Lakeport >>Ted Mandrones is a retired business worker, a former Lakeport Mayor and Marine Corps veteran. Now he is known as president of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce. If past accomplishments are anything to go by, the chamber is undoubtedly in good hands.
A few lines hardly begin to flesh out Mandrones’ resume. Before moving to Lake County in 1983, Mandrones worked in Portland, Oregon for a logging equipment and offshore drilling company, where he served as a manager, in charge of inventory control and purchasing for the company. Then when Piedmont Lumber hired him as a merchandise manager he was able to relocate to California. He’s been involved in various ways with the City of Lakeport ever since.
In addition to his mayoral stint, Mandrones worked as a councilman for the city, was on the board of the American Red Cross and acted as a planning commissioner for Lakeport. But he still wanted to devote time to the chamber.
“I had retired in 2014 and that gave me the opportunity to put more time into this because it takes a lot of time,” he said. “Before, I always wanted to be in the presidency but working full time I knew I wouldn’t have enough time. I’m fortunate because I do have some experiences with businesses as background and now I have the time to help the community. It’s something I really believe in and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and I’m fortunate enough that I can do this now.”
Before taking over as the new Chamber president, Mandrones had some planning to do. “I basically had to come up with some of the things I was going to try and get done for this year,” he said. “I followed Jim [Magliulo], the last president around, to learn how it all worked and realized there’s a lot of time put into all of this … I had some goals and some issues that I wanted to get done in the first year that I’m president and I lined them all out.”
Mandrones has a number of impressive goals for the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, which include devising a method to send chamber members to various board and council meetings. “Those representatives will make reports to the chamber on any and all discussions impacting our business community,” he explained. Other goals for the chamber include opening “a dialogue with the Clearlake Chamber” and “working to create a more hospitable environment for businesses to move to Lake County.”
Mandrones’ responsibilities as chamber president are extensive. “There’s a lot of stuff to be involved with the chamber and I’m glad to be elected to my job,” he said. Some of his many duties include attending every chamber board meeting, assisting in conceptualizing business plans of the chamber, acting as the head spokesperson on all official statements and policies and representing the chamber at local, regional, state and national events.
While being in part responsible for the success of the chamber and local business and commerce may be intimidating for some, Mandrones feels at ease thanks to the other chamber members. “I don’t see any direct challenges at this point,” he said. “I’m really impressed with our broad of directors. They’re all basically on the same page to do whatever it takes to make sure the county is going in the right direction, to help businesses get to where they want to be and whatever we can do to help them.”
He is thrilled to be such a vital part of helping the community. “I’ve been involved with the chamber for over 25 years. The chamber of commerce is a private, voluntary, non-profit business. It’s dedicated to help improve the economy, the environment and everything else that goes along with business in the area,” he said. “I bring some experience with me, especially in business because I’ve been in charge of a lot of different functions in businesses over the years. They had voted me in as the president of the Chamber so it was a real honor for me.”
Mandroes feels especially grateful to be a part of the county and he’s looking forward to the future. “We’re so lucky here in Lake County. You can’t get something like this down in the city … to wake up and look at the beautiful lake,” he said. “We have the cleanest air in the country. That is really something. We’re all working to keep it this way, to make it even more beautiful and to be thankful for it.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
