The Greater Tampa Chamber of Com-merce closed 1999 with $2-million in net assets. Within a year, those assets vanished from the books. Who was in charge during the intervening 12 months? Who was responsible for this startling dissipation at what is supposed to be a local catalyst for high-wage jobs?
The obvious culprit is Jay Garner. After all, Garner was the Tampa chamber's president and chief executive for seven of the 12 months.
"Jay Garner's overspending put us in this position," said chamber Chairman Bob Martinez, the former governor.
An abrasive dynamo, Garner was a savior to some chamber members who thought the underachieving economic-development group begged for a swift kick in the ass. But the chamber's cautious and insular leaders quickly soured on Garner's take-no-prisoners style. He was unceremoniously tossed over the side in January.
Yet Garner could be too convenient an explanation for why the chamber has been taking on water.
Garner insists that the financial wounds were inflicted largely by his predecessor and by the same chamber leaders who have pinned their latest setback on him. "I have put Tampa behind me," said Garner, who moved to Atlanta after his chamber exodus. "But I don't want people smearing my name for things that I had nothing to do with." This face-saving tussle might seem irrelevant to anybody who keeps a safe distance from our local captains of industry.
But even the working stiffs of back-shop Tampa ought to pay attention. They won't get rich servicing magazine subscribers or credit cardholders for the rest of their lives.
The way out of our low-wage wilderness would appear to be high-tech, the path so well-trodden by the would-be Austins, Raleighs and San Joses of America.
Yet Marty Donsky, a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC's tech practice, said the Tampa chamber was amazingly slow to lose its long-held motto: "Let's get the next call center."
With mediocre public education and limited capital and labor, our area runs near the rear of the pack in the national tech hunt, even as the sector stumbled this year.
Will Lap Dance Land ever become as renowned for decent-paying silicon enterprises as our older breed of gyrating tourist attractions are for their silicone?
With few resources to nourish a high-tech presence, the answer could depend on how fast the Tampa chamber cleans up its act, including the balance sheet.
"Certainly, I would prefer to have a positive net-asset balance," said Kim Scheeler, who became the third chamber CEO in less than a year last spring. "That's what I'm used to and that's what we're going to work towards."
How deep is the hole?
The chamber ended up with an operating loss of nearly $1-million last year, according to an audit released in June. Its financial position took an extra hit when the non-profit had to restate $1.2-million in 1999 revenue. Together, the two blows knocked the $2-million net-asset balance down into minus territory by last Dec. 31.
Scheeler portrayed the restatement as "really an accounting situation." Don Barber, the chamber CEO before Garner, concurred. "In actuality, we weren't out any money," said Barber.
The chamber simply switched its financial-reporting system to an accrual method to comply with generally accepted accounting principles, Scheeler said. Deanne Roberts, the chamber's treasurer, claimed it was all by design. "Last year, we really invested in research and consultants," said Roberts. "We knew it would affect our reserves." That is not the full story, according to Garner.
Garner said he hired a consultant who found that, starting in 1997, Barber had been cooking the books a bit. Chamber members were billed for annual dues six months in advance, often across fiscal years. In other words, a member whose renewal date fell in March 2000 might get an invoice to re-up in September 1999. Under the old cash-basis accounting, the chamber could book the entire 2000 dues as 1999 income, a year head of time.
"They were robbing Peter to pay Paul," said Garner.
"We probably shouldn't have booked that," Roberts admitted. But she added that Barber did nothing wrong and the recent audit was "clean."
Garner said chamber leaders were dissatisfied with Barber before his consultant's discovery. Barber's 2000 departure was presented to the public as a retirement. But Garner charged that Barber was booted out. In recent interviews, Barber denied that. "I wasn't forced out," said a chuckling Barber. "Maybe there were some people who would have liked to see me forced out. But I left on my own." If Barber left on his own terms, Garner asked the Weekly Planet, why is he getting a severance through the end of 2001?
Garner said lawyer Rhea F. Law, a past chamber chairwoman, negotiated Barber's financial exit. Law said there was nothing she could say about the matter.
Barber acknowledged receipt of an unspecified monetary farewell from chamber members. "Whether I received a quote-severance-unquote is between me and them," he said.
If he got a golden parachute, Barber indicated that it was especially none of Garner's business. "The young man got into trouble down here and I guess he's trying to cover his rear end," said Barber.
Still, taxpayers have a stake in the chamber's fiscal ups and downs. In 2000, Hillsborough County and other governments subsidized the chamber to the tune of $520,725, about 14 percent of its budget.
So taxpayers might wonder about other hefty payments to departing chamber officials. Besides Barber's, Garner said he inherited another severance obligation to an ex-executive that extended into 2001. Garner's own deal expired June 30. Another executive has since been let go, reportedly also with a severance settlement.
Whatever deals persuaded certain chamber executives to go away quietly, Scheeler said they haven't been a drain on finances. He said the chamber should be back in the black during the second half of 2001.
Scheeler's chamber has tried to woo back old members who grew tired of the inertia and petty internal politics. A recent membership drive was either a surprising triumph or an interminable flop, depending on who is talking.
By Scheeler's count, 288 new members have signed up. Bank of America Corp. and TECO Energy Inc. donated $10,000 each to entice minority- and women-owned businesses, which are underrepresented at the chamber.
A less-disputed bright spot for Scheeler has been his fence-mending with the area's young high-tech Turks.
Donsky and Antoinette Rodriguez, vice president of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, have excoriated the area's staid chambers of commerce for clumsy courting of tech.
"The chamber has been woefully out of touch," said Donsky. After the visionary Harvey Schmitt was packed off to North Carolina's Research Triangle in 1994, Donsky said the Tampa chamber "kinda coasted."
Tampa finished 43rd in the Progressive Policy Institute's latest New Economy Index, a survey of how hospitable 50 American cities are toward tech.
Donsky summed up the message to Tampa: "We suck, big time."
While other Bay area chambers of commerce fume at such assessments, Rodriguez said Scheeler took up the challenge.
The Tampa chamber is helping create a tech "incubator" for start-up companies that need office space, capital and other aid until they get to market. This "downtown incubator" is intended to complement a University of South Florida laboratory for tech development.
"They didn't get defensive about our criticism," Rodriguez said of Scheeler's team. "The Tampa chamber has been the most pro-active."
Scheeler will lead a Tampa delegation on a high-tech tour of Austin next month. Other cities probably took that journey five years ago. But local geeks are less concerned about the belated timing than the signal that the trip sends.
"That speaks to Kim Scheeler's leadership," said Rodriguez.
Contact Staff Writer Francis X. Gilpin at frangilpin@weeklyplanet.com or 813-248-8888, ext. 130.
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2001.
