Message from the President & CEO

Elisa Bubak

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

The recent uptick in COVID-19 cases in San Joaquin county has given us at the Chamber pause. While opening businesses and restarting our great economy is a priority for us, so is the safety of our community. Our goal is to remain open during this time to best serve our members and our community, but with some added precautions to remain compliant with state and county guidelines. Before visiting us here in Downtown Lodi, please take a moment to view the added precautions below:

Ribbon Cutting ceremonies and Re-Opening Celebrations will be postponed. While the situation was less bleak a few weeks ago, we scheduled one for this Friday celebrating Mimosa's Gourmet (the newest restaurant in Downtown Lodi) and this will continue as planned, but attendees MUST wear masks to be admitted and be socially distanced.
Our doors will remain open to the public, but please wear a mask upon entering our lobby. Appointments with our staff are highly recommended, and all meetings will be held in our conference room to allow for social distancing.
We have upped our cleaning and sanitizing routine- we sanitize door handles between every visitor, along with the tables and public spaces. Please do not take offense.
If you peruse our lobby, please feel free to take any of the magazines or business cards you find. But we ask that if you touch an item, please take it with you.
Any attendees to the Lodi Certified Farmers Market must wear a mask. Our staff will ask upon entering, and we cannot provide them. We will have a vendor selling masks available in the event you do not have one.
Committee meetings will go back to Zoom meetings or conference calls for the time being. We appreciate your flexibility and patience.

The recent statistics on our county can be found here. We all must do our part to prevent the state of California from sliding back into a Shelter in Place model. We love seeing businesses reopening their doors, people patronizing shops and locally owned businesses, and it is our hope that they will continue to stay open as long as we come together- figuratively- to stop the spread of COVID-19.

In the meantime, our Government Relations Committee met today (via Zoom) and voted to join coalitions opposing AB 398 (the $275 per employee head tax on businesses) and SB 956 (potential loss of nine tax breaks for businesses in California). To learn more about these bills and the 2020 Job Killer bill list, click here.