were zero ballots returned. Not a one. It was obvious, Oakley is not interested in the event and we cancelled it.
The Oakley Board and I as your President, is open and would hope that any concerns can be voiced directly to us, not through a social media tool. Every Oakley Board Member has jobs or businesses, families to support just like you do. We all work hard on your behalf. With no compensation, but many many hours of service. With the limited funds that are left over after the events, we’ve been able to hire a staff member to work part-time in the Oakley Chamber office.
Remember – it’s not what the Oakley Chamber can do for you – it’s what you as a positive hardworking volunteer and business owner can partner with the Oakley Chamber of Commerce! Together – the Oakley Chamber of Commerce will remain strong and healthy.
If you have any questions – please don’t hesitate to call me directly at the Oakley Chamber of Commerce 925-625-1035, if you get our voice mail, I will call you back after work.
Thank you for your Support,
Doug Scheer
President, Oakley Chamber of Commerce
January 2010 to December 2012
Mr. Scheer, so is this a testimate to your leadership that the chamber cannot make money and you had to cancel events? How can you say the chamber will remain strong and healthy?
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