Business leaders from the San Fernando Valley joined a group urging the Tribune Co. to make no additional staff cuts at the Los Angeles Times. Valley Industry and Commerce Association President Brendan Huffman and David Fleming, past chair of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., joined former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce President Gary Toebben and Los Angeles Police Commission Chairman John Mack in the letter dated Sept. 12 sent to the Tribune board of directors in Chicago. The letter urged the Tribune to keep the L.A. Times “a vibrant paper of local, state, national and international importance, and to resist economic pressures to make additional cuts which could remove it from the top ranks of American journalism.” Tribune acquired the Times in 2000 when it bought the Times-Mirror Co., long privately held by the Chandler Family. Since that time, the Times newsroom has been cut by at least 200 journalists and the amount of space devoted to news reduced by over 70 pages per week, the letter stated. More, not less, news coverage is needed of the civic, political and cultural life of the region for it to function well, the letter stated. “We strongly urge the Tribune Company to make an even larger investment in the Times and resist the financial pressures to make cuts that would harm the paper and, in the process, harm our region,” the letter stated.