Parks’ financials field dressed by city council

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Holly Wescott

On August 3, Mayor Butch Berry delivered on his promise made in January to hold a workshop with the Eureka Springs Parks Commission. City aldermen were given the opportunity to address documented public outcry for financial and operational accountability at Parks.

During the seven-month delay, Chair Bill Featherstone resigned, Ruth Hager moved from commissioner to Chair, and the commission developed two vacancies. 

Council’s questions stemmed back to 2013 when Parks began receiving .125 percent sales and use tax revenue to be used solely to assist in funding Lake Leatherwood City Park capital improvements, maintenance, education, and recreational programming in accordance with the LLCP Master Plan.

Intermingling those funds with other projects was in question, especially since development of bike trails and shuttle services on donated real estate adjoining Lake Leatherwood. Property was gifted to Parks post-2013, giving air to complaints that Leatherwood sales tax revenue is spread too thin and may not be applied as it was intended in 2013.

Alderman Bob Thomas reminded Parks Executive Director Justin Huss that in 2018, Huss promised to update the LLMP to reflect amendments, and he has yet to deliver on that. To support his claim, Thomas read aloud from a newspaper story published in 2018 quoting Huss’s goals for LLMP improvements.

In response Huss admitted that now, two years later, he no longer is focusing on updating the LLMP saying, “Frankly, it’s not our top priority right now.” Huss insisted that it was cost prohibitive and time consuming to focus on the LLMP, and further he does not believe the LLMP to hold great importance stating, “It’s not a binding document.”

Thomas disagreed and said that he believes Huss’s 2018 goals were not that difficult to complete. Huss insisted that creating a new LLMP could cost between $50,000 and $4 million. “Look it up!” he said.

 Alderman Terry McClung said that recreating the wheel was not necessary but consistently updating the original LLMP was important. He said that projects need to be updated and documented through a timeline within the LLMP. This concept seemed to ring true with Chair Ruth Hager who admitted that updating the original LLMP was a more manageable idea than creating an altogether separate document.

With some hope that the Parks may consider reexamining goals for proper Lake Leatherwood documentation and monetary allocation, the topic turned to general finances. Salaries and wages for Huss and his staff use the majority of Parks’ operational expenses, $82,274 or 73 percent, in the first quarter of 2020.

Huss has not directed wages to a position for the responsibility of financial accountability of the organization. Instead, Parks is relying heavily on the efforts of accountants to perform financial tasks.

Parks’ financial statements as of March 31 were prepared by Windle & Associates, CPAs, who in their opening letter provided a caveat that Parks’ management “has elected to omit substantially all of the disclosures… required by generally accepted accounting principles.” The letter went on to say that if the omitted disclosures were included in the financial statements, they might influence the user’s conclusions about the company’s financial position, cash flows and results of operations.

This letter, combined with council’s questions about the financial statements, revealed that the commission’s involvement in and understanding of the finances is limited. For example, commissioners could not answer questions regarding line items of the balance sheet and were dependent on Huss, who was vague.

Alderman Susan Harman asked what the line item, “Reimbursements Due” referred to under the current asset heading, and no one responded. Alderman Harry Meyer specifically asked who on Parks’ staff is assigned to the QuickBooks accounting responsibilities and Huss did not pinpoint a particular person.

Commissioner David Hartmann’s response to Huss not naming anyone was, “Probably because there isn’t one.” When asked about cash handling, Chair Ruth Hager said she thinks there might be a drop box with a form.

Council asked how the commission plans to proceed, and commissioners agreed they believe they have identified the issues in the past year, changed processes, and have stopped most of them.

Commissioner Scott Bardin said they could greatly benefit from having more people serve on the commission, including an ad hoc commissioner from city council. He invited aldermen to participate in the Parks meetings to help improve the Parks Commission and restore communication between the entities.

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