Renetta Coppard, who founded the fast-growing chamber four years ago, agreed to recognize the authority of the board and retract disparaging statements about its leaders, board Vice President Juan Ruiz said Wednesday.

The settlement was reached hours before a lawyer for the board was scheduled to ask a Third District Court judge to issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting Coppard from interfering further with the chamber or making false statements about the board until a trial determines the outcome of a lawsuit against her.

The injunction would have replaced a temporary restraining order against Coppard and four co-defendants that Judge Mary Kate Toomey issued Oct. 7. The co-defendants later worked out their differences with the board and were dismissed from the suit. Only Coppard, who started the chamber in 2004 and led it until early this year, held out.

The board and Coppard had been trying since last week to reach a settlement and avert a trial that threatened organization's credibility with its mostly small-business members. The chamber says it has more than 600 members and affiliates, though it isn't certain how many actually pay dues. Negotiations appeared to have reached an impasse Tuesday. Then Coppard changed her mind and accepted the board's terms.

"I think it's going to be very healthy for the community if we are able to settle with every party rather than going on for another year or two on the complaint," Ruiz said.

Coppard said she agreed to a peace-making proposal from the board because it was time to move on. "It's going to make us stronger, and the chamber will be successful in all the things the chamber is trying to do for the future of our members."

Ruiz said the agreement signed by all five defendants will restore faith in the board's management of the chamber "just by the fact that all these people are signing the equivalent of a confession that they agree that the chamber has always been and always will be managed by a board of directors and that there is no more question of the leadership of it."

The other defendants are Enrique Yescas, Susan Bodero, Jose Loayza and Ana Maria Fereday.

"I'm just so glad it's over. It was a horrible nightmare. It's hard to see people hurting other people and being caught in the middle of it yourself," Bodero said.

Coppard set up the not-for-profit chamber in 2005. Its members are mostly small Latino-owned businesses and Anglo companies hoping to draw on the the spending power of Utah Latinos, whose numbers are expanding rapidly.

The dispute between Coppard and the board dates to February, when discussions started over whether the chamber's bylaws should be overhauled to stay abreast of growth in members and affiliates.

At the outset, Coppard, who had led the chamber until earlier in the year, was not opposed. At a meeting of the board, her motion to modernize the bylaws passed unanimously, and in April, when Coppard was out of the country, they were amended. Upon her return, Coppard reviewed and signed the amendments, according to court documents.

Sometime later, Coppard changed her mind. In June, she told Ruiz that she wanted to remove Antonella Packard, the board's new president. Ruiz refused. A month later, Coppard set up a parallel "board of trustees," which she said was the true chamber authority. Coppard also accused Packard of failing to protect the chamber's name and endangering its nonprofit status. She suggested that chamber money had been diverted into private accounts controlled by Ruiz.

Court documents suggest the board attempted to placate Coppard without success. At least twice, Coppard reneged on promises to stop issuing public statements about the board. At one point, Coppard offered to sell the chamber to the board.

For its part, the board told Coppard it would not sue if she and other defendants retracted some of their news releases, acknowledged the board's authority, returned chamber assets and accepted the revised bylaws.

When Coppard refused, the board dismissed her and in September filed a complaint against her and the other defendants.

pbeebe@sltrib.com

Wasatch Front has four Latino chambers

The Latin American Chamber of Commerce is not affiliated with three other Latino chambers: the Ogden Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Salt Lake City and the Utah County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.