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Pat Patrick, Chairman and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, is just days away from his final day of work and is happy to leave the organization better than he started.
But it wasn’t easy. During his 21-year tenure, Patrick has weathered the Great Recession, pandemics, political skirmishes, and various business challenges. Nonetheless, Patrick says it was the best job of his life.
Patrick was hired in 2001 from 100 candidates. It was an amazing feat because he had never worked for a Chamber of Commerce before and had never been a CEO. Sherry Cotta, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce at the time, told reporters the board wanted someone who “knows people and understands communities.” They also wanted someone who could rebuild the organization. “His marketing background and experience will take us to another level,” Cotta told a Stockton Records reporter.
His 20+ year term makes him the longest serving president and CEO in the history of the Chamber of Commerce.
At the time, the boardroom was the CEO’s Chamber and served as an interim role until someone was found by the late Bill Dauer. When he was hired, Patrick was told the Chamber of Commerce had 750 members. Once he got the job, he found that the Chamber of Commerce had only 500 dues-paying members. The organization’s finances were also under some stress. He said that in two years he had five different accountants and the problem did not go away.
But eventually Patrick narrowed the membership roster down to reality and stabilized the budget. He then grew a Chamber of Commerce and Local Business He set out to create a vision for growing the community. But “growth” is a battle word for many at Lodi. Because growth will inevitably lead to city expansion, annexations, more housing, and super Walmarts.
Megamart had already made its mark on Lodi, but was looking to build a larger store in a shopping center on the street that had not yet been built. There was a grassroots movement of citizens and businesses to take action, which resulted in Measure R being put to the ballot. The initiative sought to limit the size of retail projects to his 125,000 square feet.
Patrick said the floor had taken a stand against the move, saying at a public meeting on the project, “Ideally we want this fight to take place outside the free market and not on the floor of the city council. If the bill passed, it would have derailed the Walmart project. It wasn’t.
Patrick said that back in 2003, the House of Representatives was unwilling to voice its opinion on politics. However, things changed in 2006 when the organization decided to begin expressing support for political parties such as Lodi City Council. “We were standing up for business,” says Patrick. “We want people elected who stand for the business,” he says.
Homelessness has been a concern for the Chamber of Commerce and its members for years. Patrick is an advocate for action, pushing the city to find solutions to its growing problems. But he also dealt directly. He says he encountered people sleeping in and around the Chamber and had to hose off some of the mess left behind.
A man of faith, Patrick approached some of the homeless people he met, introduced himself, handed them a Bible booklet, and told them it was okay to sleep by the building. Of those he approaches, he says he will never see them again. “It makes me sad,” he says of the homeless situation.
One of Patrick’s most difficult times was 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic. The room stared at an existential challenge.
Most businesses in town had to close. The chamber itself had to be closed. There was no ribbon cutting. No mixer. There are no committees. The world changed overnight.
This has taken a toll on the chamber’s two major fundraising efforts, the semi-annual street fair and the farmers’ market. The street fair was canceled for his 2020, and the farmer’s market was significantly scaled back and held in the church parking lot that year. As a result, the Chamber’s budget has been cut by at least 50%. “We were in survival mode,” says Patrick. The organization has gone from he had 8 employees to he has 3. Patrick became the Chamber’s sole full-time employee for nearly a year. “It was very difficult,” he says.
But the room will survive. Most members continue to pay their dues, and Wells Fargo Bank has allowed them to skip mortgage payments for six months, he says. By the spring of the following year, the clouds of the pandemic began to dissipate. Beloved street fairs and farmers markets are back, but with damage. Some vendors were afraid to go back, and downtown restaurants still had outdoor seating, taking up parking spaces.
One of Patrick’s greatest achievements, he says, is the development of Vision 2020, the “Economic Vision Project for the City of Lodi,” which was completed in 2014. This was a collaboration of 70 volunteers from the Chamber of Commerce, City and Community. The final report established a set of city economic and community goals.
The success was such that Vision 2020 won the 2015 Program of the Year Award from the Chamber of Commerce Executive Board. Notably, Lodi won the award by beating major cities like Irvine, Denver and Phoenix.
Patrick is retiring as the Chamber prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary on January 26th at Hutchins Street Square. To focus on what the Chamber has accomplished in its 100-year history, the Board decided to do away with things like the annual Civic Awards. The Annual Meeting on the 26th will provide a historic review of everything the Chamber has done to date and who made it happen.
Patrick was born in Sapalpa, Oklahoma and graduated from high school in Oklahoma City. He holds a BA in Marketing and Business from the University of Texas. After school, he worked for various companies, including Safeway, Texas, an advertising firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, Assistant Marketing Tyson as his manager, He Foods, and Foster Farms.
After moving here in 1988, Patrick and his wife Susan fell in love with Roddy. He worked at Goehring Meats until the factory was sold. Coincidentally, he also served on the United Way board of directors with Bill Dauer, who was interim CEO of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce. He encouraged Patrick to apply for his job at Roadie.
He says he is grateful to have been chosen for the position.
Patrick also served as Chair in 2017 and served two terms on the Board of the Western Association of Chambers of Commerce.
He was awarded the Leadership of Excellence Trophy by the organization in 2020. This is an honor his mentor Bill Dauer received in 1963 when he was CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
“It was overwhelming for me to win the same award my mentor received,” says a grateful Patrick.
He says he and his wife Susan will be staying at Lodi. With his Chamber career coming to an end, Patrick simply says the time has come. He says he looks forward to finding “something equally rewarding” in his retirement.
Steve is a former newspaper publisher and lifelong Rhodian whose column appears in News-Sentinel most Tuesdays. Write to Steve at aboutlodi@gmail.com.
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