Whose Chamber of Commerce is this?

The Tracy Chamber of Commerce is an entity devoted to promoting — and improving — business in Tracy. Then why, oh why, did it choose to host its annual awards gala in French Camp?

The River Mill in French Camp will get the business of Tracy's own chamber. They didn't have it at a gussied-up community center, catered by a quality local joint like Shorters or Bartoni's. They didn't even choose an area chain like Texas Roadhouse. Nope, French Camp was the obvious place to go.

There are only two logical explanations for this.

The first is that the chamber doesn't want to be accused of playing favorites. But it shouldn't be that hard for the "best and brightest" business minds in the city to come up with a way around that, right?

The second explanation — and my personal odds-on bet — is that someone tore a page from the phone book, taped it to the wall and threw a dart (poorly) to decide where to have the gala.

Either way, the chamber missed out on a chance to improve the fortunes of a Tracy business and in the process contributed to the image that someone responsible for driving an economic engine is asleep at the switch.