The cash-strapped Española Valley Chamber of Commerce has laid off its only employee.
Former executive director Deborah Torres said Board President Dan Maes and Treasurer Jeff Atencio told her May 7 the Board had held a private meeting and decided the Chamber could no longer afford her $30,000 annual salary.
“I hadn’t gotten paid in six weeks,” Torres said. “So I think the Board decided at that point it was best to try to run (the Chamber) themselves.”
Torres had been hired in January to replace Alice Lucero, who had held the executive director position since 2007 until she resigned in February to run for mayor. During Lucero’s tenure, the Chamber’s bank account balances had dropped from $34,682 in March 2008 to less than $5,000 by late 2009.
Lucero, the current mayor, refused to comment for this story.
Maes had said in February that the Chamber had “about $4,000” the month before Lucero resigned. Torres said she initially planned to re-construct the Chamber’s previous-year finances.
“There were just too many dots missing to connect them,” Torres said. “I eventually decided it would just be easier to move forward by figuring out what we really do have.”
It turns out the Chamber had even less than Maes and Torres initially thought. As of April, the Chamber was about $18,000 in debt, mostly in outstanding invoices and bills, Maes said.
Torres and Maes had said in February that Lucero had told them the Chamber had received $46,283 in dues from about 200 members. But Maes said Tuesday an audit of membership records found the Chamber only has 104 active members. And Torres said only $19,000 in dues revenue came in last year.
“The fact is, we have got to stop the bleeding,” Maes said, explaining the decision to fire Torres. “And we just couldn’t do that when our expenses were exceeding our revenues.”
Maes said the decision was based only on finances, not Torres’ performance. But Torres questioned why the Board decided to axe her now.
“I was taken aback,” Torres said. “I had already been volunteering my time for six weeks. Why was the situation suddenly different that they couldn’t keep me on?”
Torres has been volunteering since October as a campaign manager for Republican District 3 congressional candidate Tom Mullins, who is running against incumbent Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), she said. A statewide political blog publicized her political involvement in an article posted in late April. But Maes and Board member Kelly Duran said politics had nothing to do with dismissing Torres.
“I think in dealing with Northern politicos, any decision could be construed as a political one,” Duran said. “We agreed as a Board on what was best for the Chamber. There were no politics involved.”
Torres said Maes and Atencio told her the Board would be deciding in the near future whether the Chamber could rebound from its financial problems or be forced to close altogether. Asked to verify that, Maes did not answer the question directly.
“We’re trying to keep it positive,” Maes said. “The idea is to get the Chamber back on its feet, and we’ll be able to do that if we can let a positive attitude take over.”
Duran said the Board has not discussed closing the Chamber.
Until the Chamber climbs its way out of debt and regains its financial footing, Chamber Board members will take turns staffing the Chamber’s offices at the Convento, Maes said. Most of the Board’s 13 members have volunteered to work four hours a week until the Chamber can afford to hire a new director, Maes said.