Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy has asked the Center of Anna Maria Island for its financial records so the city can begin an audit of center spending.
The July 7 request for center records includes bank statements, property and equipment leases, credit card statements, petty cash reimbursements and general ledger records, among other items.
According to an email from Murphy to center executive director Kristen Lessig, the audit is to determine the community center’s financial situation, identify and quantify any gaps between revenue and expenses and understand the plan to close funding gaps.
Murphy told Lessig information could be sent “in a piece-meal manner if necessary.”
Murphy said July 12 that John Chambers, a resident and financial consultant, is a volunteer and that he has received some of the documents requested.
Chambers’ review should be complete by the end of the month, Murphy said.
At the July 13 city meeting, Murphy told commissioners that Lessig and the center were “very cooperative” with his document request.
Lessig and center board chair David Zaccagnino, however, have not complied or responded to similar and multiple record requests from The Islander, dating back to June 14, for financial records.
In a city commission meeting June 22, Commissioner Nancy Yetter, city liaison to the center, questioned whether the city should continue offering the center funding in light of what she observed at an earlier board meeting.
The city typically awards the center about $15,000 a year. In addition, the center operates on city property, with a 99-year $1 annual lease that began in 1970.
Both Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach have contributed to center funding from their 2016-17 fiscal year budgets. However, all three island cities are scrutinizing continued funding.
In February 2016, Murphy asked city attorney Becky Vose to draft an opinion on whether the center’s records were subject to Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Laws, which require operations subject to the law maintain public meetings and documents must be made available to the public on request.
Vose determined the center is subject to the law. However, the center board has disputed that opinion. Zaccagnino maintained in conversations with Islander publisher Bonner Joy that the center has no obligation to provide the requested records.
Zaccagnino was elected to chair the board in an email vote in June.
Due to the lack of response from the center, The Islander has sought mediation from the state attorney general’s office between the center, the city and the newspaper to resolve the unfulfilled records requests from the newspaper for financial information.
The Islander’s attorney, Rachel Fugate of Shullman-Fugate of Tampa, sent a demand for compliance or mediation by email to Zaccagnino and Lessig July 12. At press time, there was no response.
Zaccagnino agreed June 23 to poll the board members on mediation, which was agreed to by a city commission vote June 22, but he has not responded to calls or emails from The Islander since that date.
The center has operated with a financial deficit — more than $200,000 a year — since 2008. Various efforts to address the spending and revenue problems have failed to close the financial gap.
A review of the June 30, 2016, center audit by Kerkering Barberio & Co. for 2015-16 shows increased spending of almost $200,000 over the previous year.
Under “statement of functional expenses,” Kerkering Barberio reports on spending for supplies and other program expenses, amounting to $112,579 for the year ending June 2015, increasing to $206,934 for the year ending June 2016.
Almost all line items increased year-to-year, including building and ground maintenance, from $41,000 to $71,000; professional fees from $30,000 to $97,000; and “other” from $19,000 to $59,000. Only loan interest and travel/gas saw reductions in spending.
Further questions rise from disparities in periodic financial statements issued by the center, and those provided by the center and reported online for the Giving Challenge and GuideStar, a database for nonprofit spending and charitable giving.
A new center budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year is to be announced in a public meeting at the center at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 19, 407 Magnolia Ave., Anna Maria.
Details of the budget have not been released, and there have been no public meetings on the center board’s budget deliberation process.
Zaccagnino promised the new budget will require the center to “live within its means.”