Cox on College: ‘It’s Not Going to Take 10 Years’
Mix-up Nearly Costs Local Football Star His Scholarship
Young Compton Women Celebrate Emancipation From Foster Care at Cinderella Ball
Housing Slump or Not, Homes Still Slated for Alondra Landfill Site
Youngsters Play ‘Superintendent for the Day’
Gary
L. Toebben:
Our Community Must Focus on Reopening King-Harbor
Sister
City Conversation Sparks Criticism of Chamber
CRA’s
move to enter into relationship with Chinese city not popular with
Chamber of Commerce; officials say chamber not living up to its mission
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – A
move by the Community Redevelopment Agency to become a sister city
with a heavily populated city in China drew criticism from the Chamber
of Commerce, which in turn drew criticism of the chamber from the dais.
The city recently received an invitation from Yantai, a Chinese city
situated in the Shandong province, through the European-American Bureau
of Foreign Affairs Office, soliciting a sister city relationship, officials
said.
The Sister Cities program is part of the People-to-People initiative
launched in 1956 by then President Dwight Eisenhower. The program emerged
following World War II to forge international affiliations between
the United States and other countries. It allows individuals and communities
to participate on local, national and international levels to resolve
international issues and foster economic development activities between
countries.
According to information provided by the city, over 1,000 cities throughout
all the 50 states are linked with more than 1,600 foreign cities in
117 countries under various forms of the Sister Cities program.
Chamber board member Lorraine Cervantes said she spoke on behalf of
the chamber when she labeled the way the city is approaching the venture
as “odd” because typically a city’s chamber of commerce
is involved.
“It sounds odd, knowing how Sister Cities works, that the redevelopment
agency would be putting this on the agenda,” she said. “Which
means that it has to have motives contrary to what the basic philosophy
of Sister Cities is about. This is obviously for economic development.
And it says right here when Dwight Eisenhower did this, it was to take ‘people
to people.’ By letting the agency putting it on, it’s agency
to agency.”
She cited the fact that an organization other than nonprofit citizen
diplomacy network Sister Cities International extended the invitation
as a red flag.
“It is Sister Cities International that recommends, controls
and agrees to the sister city relationships. Not this organization,” she
said.
Additionally, Cervantes took issue with the size of Yantai, which had
a 2003 population of just below 6.5 million.
“Over six million. We have approximately 100,000. There’s
nothing ‘like’ about
that. I’m not saying it won’t work, but it will be very
difficult.”
In the chamber’s opinion, the city hasn’t done all its
homework on the program and the way it’s supposed to be administered.
“We’re not opposed to this, but we’re opposed to
the way that it is coming to you,” Cervantes said. “It
leaves a lot of questions.”
Upon making a request that the item be temporarily removed from the
agenda to allow for additional research, lawmakers took aim at the
chamber, which they say is not fulfilling its duty to the community.
Chamber membership continues to hover in the low hundreds, and the
services it provides are few and far between. Elected officials were
quick to point out that the organization is not up to par.
“I’d like to work with the chamber, but we’ve got
to get a functioning chamber up and running first,” said Councilman
Isadore Hall. “That’s what we need to be working on.
“First of all, the Chamber of Commerce should be at the front
of the table period.”
He added that he spearheaded the creation of the Business2Business
Breakfast Roundtable “because of the lack of presence of the
Chamber of Commerce.”
“If we’re talking about the Chamber of Commerce, then the
Chamber of Commerce needs to be a chamber of commerce,” Hall
said. “Our
businesses today suffer because the chamber is no up to speed.”
Businesses in and around the city currently do not have access to the
resources they should because the chamber is not fully operational,
he said.
“We are growing and flourishing economic development-wise, and
there’s
no reason why we don’t have the outreach to business that we
should have in this community at all, and I think the Chamber of Commerce
needs to step up.
“I don’t see why we need to bring this (the Sister City
resolution) back.”
Dr. Kofi Sefa-Boakye said it was not the agency’s intention “to
slight the Chamber of Commerce.”
“The fact is that China is becoming a major power… and
the timeliness of this request will eventually neutralize whatever
technicalities
that may be as we proceed in this process.”
Last year, the chamber went through some turbulence when former City
Manager Charles Davis was hired on to direct the business advocacy
organization. However, just a few short months later he left the position
amid a cloud of controversy.
ADVERTISE | CLASSIFIEDS | ABOUT US | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIBE | HOME
This site and its contents ©2008 thecomptonbulletin.com