Cam Fentriss, FRSA LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL
A very well-known organization is the Chamber of Commerce, known for its advocacy on behalf of business in the community. It looks like maybe something about that mission has changed in the last two or so years.
For associations, I think it’s fair to say there are a few general rules. First, you do not take in membership money and then fight against a group of members to help another group of members. Second, if there is an issue that is controversial among your members (some support, some oppose), then the association stays out of it – neutral, no comment, no involvement. With that in mind, you do not take any steps, especially public comments on the record, in support of some members to the detriment of other members.
In 2015 in Tallahassee, the Florida Chamber of Commerce expressed its support for legislation creating an exemption from construction licensure for apartment maintenance workers. You may recall this is the effort to allow apartment maintenance employees to do certain electric water heater and HVAC repairs without a license so long as they complete some flimsy national apartment association training (fox guarding hen house kind of thing). FRSA opposed this (still does) because we are quite sure it is just the first step in creating an exemption for all work done on apartments. Apartment maintenance needs more qualification, not less.
The Chamber’s support was supposed to help large apartment complexes, but it was obviously – very obviously – going to anger and work against all construction companies. I am sure the Chamber has both apartment complex members and construction company members, and I am pretty sure the Chamber is well aware of the types of businesses that belong to the association. I am also sure that the Chamber knows the difference between when an issue is controversial or not. If it doesn’t and it needs a little instruction, the biggest clue is the fact that no one is going to ask you to speak up or speak out on an issue that is agreeable to all. Based on that, they could correctly conclude that a request to speak up is for the purpose of tipping the scales in favor of one side over the other.
So why would they agree to help one member when it is obvious that one or more other members are on the opposite side of the issue? I have no idea.
I thought 2015 was a fluke until I watched (May 24, 2016) the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce stand up in support of a fuzzy math proposal for “economic development” after hearing from more than 20 roofing and construction interests speak in opposition explaining that the proposal was for economic poaching (or exchange), rather than economic development (or expansion). Once it heard that a large number of local businesses are opposed, the Sarasota Chamber could have withheld its not-yet-made comments against local business, but they did not do that – they just plowed forward with support for a specific project with a general cheer for
economic development. It was amazingly ignorant.
When asked how/why the Sarasota Chamber was at the meeting and speaking on the proposal, the answer was that it was asked or informed by the economic development council – not by any of its members looking to support the proposal. That is even worse.
It was obvious to the Sarasota Chamber that at least three separate and local construction-related associations, Sarasota/Manatee
Roofing & Sheet Metal Contractors Association (SMRSMCA) at the forefront, had announced their attendance and opposition. So it
should come as no surprise that the reaction to the Sarasota Chamber’s support was that at least one person from each of the three
associations said that they were going to strongly suggest resignation of membership from the Chamber for any respective members who are Chamber members. What else could the Chamber possibly expect in return for their actions?
Anna Cam Fentriss is an attorney licensed in Florida since 1988 representing clients with legislative and state agency interests.
Cam has represented FRSA since 1993, is an Honorary Member of FRSA, recipient of the FRSA President’s Award and the Campanella Award in 2010. She is a member of the Florida Building Commission Special Occupancy Technical Advisory Committee, President of Building A Safer Florida Inc. and past Construction Coalition Chair (1995-1997)
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