The letter caused a fire storm in local political circles and Julius Pekar, executive director of the Merced County Chamber was accused of stirring up the controversy.

 Pekar said his intention was to bring an outside voice to the table when it comes to evaluating the progress of business growth in Merced County. As part of his plan, he originated the Business Roundtable, which is made up of independent business people who are working to bring business to the county.

 This group also has evaluated why Merced County has not been more successful in bringing new business to the county, despite the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in business development costs.

 The letter signed by the six chambers was most critical about the “One Stop Permitting” which the state has required of the counties for at least the last decade. Merced County still does not have One Stop Permitting.

 In a nutshell One Stop Permitting means that if a prospective business client were interested in starting a new business in Merced County, that client could go to one office and complete all the paperwork necessary to open that business.

 In fairness to the Board of Supervisors, when the subject was last brought up, the County Planning Department estimated the cost of having a building and personnel to provide One Stop Permitting and the cost was more than the county could afford.

 Merced County has suffered major job losses during the last two years since the housing boom collapsed and farm income, mainly from dairies has fallen to dismal lows. The loss of construction jobs was to be expected following the national trend, however Merced County has always had an agriculturally based economy.

 Not enough has been said or done about the loss of Merced County’s agricultural base. So many businesses are supported by this income which takes years to replace.

 It is also not surprising that when a man like Julius Pekar goes to the different chambers throughout the county, that his words receive an interested audience. For years it was these same small chambers who helped make county policy.

 Such chambers like the Hilmar, Winton and Atwater Chamber of Commerces were sounding boards for action which was needed. When Municipal Advisory Councils were set up largely controlled by the local supervisor, the chambers were to some extent undermined and lost some of their importance as policy makers.

 This was unfortunate because these organizations were made up of grass roots independent business and community leaders.

 Now it appears that there has been a resurgence and the local chambers want to become more involved in their own and the county’s destiny.

 The Business Roundtable is one way in which these chambers have decided to become more active. To be most effective the Roundtable will have to come up with solutions not only critical comment about Merced County’s lack of business progress, both industrial and agricultural.

 The county, on the other hand, needs to be receptive to independent thinking, that is, people who live here and want to help Merced County grow in a well planned manner.