Hollywood chamber dumps its president: action comes 2 months after board asked her to stay.

Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President Brooke Knapp was ousted from her post last week -- just two months after she said chamber and community leaders convinced her not to resign -- in what Senior Vice Chairman Willie Fleet described as a board decision to "professionally disengage its relationship" with her.

Knapp is best known during her one-year reign as president for the settlement of lawsuits brought by city and state officials over allegations of chamber mismanagement of the Hollywood sign and the Walk of Fame.

However, the embattled chamber now faces new legal action, filed by the company that licenses the famous trademarks for use in product merchandising. The new litigation specifically accuses Knapp of having broken legal agreements because of personal dislike for the president of a marketing firm.

Sources at the chamber told the Business Journal that chamber board Chairman Chris Baumgart told Knapp on May 22 that she was going to be fired. Later that afternoon, the board was told that the chamber's personnel committee recommended firing Knapp, and the action was approved, the sources said.

Fleet confirmed that Knapp has left her position as president but would not define her departure as either a firing or a resignation.

"It's a personnel matter. We don't air personnel matters," Fleet said. "She no longer works there. The nature of how she left, I can't say."

Sources said board member T.J. Baptie successfully added a caveat to the motion, making the firing contingent on consultation with attorneys. Baptie, who works in the publicity department of Walt Disney Co., did not return phone calls last week.

"We didn't need T.J. Baptie to tell us to talk to attorneys," said Fleet. "We said, 'Of course, by all means, we'll be talking to attorneys.'"

Sources said Knapp has contacted the chamber through a third party threatening legal action, but Fleet said: "There's been no such threat, not to my knowledge."

Another board member said Knapp's termination agreement includes a severance package that likely would be withdrawn unless Knapp agreed to "go away quietly." Knapp could not be reached for comment last week.

According to sources, Don Tillman, who resigned June 19 as vice president of programming and production at KTTV-TV Channel 11, has agreed to be the temporary chamber president. The chamber president acts as an executive director or full-time administrator of the organization.

Knapp, well-known in the aviation industry for setting speed records, took over as chamber president in May of last year, after the ouster of Larry Kaplan.

She resigned on April 1 but withdrew the resignation a few days later. One board member recalled that when Knapp asked to rescind her resignation in April, she told the board she had quit "because she was scared."

When Knapp rescinded her resignation, she told the Business Journal that some board members had persuaded her "that a lot still needs to be done." Sources said some members of the board prevailed on Knapp to stay in April with the full intention of firing her later.

Meanwhile, another board member -- Gary Borton, general manager and vice president in North America for motion picture and television imaging at Eastman Kodak Co. -- resigned June 17, saying the chamber had fallen to the bottom of his priority list, in terms of its impact on the community, the amount of personal satisfaction it brought him and the opportunity it afforded him to make a contribution.

"I wish you all well and sincerely hope that sometime in the future you will be able to change your focus from within to an outward focus to the community you are supposed to serve," wrote Borton.

The Business Journal also has learned that Curtis Management Group of Indiana, which licenses products for the chamber, has filed legal action with the American Arbitration Association, alleging that the chamber has refused to honor merchandise marketing agreements Curtis negotiated with USA Marketing Group Inc. of Texas on the chamber's behalf and with the chamber's approval.

"(The chamber) now refuses to acknowledge the validity of agreements," Curtis wrote in its Demand for Arbitration complaint, filed May 28. "President Brooke Knapp has represented that one reason she does not wish to honor the license agreements is because she does not like the president of USA."

According to the complaint, Curtis has been the licensing agent for the chamber since August of 1987, generating more than $460,000 in royalties to the chamber through agreements allowing for the marketing of such items as a Hollywood "Walk of Fame Game," T-shirts, glassware, watches, mugs, video tapes and posters bearing trademarks held by the chamber. Other agreements involved the marketing of dairy products, baked goods and beverage cans.

The complaint accuses the chamber of "maliciously and intentionally interfering with Curtis' good faith performance under the terms of the agreement." Curtis is seeking to have its various agreements upheld and to have the chamber pay its legal fees and costs.

A source told the Business Journal that chamber leaders have filed a cross-complaint against Curtis without consulting the board.

Fleet would not comment on the case and said he would seek the dismissal of any board member who did. "To in any way discuss litigation regarding an organization whose board you serve on is a breach of fiduciary responsibility," Fleet said.

Curtis officials also have declined comment.

USA attorney Warren Pulner would say only that the case "is in arbitration at this time" and would not comment on the cross-complaint.