Russian River Chamber of Commerce to hire director

<p>The Russian River Chamber of Commerce is hiring an executive director, a position that has been vacant the past five years, marking the continued turnaround of an organization once rocked by scandal.</p><p>“It is very much past history, but the bottom line is when I took over as president, it was obvious to some of us on the board that having a full-time executive director was not a financially responsible thing to do,” said Margaret Kennett, who is also owner of Fern Grove Cottages.</p><p>The chamber in 2004 was stunned to find that its executive director of a year, Steve Fogle, had been embezzling money.</p><p>Fogle, who committed suicide in a Ukiah motel room in October 2004, was suspected of taking $38,000 and leaving the chamber $60,000 in debt.</p><p>The chamber hired retired Silicon Valley executive Jim Maresca as an interim, one-year executive director and Dawn Bell for a short time after that.</p><p>For the past five years, however, the day-to-day operations of the chamber have been handled by Kennett, other chamber officers, office manager Opal Pullaro and a part-time bookkeeper.</p><p>Kennett said it is now time to bring on an executive director to increase membership and work more closely with the business community.</p><p>The new executive director also will manage the Visitor Center.</p><p>“We are proud of the fact we can do this now, we have been extremely responsible,” said Kennett, who has been the chamber's president for five years.</p><p>The chamber now has 230 members and a $180,000 annual budget from dues and support from Sonoma County.</p><p>Kennett said they hope to have an executive director hired in the next four to six weeks. She declined to give the salary range.</p>