Local Chambers Threaten Lawsuit Against S. Kingstown

Some local chambers of commerce may be heading to court chambers following a controversial name change.

On behalf of the chambers of Narragansett, , Charlestown and Greater Westerly-Pawcatuck, the law firm of Adler Pollock & Sheehan sent a letter to the South Kingstown chamber, asking it to rescind a decision to change its name to the Southern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce.

The letter states the change will “inevitably mislead and deceive the public” and the four chambers may seek legal action if South Kingstown does not rescind the change.

“A lot of time and effort was put into this decision [to send the letter],” said Karla Driscoll, executive director of the North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce. “The four chambers have been talking a lot in the past week and a half. This was not a rash decision.”

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"Our membership is not limited to South Kingstown businesses, with about 30 percent of our base coming from outside of the town," said Joe Iacoi, Executive Director. "We have many common members with other chambers."

"We all have people out of town," said Driscoll, who pointed out that North Kingstown has serviced members in Exeter (a town without a chamber of commerce) for years. "If they had done what Westerly does, with calling it the 'Greater Westerly-Pawcatuck' chamber, then I think it would have gone over better."

Iacoi opted not to comment on the threatened legal action, but the Chamber’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Joseph Viele stated Thursday that he will be holding a meeting of the board next week to determine their next course of action regarding the lawsuit.

“Until the board has time to digest this it’s not fair for one person to speak for [them], Viele said. “I will say that this wasn’t an aggressive tactic to market into other people’s markets.”

Viele added that his chamber has for years reached out to other chambers, often conducting joint events and offering membership discounts to businesses who are already members of nearby Chambers of Commerce.

“The intent was never to try to take over another chambers territory. We’ve done some cooperative things with other chambers in the area, and our mission statement says we serve our members in Southern Rhode Island, and there are some communities in Southern Rhode Island that don’t have Chamber representation. Now, I know some people are disputing that but we think we have a good product and were going to expand that product into places that don’t have representation, for instance Exeter.”

Viele said that the idea of the Chamber’s name change has been discussed, formally and informally, for about two years now within the halls of South Kingstown’s Chamber but not officially with other Chambers.

“I wouldn’t say it was relatively well known that we were changing our name, there may have been mention but nothing ever official,” Viele said.

Viele is the owner of Liberty Rentals on Kingstown Road in Peace Dale, and is a member of four other Chambers of Commerce in addition to his own. Three of those four - Narragansett, North Kingstown, and Westerly-Pawcatuck – are part of the group threatening a suit against South Kingstown.

“I wouldn’t be writing a check every year, if I didn’t think those other chambers didn’t do a good job.”

When asked if Viele would stop supporting the Chambers who are in opposition to South Kingstown’s name change, Viele said no.

“I have one [check] due that I will be paying shortly. I think that writing a check to the Narragansett Chamber is a good business decision because they do a good job for me. The SK chamber name change is a separate issue.”