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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Northridge Article Full of Problems

Northridge Article Full of Problems I read (Staff Reporter Slav Kandyba’s) your recent article (“Northridge Says It’s Leaving Valley Chamber Alliance,” May 10) with interest, first, and with utter amazement, ultimately, at the utter scope of your misquotes of our interview. First, you attributed to me the comment that “Northridge’s decision was based on money.” That is exactly the opposite of what I said. What I said was that the decision could not have been based on money, since the dues are so minimal only a few hundred dollars per year. Attributing a move like this to a couple of hundred dollars is both insulting to Northridge and to my own intelligence. Neither of us deserves that. You exactly reversed what I said. Your next comment is just plain not understandable, that I “refuted the idea that VICA is competitive.” To make it even more confusing, you quoted me as saying that VICA was competing with chambers. Obviously, VICA is a very competitive and important voice for businesses in the Valley. The UCC and VICA are allies in many legislative and community endeavors and are both strategic partners in the Economic Alliance for the San Fernando Valley. UCC greatly values our relationship with VICA. In many ways, we are walking down the same road to make things better in the Valley. Thus I would never, and did not, say that VICA wasn’t competitive. That’s silly and I know better. Again I was misquoted 180 degrees from factual. You almost quoted me correctly on VICA’s competitive role with chambers, in that I told you that the comment you attributed to Northridge that they had turned away from UCC to other entities for support did not make sense. That is because some of the likely “other entities,” such as VICA, were actively soliciting membership from the same membership base upon which Northridge relied. I explained that UCC does not do that. Our members are the chambers and we would not dream of competing with them in that manner. Finally, you misquoted me about Wayne Adelstein’s suggestions re improvement of UCC. What I told you is that Wayne approached me with several suggestions for improvement when I first took over UCC as its chair. I told you I implemented nearly every one of his suggestions, so I was surprised at his current stance, especially since neither Wayne nor the Northridge Chamber had recently been participating in UCC activities, so they would not be in a position to know whether or not those improvements had indeed been implemented. In fact, Wayne’s ideas’ implementation had occurred. The only missing link was Wayne’s and Northridge’s involvement to see that. Your article grossly misquoted me, made me out to be hostile to VICA, Northridge, Wayne and whoever may be allied with them. None of that is even remotely true. If this was an attempt at character assassination, congratulations, because your misinformation has succeeded. If this was just negligence, the outcome is the same. William F. Powers Jr. Chatsworth

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