By Michael Aushenker
Special to the Lookout

June 13, 2011 – The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce ushered in its 2011-2012 Board of Directors Thursday night at the Fairmont Miramar.

Incoming Chair Ron Davis, owner of Santa Monica Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Subaru, was inaugurated at the organization's 86th Annual Installation Dinner.

Incoming Board of Directors for Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce ( Photo courtesy of Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce)

City Manager Rod Gould praised Santa Monica’s business community as “a very engaged community…We want to make this the best community in the world, and I’m very pleased to be a part of it.”

Gould also had some special words for Davis. “He’s a real leader. Ron has done so much for this community. The Chamber will be well served to have him as a leader.”

“The Chamber, your Chamber, has faced many challenges – a challenging economy, programmatic changes, decreases in revenue,” Tom Neary, the outgoing chair of 2010-2011 Board of Directors, told a packed Starlight Ballroom.

Nevertheless, he said, Santa Monica has enjoyed “another year of successful fiscal condition” and he praised the dialogue between Santa Monica’s businesses as the key to its ongoing success.

Networking was the order of the evening, as proven and aspiring professionals gathered throughout the ballroom.

The Chamber’s young professionals group, Professionals Emerging as Business Leaders (PEBL), occupied a lively table.

PEBL leader Megan Sheehy told Lookout News that her group enjoyed throwing their own mixers and taking part in the community's life philanthropically.

Chamber members were eager to share they ways their businesses propel the community forward into the future, like CODA Automotive, whose representatives, manager Matt Sloustcher and regional sales manager Marielle Seastrom, discussed their five-passenger, four-door CODA sedan.

“It works and drives just like a regular car,” Sloustcher told Lookout News, “but it’s not on a liquid diet.”

Unlike other electric-car prototypes, “we developed our car from the battery system up,” he said, adding that the car will hit the market by the end of 2011.

CODA has been based in Santa Monica, on Eighth and Broadway, since it opened its doors four years ago, said Seastrom.

Jenny Martinez, a sales manager at Le Merigot Hotel, characterized Santa Monica as “a community that takes pride and continually works to maintain its integrity, from being green to being at the forefront of the hospitality and tourism industry.”

Culver City High School student Gary Berryhill, 16, was among the eight Police Activities League (PAL) students who had volunteered to run the auction tables at the silent auction before to the installation dinner ceremony.

“I volunteer as much as possible,” said Berryhill, standing next to a framed photograph of the John Lennon Wall in Prague that was among the high-ticket auction items.

Berryhill added that he plans to take his community service higher. “I’d like to join the fire department. If not, the air force,” he said.

Indeed, Berryhill came to the right place if he wanted to network regarding the former.

The Santa Monica Fire Department was well represented, headed by Fire Chief Jose Torres.

Santa Monica’s top cop, Timothy Jackman, was also in attendance with his men.

During the dinner’s auction of a lunch with the fire chief and with the police chief, Police Chief Jackman jokingly dismissed the fire department, saying, “Anyone can ride a truck” and promising the auction winner a “ride in a police boat!”

The 2011-12 Executive Committee welcomed the following new members: Brad Cox of Trammell Crow Company,?Richard Lawrence of National Bank of California, Susan Inwood of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Mary Ann Powell – winner of the evening's Roy E. Naylor Lifetime Achievement Award – of Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier, Susan Gabriel Potter of Bob Gabriel Company Insurance, Ellis O'Connor of Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows and Dave Nelson of Tegner-Miller Insurance Brokers.