Fix Pacifica: Frontierland Park, A Million Dollar Investment

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Frontierland Park, A Million Dollar Investment

as a follow up to Jim Wagner's post about the missing Frontierland Park remediation funds, here are some photos of the city's "one million dollar" investment into the park:

10 comments:

Kathy Meeh said...: Where did the $700,000 go?; October 27, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Unknown said...: Mary Ann wasn't on the Council when this went down...wonder if she could find out?; October 27, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Steve Sinai said...: I only spent about 10 minutes looking through the documents, but I'm wondering where people are getting the $700,000 figure from. I've heard numbers anywhere from $250,000 to $1,000,000 being unaccounted for, which tells me people are having a hard time understanding what's going on. (Including me.)

From what I can tell, about $250,000 wasn't carried over from 2002 into 2003, and that money looks to be unaccounted for. The $700,000 collected since then, while not all spent, is at least accounted for.; October 27, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Kathleen Rogan said...: One Million Dollars.; October 27, 2009 at 1:01 PM
Jeffrey W Simons said...: OK, this makes my head hurt but here we go . . .

First of all, there are only records from 02/03 to the present, with a starting balance of $232,875. The Frontierland Park Remediation Fund goes back several more years before this date, but there is no accounting for how this money was spent until this time.

Anyway, for 02/03: End balance was $182,238

Starting balance for 03/04 should be $182,238 + $75K, but it is only $182,238 with $14,535 in expenditures. So there is $75,000 unaccounted for.

Starting balance for 04/05 should be ending balance of 03/04 ($167,702) + $75K, but it is only $172,955. so another $70K gone.

Starting balance for 05/06 should be ending balnce for 04/05 ($168,003) + $75K. It's only $75K. Another $168,000 disappeared.

Going forward, the starting balance for 06/07 should be ending balance for 05/06 ($73,328) + $75 K, but it is only $75K. Another $73,328 unaccounted for.

07/08 does the same thing with $74,692 unaccounted for.

If we assume for grins and giggles the same thing happens for 08/09, there's roughly another $75K gone.

That totals $536,020.

If you consider $1 million reflects about 13 years of payments from Coastside, I think its safe to say that Coastside has been paying into this fund since at least 1996.

So $1 million in, $536,020 unaccounted for, and taking a stroll in that park ask yourself if you really believe there's been $464,000 invested in that park.; October 27, 2009 at 1:33 PM
Jeffrey W Simons said...: mind you, most of the castle was built by volunteer work and donations in Upper Frontierland Park.; October 27, 2009 at 1:35 PM
Steve Sinai said...: Ah, I see what you're talking about now, Jeffy. Basically, it looks like the city kept deducting expenses from the Remediation Fund, but none of the payments from Coastside were added back to replenish the balance.

There is the $389,869 being carried forward into 2007, so that may account for the missing money. But the confusing way the numbers are presented makes me either think people at City Hall need to go to Skyline to take some basic accounting classes, or they're consciously trying to obfuscate things to cover something up. I happen to think it's more a matter of not knowing how to present budget figures clearly than criminal intent, but I could be wrong.; October 27, 2009 at 2:22 PM
wagner said...: it's easier to multiply the years that the city received the 75k and subtract the amt that the city has spent. all the spending took place in one year, i believe, and was about 170k or so. the carry over from the 5 years that they don't have records was around 283k.; October 27, 2009 at 2:28 PM
Steve Sinai said...: "There is the $389,869 being carried forward into 2007, so that may account for the missing money."

I should have said "so that may account for SOME of the missing money."; October 27, 2009 at 2:34 PM
Jeffrey W Simons said...: aha I went back through Wagner's report from 96/97 to 01/02 there is $247,788 missing in that time period, so the total missing is $783,808.

That $389,869 magically appears on the 4/30/07 statement, and the statement that the fund balance is $692,765 from Ann Ritzma's letter dated 7/10/08 seems a little off. Why didn't this money show up on the balance sheets during the previous years?; October 27, 2009 at 3:46 PM