“I’ve lost faith.”
Anna Maria Commissioner Nancy Yetter is recommending the city re-evaluate its financial relationship with the Center of Anna Maria Island.
Yetter attended the June 21 center board meeting and reported June 22 to the commission that the board complained of leaks to the press and public, while promising to improve its financial status and overhaul its budget.
A proposed financial oversight committee would include city officials, she said, but the center would require committee members to sign a confidentiality agreement before viewing records. She was concerned that the agreement would conflict with her duty to the city.
Yetter had concerns that the center is not sharing information with the public.
“They’re saying they want more transparency,” Yetter said. “It’s not happening. Trust me on this.”
“I’ve always tried to distance myself from gossip, but when I hear so much … where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” she said.
The meeting was a “wake-up call,” Yetter said, adding that “there appears to be a faction” of the board “where egos and arrogance seem to be ruling.”
Yetter said the board appears to have a “shroud of secrecy,” and told commissioners she believes if the center is not capable of financially succeeding, a private company might better serve the community.
“I don’t see how it can possibly succeed, quite frankly. I know that’s a doom-and-gloom report, but I’ve lost faith,” she said.
Chair Doug Copeland said the city had plans to re-evaluate its role in financing the center for the new fiscal budget, but “it’s my feeling that there’s going to have to be some open honesty before I vote for any increase or any money.”
Commissioner Dale Woodland said the center must produce an honest and complete budget of 2016-17 expenditures to allow a review of spending.
Commissioner Carol Carter added that her husband, Bob Carter, gave the center thorough recommendations on functioning as a nonprofit in December 2016.
In her husband’s role as a board member for the National Aquarium, she said, he made a regular habit of examining every purchase and expense by the CEO.
The commission unanimously approved a motion to enter voluntary mediation with The Islander newspaper, facilitated by the Florida Attorney General’s office, in order to resolve a dispute with the center over a public records request for financial records.
Late June 23, Zaccagnino notified The Islander that he would poll the board members to approve participation in the AGO mediation.
Islander publisher Bonner Joy told the commissioners June 22 that she had sought advice from the First Amendment Foundation and the Attorney General’s Office open records division for a resolution to the records request.
The FAF president, Barbara Peterson, agreed the center should comply with the Sunshine Law, Joy said.
“No one wants to do harm to the center,” Joy said, “but we believe the public has a right to know and we hope to rectify the practice of secrecy at the center.”
Joy said numerous complaints of misuse of funds, lack of scrutiny by the board and conflicting financial reports led the newspaper to request financial records, including bank statements and credit card accounts.
Zaccagnino argued that the center does not meet the criteria for open records and he sought opinions to support his claim.
Late Friday, he conceded on the basis of expert advice that supported the newspaper’s claim.
As of press time for The Islander on June 26, the records had not been provided.
The deadline to notify the AGO and take part in the mediation is June 29.