The Chamber Club
The term 'The Chamber Club' can be assigned to any group of public officials who don't carefully consider conflicts of interest when yielding their authority to benefit an organization that they belong to or are closely associated with. Such relationships typically exhibit certain traits: bullying, lack of transparency, steamrolling, gatekeeping, gaslighting, and shutting out others' opinions. The term was coined in 2022 by a city official to describe a phenomenon involving certain elected officials (council, port official, commissioners) in Bremerton, WA and Kitsap Co., who were members of the local chamber of commerce or who helped facilitate certain fiscal partnerships to benefit the chamber of commerce.
"The chamber club seems to be orchestrating an arrangement that will result in the downtown association being more-or-less a funding conduit for the chamber of commerce."
The Chamber Club
The term 'The Chamber Club' can be assigned to any group of public officials who don't carefully consider conflicts of interest when yielding their authority to benefit an organization that they belong to or are closely associated with. Such relationships typically exhibit certain traits: bullying, lack of transparency, steamrolling, gatekeeping, gaslighting, and shutting out others' opinions. The term was coined in 2022 by a city official to describe a phenomenon involving certain elected officials (council, port official, commissioners) in Bremerton, WA and Kitsap Co., who were members of the local chamber of commerce or who helped facilitate certain fiscal partnerships to benefit the chamber of commerce.
"The chamber club seems to be orchestrating an arrangement that will result in the downtown association being more-or-less a funding conduit for the chamber of commerce."