Downtown Organization parts ways with director

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

The Santa Barbara Downtown Organization has been operating without an executive director since Aug. 1 when Mark Chaconas, the organization’s second full-time executive director resigned, according Bill Duval, the president of the organization.
“It just wasn’t a very good fit for either of us,” Duval said of Chaconas’ brief, five-month stint at the organization. “He wanted to explore some other things.”


Duval said Chaconas’ resignation had nothing to do with any specific difference he may have had with the organization’s board of directors, which consists of more than 30 members.
Duval also said Chaconas’ departure was “friendly.”
Chaconas was dubbed executive director of the 1,400 member organization on Feb. 28 and was the successor to Marshall Rose, who had held the position for 10 years before leaving to start the Hollister Brewing Company with his son Eric and friend Larry Kreider.
Before naming Chaconas executive director, Duval said at that time that the organization received about 35 resumes and applications from candidates.
In a story that appeared in the Daily Sound on March 1, 2007, Duval lauded Chaconas’ qualifications to take over the top job.
“We felt very fortunate to be able to select from such a qualified pool of candidates,” Duval said in that story. “In the end we felt confident that Mark has the history, the knowledge and the energy to lead our organization in a way that best serves local business and the aesthetic beauty of our city’s cultural hub.”
He said a search for a new executive director is underway, but that it won’t be handled the same way it was when Chaconas was selected. He said board members have been making suggestions about people who might be qualified candidates.
Before Chaconas took over at the Downtown Organization, he served as executive director for the Foundation for Girsh Park. Chaconas also acted as the director of Workforce Housing for Bermant Development Company and as the Chief of Staff for former Third District Santa Barbara County Supervisor’s Bill Wallace and Gail Marshall.
Phone calls to Chaconas were not immediately returned to the Daily Sound.
The organization began in 1967 to “meet the needs of business, professionals and property owners,” according to its web site.