For the second time in seven years, a prominent South Bay business group has found itself embroiled in a leadership dispute that has led to the sudden ouster and replacement of multiple board members.
Just like a similar board shakeup in 2019, this latest episode at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley involves demands for financial transparency and a bitter dispute over how board members were fired. The turmoil follows several organizational setbacks that left the chamber nearly defunct, including the loss of its nonprofit status and a steep decline in membership.
Now some San Jose business leaders are calling for a public audit of the chamber, a decades-old organization once known for its energetic advocacy work supporting Latino entrepreneurs and its busy calendar of social events. The organization’s critics said such support is especially essential in the current climate, as San Jose’s Latino-led businesses face increasing strain from a federal immigration crackdown that has chilled local commerce.
“It seems to me that there’s a cover up going on,” Manny Diaz, one of six board members voted out in a September membership meeting, told San José Spotlight. “So what is it? I don’t know, because the information is not coming. There’s no accountability.”
Diaz and three former board members told San José Spotlight they were shoved out by the chamber’s longtime Executive Director Dennis King. According to Diaz, a small business owner who served on the San Jose City Council and in the California Assembly, their ouster came after the board threatened to fire King over claims he stonewalled requests for the chamber’s financial records.
In response, King is accusing the former board members of neglecting their duties and allowing chamber activities to stagnate. He claims the leaders were voted out at the September meeting by rank-and-file chamber members who believe a new board might revive the mostly dormant organization. The meeting also saw nine new board members voted in.
The ousted board members include Diaz, Margie Sanchez, Joel Velasquez, James Duran, Maria Elena Casillas and Nancy Islas.
Casillas declined to comment. Islas did not respond to a request for comment.
Accusations and counter-accusations
The chamber’s bylaws require the board treasurer to audit accounts and present an annual financial report. Former board members said King’s refusal to release financial documents made such reports impossible, limiting their ability to provide effective oversight.
King, who joined the chamber in 1998, denied withholding financial documents and blamed the former board members for the missing disclosures.
Against the long running backdrop of leadership turmoil, the chamber’s member services and social events have tapered off, its website is gone and it lost its nonprofit status three years ago, according to state records. Officials cited the chamber’s failure to fully comply with state registration requirements.
King and the chamber’s current board declined to share financial documents with San José Spotlight. They also did not address Diaz’s demand for an audit.
King said with new leadership in place, the Hispanic Chamber is on its way to a rapid comeback.
“The big picture is that for the first time in years, we had a group of local small business owners that were enthused about making the chamber relevant to their business lives,” King told San José Spotlight. “It’s very simple. It’s not a conspiracy. There’s no secret meetings. We’re just moving ahead without the old guard.”
A contested membership meeting
Diaz said King called the Sept. 10 membership meeting, which included a board election, just as the board was preparing to fire him. More than a dozen people attended.
Several former board members have cast doubt on the legitimacy of the meeting and board election. They contend the gathering was held in violation of the chamber’s bylaws. King counters that the board is required to hold membership meetings every year, but had failed to do so for the past three years.
Of the six ousted members, only Diaz and Sanchez attended the meeting. Diaz said they arrived at the chamber’s office 20 minutes early, but another meeting was already underway. They were blocked from entering, Diaz said, and informed by King that the gathering was private and unrelated to the board election.
“We realized that the purpose of this private meeting was to coordinate a preferred slate of board candidates by King,” Diaz said.
King denies the meeting was private or that the pair was blocked from entering.
Both sides said Diaz and Sanchez ultimately participated in the membership meeting. The assembled body voted 24-2 to remove all of the current board members and elect nine new members, King and other chamber officials said. A subsequent vote named San Jose entrepreneur Mayra Perez board chair and president. King held onto his job as executive director.
Diaz and Sanchez also questioned the membership status of the people who voted at the meeting, given the chamber had already lost virtually all of its membership.
“He pulled them out of a hat,” Sanchez, an entrepreneur and former tech manager, told San José Spotlight. “(King) was using every tool he could possibly use to get us off the board.”
King said attendees had joined the chamber recently after a number of Latino entrepreneurs reached out to him directly, expressing an interest in joining and reviving the organization. Chamber officials declined to provide additional information about their current membership rolls.
Long-term decline
The Hispanic Chamber’s newly elected board leaders blame the organization’s stumbles on their predecessors.
“Most of us concluded that the previous board members did not demonstrate accountability or engagement with the community the chamber was established to serve,” reads a joint statement from King and five current board members — Perez, Yajaira Rubio Machado, Vanessa Rosas-Marquez, Laura Quiroz and Mireya Espinoza.
But the ousted members said King consistently blocked their attempts to revive the chamber, including proposals to launch fundraising drives and membership programs. They also allege King resisted repeated requests for financial disclosures.
“I did not have access to the accounts, and to get the information, I would need to talk to Dennis,” Duran, who leads a tech staffing company, told San José Spotlight. “So there is no mistake that he was the control point for our finances.”
King asserts board members had unfettered access to review the chamber’s three bank accounts.
The recently ousted board members also questioned the chamber’s relationship with the Enterprise Foundation, a nonprofit that has provided financial and administrative support for the chamber. King serves as the foundation’s executive director as well.
“Given this close fiscal and operational relationship, the (chamber’s board) has a clear fiduciary obligation to review, understand and approve financial and advocacy activities conducted on behalf of the chamber,” Diaz said. “During my tenure, this level of disclosure and board engagement did not occur.”
The Enterprise Foundation’s most recent publicly available tax filings from 2021 show the organization raked in $2.8 million that year — operating at a surplus. Records show King received $97,060 as the foundation’s executive director.
Echoes of 2019
The recent board shakeup holds striking parallels with the events surrounding the removal of a previous board.
In 2019, six prominent Latino leaders were kicked off the chamber’s leadership body. They told San José Spotlight at the time they were fired after questioning the chamber’s financial standing and demanding to see its budget. King responded to their accusations by claiming the spotty financial disclosures resulted from the negligence of the then-ousted board members.
King said those board members failed to pay their dues and missed too many meetings.
Now, King and the current board said the chamber is focused on rebuilding trust with the community as it relaunches services and programming. King argues the allegations from the ousted board members have undermined this revival.
“I’m sorry that this is going through this again,” he said. “It’s embarrassing. It’s unsettling. It’s certainly been demoralizing for the team that has worked really hard.”
But Mimi Hernandez, a longtime Latino business leader who formerly worked for King’s foundation, said the Hispanic Chamber will need to earn trust through greater financial transparency, including a public audit.
“We have an obligation to the Latino community, especially our businesses, to make sure that our leadership is held to standard and to make sure that there is a genuine voice,” she told San José Spotlight.
Contact Keith Menconi at [email protected] or @KeithMenconi on X.
