COOS BAY — The city of Coos Bay is scrambling to repair its relationship with the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce regarding management of the Visitor Information Center.

The City Council decided Tuesday to appoint a committee to work out a new agreement with the chamber, after learning of a chamber decision to end their long-standing contract. The chamber’s board of directors decided last week to cancel the contract in three months, with a goal of negotiating a new arrangement in the meantime.

Mark Mattecheck, a chamber board member who spoke at the council meeting, said the city needs to be clear on what it wants from the chamber.

The problem is due in part to miscommunication, City Manager Chuck Freeman said after the meeting. He noted that there had been some concerns in the past over operations of the city-owned building, but as far as he was concerned those had been settled last year. Council member Mark Daily, however, expressed concerns about the arrangement under which the chamber manages the center.

Daily contended on Tuesday that volunteers at the visitor center refer visitors only to chamber members’ businesses. Since the visitor center is owned by the city, having a biased representative guiding visitors is a disservice to non-members of the chamber. Daily owns Outdoor-In and is not a chamber member.

“The way they have operated it is a disgrace,” he said.

Another chamber member, former mayor Joe Benetti, disagreed with Daily. He said the volunteers are unbiased in their approach. He also said the city has a great deal with the chamber, which receives $53,000 a year to run the center.

“You guys were getting a bargain,” he said.

Freeman said he was caught off guard by news of the chamber’s decision, which he learned about from news reports and from speaking with the mayor.

He said the city hasn’t received official notification that the chamber wants to opt out of its agreement in three months.

“From my position, I think the city is a satisfied customer,” he said. “It caught the city unprepared.”

The chamber’s executive director, Timm Slater, said there have been a number of adjustments to the chamber’s agreement with the city in the past year and a half. The chamber wants to craft a new agreement rather than work piecemeal with the existing one, especially in light of plans to rebuild the visitor center later this summer.

“We are more than happy to partner and work together with our partner, the city of Coos Bay,” he said.