This morning's Standard-Examiner provides an interesting story this morning, concerning The Tour de Drome, a fundraiser for a proposed $15 million field house and velodrome in Ogden, which is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. today at Lorin Farr Park, 1691 Gramercy Avenue:
• Ogden's Tour de Drome offers 3 bike routes; fundraiser sets off todayExcept for this morning's SE story, this event has been mostly under the public radar screen. However gentle reader very skeptical did tip us off earlier to an interesting discussion on this topic occurring at the end of last Tuesday's 4/27/10) City Council meeting:
...The 100 mile Bike ride to raise funding for the Mayors Velodrome project was discussed in Council meeting tonight. Pureheart Patterson said that the Ogden Community Foundation is handling the funds generated from the event, he stated that it is a fund raiser, and that the corrupt foundation will bank the expected $15,000 from the event.Being the curious type, we viewed the council video (select the 4/27/10 meeting and fast forward to 42:06), in which Councilmember Van Hooser asked the following probing questions of Ogden CAO John "Pureheart" Patterson:
1) Who is the major sponsor; is it Ogden City?
2) If it is Ogden City, where are the funds to be kept?
Patterson's response was typically non-responsive and rambling, although Mr. Patterson nevertheless did manage to let this pertinent info slip outta the bag:
1) Ogden City Community Foundation will "provide banking services;"
2) Ogden City is funding $5,000 to pay the "event chair";
3) It's anticipated that registration fees ($50.00) will cover all costs of the event; and,
4) It's also anticipated that the event will yield $10-15,000 in net proceeds.
As to the question of whether Ogden City is the event's "major sponsor," Patterson managed to entirely duck that question. Nevertheless, it's fairly evident from various other online sources, here, here and here, that Ogden City (and NOT The Ogden City Community Foundation) IS the major sponsor of today's event, and that the taxpayers of Ogden City therefore have a legally-colorable claim upon this money.
So here are the questions we'll ask of our readers this morning:
Given The Ogden Community Foundation's troubling past fiduciary performance, why has the Administration designated OCF to hold the event fund proceeds? Does Ogden City need a private organization to hold what would appear to taxpayer funds? Is an arrangement of this nature ethically proper? Does this arrangement comply with accepted accounting procedures? Why can't Ogden City hold and administer these funds through its own banking resources? Wouldn't it make more sense for Ogden City to be carrying these funds in its own bank account and on its own books, where the city council can keep a close eye on these monies, rather than squirreling them away down the OCF rodent-hole? Does this arrangement amount to a ruse on the City Administration's part to prevent these funds from being claimed as city revenue? Does the Mayor's Office have the legal authority to shuffle these monies off to a private organization in the absense of City Council approval at all?
So many questions... so few answers. Time to put on your thinking caps.
Perhaps our gentle readers can enlighten us on the true meaning of all this, in our lower comments section.
