HispanicBusiness

The morning of May 6 began with promise but ended with one of the nation's largest Hispanic chambers of commerce in a shambles.

That fateful day, 16 board members arrived at the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to interview three finalists for the vacant chief executive job. A dozen people and a TV crew were already there.

Before the meeting even began, 13 community leaders and small-business owners bombarded the board with concerns -- financial instability, partisanship and a "tainted" CEO search. Many had long ties to the League of United Latin American Citizens, a civil rights group. They wanted the search stopped and four board members to resign.

They got their wish.

The chamber still is without a CEO and doesn't plan to hire one until next year. Within days of the May meeting, more than a third of the board quit. Allegations of a "smear campaign" against one CEO candidate and legal threats have filled the intervening months.

The three-hour meeting exposed an ugly side of the 70-year-old chamber: a leadership divide so deep that one former board member calls it "toxic."

To some, it's a matter of who controls the influential business group -- old guard or new guard. To others, it's a question of focus -- mom-and-pop or big corporations, a business agenda or social activism.

The power struggle continues today, threatening to damage the chamber's strong national reputation and alienate dues-paying members and corporate sponsors.

The chamber is rebuilding with a handful of new directors and investigations of its spending practices and CEO search. To critics, it's not enough.

Small-Business Focus

Small businesses play a key role in fueling the nation's economic recovery. More than 3 million Hispanic-owned companies nationwide generate nearly $400 billion in annual revenue. Dallas has about 25,000 businesses owned by Latinos.

The chamber provides training, resources and financing to 1,700 members. Some think the chamber caters too much to large corporations. (Two-thirds of its members have fewer than 50 employees.)

Its mission is "to develop, promote and protect Hispanic business ... and serve as a united voice for the Hispanic business community."

Nearly everyone agrees that the chamber should stay true to that mission. They disagree on how and who should lead it.

The chamber has had previous leadership conflicts: In 2006, it lost at least three board members. A national CEO search led to the hiring of Cici Rojas later that year.

Under her tenure, the chamber increased its annual revenue to more than $2 million, raised more than $1.3 million for college scholarships, became a Department of Transportation small-business procurement hub and started a young professionals' group and a microlending program.

Rojas left in April to become executive director of the Kansas Republican Party.

CEO Search Begins

In mid-March, the chamber posted the CEO job online and created a nine-member committee to scout for candidates.

The committee chose three finalists: Shirley Cochrane of Garland, managing director of SDC Enterprises, who is overseeing a Census Bureau project; Sergio Garcia of Grand Prairie, who was the country director in Nicaragua for the International Republican Institute; and Octavio Hinojosa, head of a Hispanic nonprofit group in Washington, D.C.

Hector Flores of Dallas, director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Dallas Independent School District and past national president of LULAC, was the alternate.