Environmental attorney Stephen Holzer has been involved in chambers of commerce since the early 1990s. In 2004, he would become chair of the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce. And, after serving as chair of United Chambers of Commerce, an umbrella organization founded in 1977 for all of the chambers in the San Fernando Valley, the Ivy League-educated lawyer assumed the role of UCC chair at the start of this year. The Business Journal spoke further with Holzer, of Encino-based law firm Lewitt, Hackman, Shapiro, Marshall & Harlan, about his goals for United Chambers, the challenges the group faces and a controversial decision it made this year. Question: What are your goals for United Chambers as chair? Answer: The main goal, which has been consistent for, not just me as chair but with previous chairs, is strengthening the voice of business in state, county and local government decisions. We represent 21,000 businesses, and they employ 387,000 employees. They are not directly members, but, rather, they are members of our various chambers. The other thing is that we are a resource for our (22) member chambers. What we do is serve as an umbrella organization. If one chamber is doing something that it might benefit another chamber to know about, we serve as a conduit, so each one knows what the others are doing. We put on every year the Small Business Awards and one thing that it shows is the extraordinary things the chamber members are doing. For example, we honored some people who were involved in volunteer programs helping disadvantaged people or other charitable causes. Other chambers get to witness the fact. Q: How difficult is it to represent chambers over such a wide geographical area? A: The main thing is always to keep in mind that we are an umbrella organization, not the decision-making body for the individual chambers. Not all chambers have the same interests, (for example) the project to revitalize the L.A. River. Different chambers in the Valley have different views on that depending on where they’re located. Spending upwards of $2 billion may not be of great interest if you have a chamber far away from the L.A. River. Being an umbrella organization, we’ve reconciled the differences and issued a statement to get the project done. This is where we need to be mindful. Where there are conflicts, we need to find a compromise position among the chambers, which I think we’ve been reasonably successful in doing. Q: You have a background in environmental law. Has that come into play during your time as chair? A: We have the whole issue of Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solution Act of 2006, which requires, or is intended to cause, carbon emissions to be reduced by various percentages as years go by, essentially getting back to1990 levels. It’s helpful to look at that Another is a plan to ensure that trucks going in and out of Long Beach ports also reduce their contribution to pollution. The problem we have with the plan as presented is it essentially eliminated independent truckers. I was able to help them see that keeping independent truckers would not be a major contribution to the concern about pollution. Q: What would you like to make sure the public knows about United Chambers? A: We do several things each year that are very important to advance the interests of the business community. One of those is that every year a delegation from United Chambers goes to Sacramento and meets with legislators and representatives of the governor as part of general Chamber of Commerce Day. Another thing every year we’ve been doing is to present the mayor’s lunch, which is usually in the fall. We have the Small Business Awards breakfast. We also from time to time have a legislative reception where members of our chambers can get in touch with aides of legislators in Southern California. We have a very, very active government affairs committee that meets once a month. Every month, we have a general assembly meeting. We have been very successful in inviting high-profile people to come and address the chamber members and take questions and basically deal with the headlines of the day. Something very unusual for us is that in 31 years we have never endorsed a candidate for office, and we did this year endorse Bernard Parks for county supervisor. Even though his district doesn’t touch the San Fernando Valley, his seat is a swing seat in terms of legislation. We think that Parks has shown that he’s willing to stand up and take an unpopular position if he thinks it would be good for the economy overall. Q: How effective have your partnerships with the Economic Alliance and the Valley Economic Development Center been? A: I don’t know if I would point to anything that’s a huge success. It’s a combination of the little successes. Many people starting a business don’t survive throughout the first couple of years in setting up their business. These organizations can provide the financial and training wherewithal in trying to set up businesses. Every year or so the Economic Alliance presents an overview of the San Fernando Valley economy to the extent that businesses looking to open up a new facility can look at the overall trends of what’s happening in the community. It’s another source of information. It’s a great partnership. It’s a series of small successes that amount to a big success. Q: How does membership in a chamber benefit a business? A: California is facing a very challenging economic time. From our perspective, business is over-regulated and is subject not only to a high degree of regulation but, in many cases, regulations that potentially conflict with one another. The reason why business should belong to chambers is because, from our perspective, they are in a regulatory minefield in which it’s very easy to run afoul of what the government requires in various areas. The chambers provide a one-stop shop for business information. SNAPSHOT: Stephen Holzer Title: Chair, United Chambers of Commerce Age: 60 Education: Bachelor of Arts in political science, Yale College; law degree from Yale Law School Most Admired: Elvis Presley. What Elvis did was something that historians appreciate but people at the time did not. He brought black music to white America. In doing that, he opened the door for an incredible number of artists,Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, the Olympics, Little Richard,who before were very confined in their audience. The only time I have seen him perform live he was incredibly charismatic. He had an incredible voice with an incredible range and incredible talent. Career Turning Point: In the early ’90s, I realized that it’s not enough for me in terms of satisfaction to merely interpret the law. It was also important to have a hand in shaping the law. You get very little opportunity to do that in the daily practice of law. To expand working in the law, I got into organizations like the chamber of commerce and the San Fernando Valley Bar Association. Personal: Married with three children.
