The council duo would like to see both chambers move into city-owned office space across from Poncitlan Square. They also would like to add $40,000 to the city's redevelopment budget, giving the Hispanic chamber the same amount of funding provided the Palmdale chamber.
"We're looking to create the same kind of partnership with the Hispanic chamber that we have with the Palmdale chamber," Ledford said Thursday.
That partnership includes an agreement through which the Palmdale chamber performs specific functions that tout the city and its business community, he said.
Given the number of Hispanic residents in Southern California, it would behoove Palmdale to tout their businesses and attract their tax dollars as well, Ledford said.
"We want to see cooperation between both our chambers and with the city," he said.
Mario Guzman, president of the Hispanic chamber, welcomed the offer.
"It's wonderful," Guzman said. "It's something that we did not expect to happen so soon."
"We've only been doing our work for the last four years, but the chamber has grown in such a way that we now have numbers that exceed 150," he said.
Although the chamber was created to promote Hispanic-owned businesses, "We have been embracing and have been embraced by other businesses that are not Hispanic," Guzman said.
The organization also joins its local counterparts in conducting mixers and attending celebratory events, he said.
"We hope (the arrangement) gets approved," Guzman said, noting that the extra space and funding could help the group secure a full-time office worker and allow it to have educational seminars for its members.
The funding, however, would come with certain obligations.
"We would want an MOU (memorandum of understanding), and we would want to see a return on our investment," Ledford said.
Under the city's memorandum of understanding with the Palmdale chamber, the business organization must provide free advertising space for city information in chamber publications; provide a liaison to obtain and explain city financial-assistance programs, taxes, fees and regulations to prospective businesses; and establish a program to retain existing businesses.
The Palmdale chamber also mails out relocation information, makes business referrals, sponsors the annual Palmdale Christmas Parade, organizes the Miss Palmdale pageant, provides general city information and attends special events that promote the city.
"I don't think we will let the city down," Guzman said. "We will prove that we can enhance Hispanic businesses."
The group already is holding meetings with representatives of the Mexican consulate "in reference to importing and exporting" between businesses of the two countries, he said.
On May 19, a group of Mexican business delegates will be in Palmdale to continue the discussions, and representatives of all local concerns are invited to attend, Guzman said.
The money for the Hispanic chamber, as well as for the remodeling of its possible new office, will be among the proposals in the city's new budget for the 2002-03 fiscal year.
The chambers would move from 38434 Ninth Street East to 819 East Ave. Q-9, next door to new office space proposed for the Palmdale chamber at 817 East Ave. Q-9.
Both spaces would encompass about 1,000 square feet, and both would be larger than the offices already housing the two chambers.
Jackie Snider, chief executive officer of the Palmdale chamber, said she would welcome her new neighbor.
"We work so well together - our relationship has only grown during the past two years," Snider said.
However, she cautioned, "It's not all settled yet. It's still in the planning stages" and dependent on the approval of the City Council.
Even if approved by July 1, the start of the city's new fiscal year, the new offices would still have to be remodeled and everything in the old offices relocated.
The relocation would bring more room and more visibility in what could be one of the hottest business sites in the city, Snider said.
That relocation would be "wonderful. I could have more than one person
in my office at a time," she said, chuckling.