Long Beach chamber president steps down

Tannenbaum resigns amid rift in group over leadership issues

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Amid strife over leadership in the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, the organization’s president, Mark Tannenbaum, announced last week that he would step down on May 31.

Tannenbaum, who became president last year, attributed his decision to what he described as a group of “combative” members looking to oust him, and said that the “politicking, posturing, disruptive actions and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering has not only made it impossible for me to govern, but has turned it into a vexatious situation for me.”

“I spend a great deal of time working for this chamber and community,” Tannenbaum wrote in a letter to members on Friday. “I no longer receive any satisfaction from the job due to these circumstances.”

The move comes after a heated meeting in January, when a group of members, business owners and residents called for a change in leadership and complained that the organization had done little to support local businesses and was focused on wielding political power, claims that Tannenbaum denied. His opponents said that he ran the group as an “autocracy,” particularly after an alternative slate of candidates was proposed for the 2016 board of directors that Tannenbaum said was invalid, asserting that some of those seeking election had not paid their membership dues.

At a subsequent meeting, however, Tannenbaum said that an agreement had been reached to maintain the current board, revise the group’s bylaws — which have not been updated since 1982 — and work with the prospective new board members.

“At this point I have only remained on [to use] the chamber’s influence to help restore the much-needed missing medical services on the barrier island,” he said.

Tannenbaum’s resignation follows that of former president and board chairman Michael Kerr in March. Tannenbaum said that Kerr resigned in disgust “with the individuals who were creating this divisiveness.” Some other board members have also left the organization in recent months, according to Tannenbaum.

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