I’ve heard of at least a couple of members of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce quitting over the chamber’s recent endorsement of Alternative 3 as their preferred route for the Interstate 26 Connector. There’s been lots of coverage of this issue this past week. Scrutiny Hooligans has the blow-by-blow here.
2 Comments
This is not too surprising, given the way the AVL Chamber works.
Rick Lutovsky, the CEO of the Chamber is one of the worst business people in America and he needs to be replaced at the Chamber of Commerce. For years, he has run the Chamber with an iron fist, playing favorites among Chamber members and especially the staff. He is loathed by so many people in the business community because of his short-sighted views and cronies all over. For years, he has had the Citizen-Times editors and writers in his back pocket (as if that matters much any longer). The Chamber wastes a lot of money on high (I mean really high for AVL) salaries and the new Chamber building (which is mortgaged to the hilt). The economic development group there does nothing and the Chamber gets money every year from the county for staffing it. Things really need to change at the Chamber–starting at the top. The same thing applies to Advantage West — they do very little other than posture and produce press releases about how great they are. Someone should look into both organizations.
Do you know who?