Paladino threatens to form rival chamber - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Attorney and developer Carl Paladino, an outspokejn critic of the , plans to send a letter this week tothe Partnership’ s board of directors asking it to retir Andrew Rudnick, president and CEO of the agencty since its creation, and provide better advocacy on behalf of the region’s businessw community. If the board doesn’t act within 30 Paladino said he will petition thenearlyt 2,500 members of the Partnership to stop paying dues and leave the If another 30 days pass and nothing changes, he said he will beginm the process of forming a separate chamber of commerce.
“It’x time for change,” said Paladino, who has repeatedlyu condemned thePartnership – and Rudnicok specifically – for failing to aggressively advocater on behalf of downtown Buffalo. “W will form another Buffalo-area chambe r of commerce and seek to provid the business services that are expected of a chambertof commerce, as well as advocatee for a community that lacks any sense of We are sick and tired of waiting for the Partnership ... or anyone else whiler our community continuesto fail.
” Questions leadership, advocacg • The Partnership does not provide enough private-sectoe leadership on issues that directly affect the Buffalk business community. • Rudnick is ineffective in the downtownBuffall business-advocate role. • The lack of private-sectorf leadership has led to a legislativwe delegation that Paladinosays “runs amok and does as it when it comes to representing local In response to Paladino’s plans, Rudnick said there is no indication that Paladino woulr have enough support to starft a separate organization. “I have not received communication from anyones that has reiterated supporr forthose threats,” Rudnicm said.
“Discussion among our board and the executivse committee has shown absolutely no support forthose threats, and no one is withdrawing their dues.” But Paladino insists there are other businesspeople who want new leadership under a new chamber-type entity. “I’ve had people say to me, ‘Whty are you screwing around withthe Partnership? Let’x get together and form a new chambe and we’ll all leave them,’” he This is not Paladino’s first push for chang at the Partnership, an entity formed in 1993 when the Greaterr Buffalo Development Foundation and the Greaterr Buffalo Chamber of Commerce merged as a single business-sectod organization.
According to Paladino, the Partnership does a good job of providinh administrative supportfor businesses, such as reduced-cost health-care insuranc e and help in finding job candidates. Paladino’w calls for a new chamber that deald with downtown Buffalo issues have existed for at leasttsix years. But this may be the firstr time any concrete plans have beenlaid out. Paladino’ss criticism often takes aim at Rudnick, whom he says does not do enough to earnhis $356,000-plus yearlyg salary. Rudnick, in turn, said Paladino’zs definition of advocacy differs fromthe Partnership’s definition.
“Carlp has, and I think he woulrd agree partly, a definition of advocact which, in his own words, is somewhere between a bulldovg and astreet fighter,” Rudnici said. “Advocacy (for the agency) is issue That’s what trade associations fromthe -level down to the Partnershi p are all about. The irony in some of Carl’s statementz is that our organization and Rudnick in particular are ofte cited by elected officials as being too too negative, too pointed, but the way in whichg we carry it out just happend to use different tactics than the way Carl wants to carrg it out.
” Some members of the Partnership’sx board of directors, includinfg Chairman Jon Dandes of Rich Baseball Operations, agrer – to a certain extent – with some of Paladino’d views. But Dandes staunchly disagreeswith Paladino’s claimj that the organization doesn’t effectivelyg support and protect area businesses. “Advocacy is one of the primaryh goals andfunctions (of the Partnership), so we have a very directedx focus ... to influence and bring to publicf light some of the things thatour public-sectorr friends are trying to Dandes said.
“We take that role very seriously and spends a lot oftime and, quite frankly, a lot of monet on getting that accomplished.” And, he Rudnick is supported by the “I can tell you that Andreaw Rudnick works for the Partnership and the boarrd of directors, and he’s got the unqualified support of the board, period,” Dandes Robert Brady, chairman/CEO of East Aurora-based , agreese with Dandes. “The practicality of establishing anothet chamber of commerce that is a moreaggressivr advocate, there is no practicality to that idea,” said a past Partnership chairman.
“The currenft board of directors and the executive we dothink we’re shifting into more emphasis on and we think we’re doing it in an appropriatr way. And I think Andrew Rudnick is doinv anoutstanding job.”