As he’s stepped into his new role, the newly-appointed interim CEO of the Greater Irvine Chamber of Commerce promised transparency but did not offer much specifics as to how he would lead the organization in light of Orange County prosecutors looking into how it spent millions of dollars in tax money earmarked for promoting hotels and tourism.
Dave Coffaro, a strategy consultant who is helming the chamber after CEO Bryan Starr left in January to “pursue a new opportunity,” said that his focus is to ensure chamber members “thrive” so that the “community benefits.”
In November, the city of Irvine was asked by Deputy District Attorney Avery T. Harrison for about 20 years’ worth of records regarding the Hotel Improvement District, established in 2002 to generate taxes for a tourism bureau. The chamber was brought in to administer the bureau, called Destination Irvine, which promoted hotels and tourism in Orange County’s third most populous city.
Local hoteliers, suspecting that too much of the money went to chamber overhead, persuaded the city early last year to create a special board to take over management of the taxes. The money is now administered by a seven-member board consisting of city and hotel officials, which found that the chamber was charging 60% to 70% in overhead, according to City Manager Oliver Chi.
When asked how the chamber will manage without the overhead, Coffaro said he “doesn’t have all the answers to the questions about our revenue.”
“What I do know is really a simple philosophy as we begin our 45th year,” he said. “We’re doing exactly the same as we did in our first year, which is focusing on our members.”
The DA’s questions are an invitation for conversation, he added.
“We’re a very transparent organization,” Coffaro said. “My view is that we want to share where we are, where we’re going, how we get there, how we continue to earn relevance with our members.”
Hotel groups had alleged…
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