Jerralds vs. Hawthorne, Round Two

The Gulf Coast African-American Chamber of Commerce will be the subject of an upcoming community meeting. Pensacola City Councilman John Jerralds said last week that he would announce the meeting date soon.

During his remarks at a Pensacola City Council meeting, Jerralds clarified that the upcoming meeting would be “for” discussing the chamber and not a meeting “of” the chamber itself.

“Not ‘of the,’ but ‘for the’ Gulf Coast African-American Chamber of Commerce,” the city councilman said, explaining that he did not believe there to be an existing chamber.

With the upcoming meeting, Jerralds is continuing the conversation he began in March, when the councilman began questioning the legitimacy of the CGAACC. He contends that the organization has ceased functioning as a viable chamber of commerce, and has failed to adequately represent the area’s minority business community.

“If we’re going to have a Gulf Coast Chamber that is to survive it has to be reorganized,” Jerralds said during last week’s city council meeting.

George Hawthorne, current head of the existing CGAACC, has said that the chamber is functioning properly. During the March community meeting organized by Jerralds, Hawthorne said he found the event to be “odd” and the councilman’s position to be “rather ludicrous.”

Jerralds and Hawthorne engaged in some verbal sparring during the earlier meeting, with each accusing the other of a power-play. After telling the councilman that “this is not your kind of Mickey Mouse-foolishness,” Hawthorne was ejected from the meeting.

More recently, the current CGAACC head has said the chamber’s board would be meeting soon to discuss the body’s future. Hawthorne has yet to return calls requesting an elaboration on the chamber’s future.

Jerralds said last week that he felt it was time to discuss the state of the chamber and what shape the organization should take going forward. He said the Chamber’s phone number was not operable, and requested that anyone knowing Hawthorne inform him of the councilman’s intentions.

“I believe I have given them ample time to get their house in order,” Jerralds said of Hawthorne and the GCAACC. “At this point he stands notified.”

The city councilman said he would soon be announcing specifics on the upcoming meeting.