Chamber Lease Agreement Divides Village Board

The Greater Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce will be leaving their Webster Street offices next year to move into Room 128 of Village Hall. It’s a deal months in the making, but for a few minutes on Monday night, it looked like it wasn’t going to happen at all.

For the past four years, the chamber (representing 104 local businesses, including Montgomery Patch) has been renting space from the , which in turn leases Dr. Neil Schlupp’s building at 200 Webster Street. That lease is up at the end of December, and Chamber President Jennifer Jones-Sinnott said they’re looking to save some money by moving someplace cheaper.

Hence the deal worked out with village leaders: the chamber will rent one of the vacant offices at 200 N. River Street for $150 a month, payable in two annual installments of $900 each. The chamber will pay $500 in 2012 for move-in expenses, and the rent will rise five percent each year.

There are other provisions as well—the village will pay utilities, including Internet, while the chamber will pay for phone service and use of the copier, and will waive the village’s $150 membership fee each year for the term of the lease, which expires at the end of 2016.

Jones-Sinnott called it a “win-win” deal for both the village and the chamber, as both entities often partner on projects like Montgomery Fest. However, the question of access to the building—who would have it, and at what times—nearly scuttled the deal entirely. 

Under the original provisions of the contract, two key cards would be issued to chamber staff: one to Jones-Sinnott, and one to Executive Administrator Pam Nagel, the chamber’s only office employee. Nagel currently works 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, and 8 a.m. to noon on Friday.

Initially, Nagel’s card would have allowed her to remain in the building after business hours, but Trustee Stan Bond raised concerns over security.

Village Hall, he said, is home to many sensitive documents, from building and zoning plans to personnel and payroll records, and disagreed with giving someone not employed by the village access to the building after hours.

“I’m not very comfortable having someone in that area who is not an employee of the village,” he said later. “It’s not a matter of trust, it a question of stewardship.”

But Trustee Bill Keck said he would be more concerned about security if the board were dealing with a community group, instead of the chamber of commerce. The village can monitor who is in the building, and keeps a record of key card use, he pointed out.

“We’re not talking about a motorcycle club moving in here,” Keck said. “This is our chamber of commerce.”

What happened next was as tense as any suspense film. The board took a vote on the agreement, and Trustees Bond, Pete Heinz and Andy Kaczmarek said no. Under normal circumstances, Village President Marilyn Michelini would have cast the tie-breaking vote.

However, under a quirk of the law, leases of public property require a supermajority of the board, according to Village Attorney Steve Andersson. So the deal failed, and under Robert’s Rules of Order, only those trustees voting no could ask for it to be reconsidered.

For long minutes, it appeared as if none of the three no-voters would move to revise and reconsider. Jones-Sinnott got up to answer questions, and pointed out that both she and Nagel had submitted to extensive background checks. Trustee Matt Brolley, who up until his April election was a member of the Chamber Board, argued that Nagel’s access to the office is an important part of her job, especially during events. 

And Keck called scuttling the deal “the height of hypocrisy.”

“All of the discussions we have had in this room about being business-friendly, and we can’t do this for our own chamber?” he said.

Bond bristled at this, saying, “There are other ways of being business-friendly than what we’re talking about right now.”

In the end, a compromise was reached: the chamber’s access was restricted to business hours (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday), and a provision was added to allow the chamber to get out of the lease, if they found a better arrangement. Kaczmarek motioned for reconsideration, and that agreement passed unanimously.

Jones-Sinnott admitted that she was taken aback by the security concerns, given the chamber’s history with the village.

“We do so many things in partnership with the village,” she said. “Montgomery Fest, the tree lighting, all the annual events that we work with the village on.”

Bond said later that he was concerned about how the chamber and the business community might take his objections, but said he was elected by the rest of the citizens of Montgomery.

“I am equally concerned about how enthused they would be with us getting into the renting and leasing business, and whether they want people who are not part of the village staff (in the Village Hall after hours).”

The lease between the chamber and the village is effective immediately, and the first $900 payment is due on Jan. 15.