The Greater Brighton Chamber of Commerce is hoping a new partnership with the city’s economic development group can pull the venerable business organization from a tailspin of dwindling membership and declining revenues.

    The agreement, announced during an April 21 press conference at the Brighton Anythink Library, means the staff of the Brighton Economic Development Corp. will assume day-to-day business operations of the chamber but still report to the chamber’s 11-member board.

    It also means the chamber will not hire a new executive director to replace former executive director Karen Crawford. She stepped down in December after about a year on the job. Chamber board chairman Brian Lewis said the search for a new leader was complicated by the chamber’s inability to offer a commensurate salary.

    “The chamber is not in a financial position to offer a high quality individual a suitable salary,” Lewis said. “Of the candidates we interviewed that we thought might have been a good match for our organization, none were able to accept the salary we could offer with our current financial position.”

    That left the first-year chamber chairman with a tough decision but one he said was necessary for the chamber to regain its footing. The chamber has dropped below 300 members and estimated a $20,000 drop in membership dues this past year.

    “As a leadership, you have to make a decision,” Lewis said. “Are we going to continue to do what we’ve done and always get what we’ve got? Or are we going to make a decision to take this thing in the direction it needs to go? I’m prepared to lead the board, to lead the chamber in a direction that I think is going to be successful.

    “Right now, we are not on a path to success,” Lewis added. “We hear that from our members. We hear that from our community, and I want to change that. I think this is the best answer for this small chamber to get back on its feet, and I’m committed to that.”

    Lewis said he didn’t take the head chamber position without assurance that the 55-year-old organization was here to stay.

    “It’s my passion that the Brighton Chamber of Commerce maintain its own identity and continue to operate without being absorbed by any other chambers or any other organizations,” he said.

    In the announcement of the administrative merger with the BEDC, Lewis stressed the chamber’s continuing autonomy.

    “We will maintain our own individual boards, our own individual philosophy,” he said.

    He did allow that the merger would give the two groups an opportunity to study any possible overlap in programs and continue to promote a joint membership incentive program. BEDC is largely a vehicle for luring primary employers to the Brighton area, while the chamber is charged with supporting those businesses as well as existing businesses. Lewis also pointed out that the agreement is a year-to-year agreement, with the expectation that the chamber would be in better position to hire an executive director in the future.

    BEDC chairman Alan Lemons recalled the days when the economic development organization was an offshoot of the Brighton Chamber, and the circuitous path that brought the organizations back together.

    “We have a strong commitment to seeing both these organizations survive,”  Lemons said. “In this time of economic pressure, it makes sense to step up and help the chamber out when they asked for our help.”

    Brighton native Ray Gonzales has been the president and CEO of Brighton Economic Development since 2007 and will now assume the role of administrative head of the Brighton Chamber.

     Lewis and BEDC board chairman Alan Lemons could not provide any financial details on what the chamber would pay the four-person BEDC staff for the additional workload they will handle. Lemons said the agreement offered economic incentive for the BEDC to help the chamber grow membership and increase revenue.