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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Town Councilor Questions Park Contributions

By By Lee Ross /
Mountain View Telegraph
      Some feathers were ruffled by an Edgewood Town Councilor’s remarks about Wildlife West Nature Park.
       The councilor, Glenn Felton, made remarks as part of a discussion about a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the Wind Festival and Green Energy Fair at Wildlife West Nature Park, which was approved by all four members of the Town Council at the April 2 meeting.
       The MOU relates to a $2,756 contribution from the town for an event held at the park. It specifies the park’s responsibilities among other things.
       Felton had a number of concerns with town contributions to several park events and also talked about other issues, which included problems with comments made by the town’s parks and recreation director, Roger Holden, and with Wildlife West Nature Park’s accounting practices.
       Felton said he was concerned that there were “hidden revenue streams and hidden costs” involved with the nature park.
       “Where does the money for this go?” he asked, referring to the park’s Bluegrass Festival in August. “Are we buying a bluegrass event, or are we sustaining an event that is actually … money-raising for the park?”
       When asked about the comment on hidden revenue streams in a phone interview, Felton used the term “commingling of funds” to describe the park’s fiscal practices and gave examples of additional funding sources at park events, such as pie auctions and money paid by vendors to sell at the events.
       Roger Alink, executive director of the park, said the only vendor that pays Wildlife West is Moriarty’s El Comedor, which pays $1,000 each year to sell food and advertise.
       In addition to his concerns with the park, Felton said in a phone interview that he came to the end of his patience with Holden during a recent council meeting.
       Felton said Holden had pointed out that Wildlife West employees spend two days mowing and cleaning the parking area where the Wind Festival and Green Energy Fair takes place and noted that the space is also donated. Felton did not appreciate Holden’s comment.
       “There are a whole host of fiscal issues with events like this. This one is very straightforward, very clean, but I won’t be lectured about how this is a real gift that Wildlife West is giving us,” he said. “I’ve worked on this for 2½ years. There’s been ample opportunity to change the way we do business here, and sorry, it’s too late in the game to do it now. We’ll work on it for the upcoming budget period.”
       He clarified his statements about fiscal issues, commingling of funds and hidden revenue streams in a phone interview.
       “I don’t think that anybody is stealing money,” he said.
       He said what he meant by his comments at the meeting is that he is not satisfied with the detail of the reports the park has produced so far. However, Felton said, throughout it’s history with the town, Wildlife West has complied completely with what the town asked of it and even improved over the years.
       “Every year we go round this, every year the reports get a little better,” Felton said.
       Alink did not attend the meeting, but said he feels there were graver implications about his park made at the meeting and, because of that, he has contacted an attorney.
       “(Felton) is a particular guy and he likes a lot of details,” Alink said. “That’s not the issue. … He’s implying that I’m skimming money off the top.”
       He added that his books are “squeaky clean.”
       “We get audited all the time,” he said.
       In fact, his park is audited every year by the Youth Conservation Corps, which awards money for nonprofits and other groups to employ youths in conservation and restoration projects. Edgewood’s park has received grants from the YCC for a number of years and was recently granted $115,528.79 to employ youths for the year.
       “I respect Roger (Alink) and I respect what he has done with Wildlife West,” said Wendy Kent, executive director of YCC.
       As he does with the YCC program, Alink said he is willing to do whatever the town asks of him and said the MOUs between Edgewood and Wildlife West are drafted by the town of Edgewood.
       Although Felton had a number of criticisms during the meeting, he did not direct the town staff to do anything, either in writing or at the council meeting, Holden said.
       The Town Council has not acted on MOUs for two other events associated with Wildlife West: the Harvest Festival/Run, Rally and Rock and the park’s Music Festival, both scheduled in August. At the April 2 council meeting, the town attorney, Marcus Rael, pointed out problems with the language of both MOUs and recommended the council table the items until the issues are cleared up.
   

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