Concerns raised over park district expenses

The manner by which the Point Roberts Parks and Recreation District commissioners have been approving expenditures came under fire at their recent monthly meeting on March 13. Local resident Allison Calder expressed concern over the way recent spending decisions had been made by the board.

“In the bylaws, it is stated that any program and activity that is sponsored by the parks district must come before the parks board for approval before being implemented. We are having events where the expenditures are not being approved by the board beforehand and the community and the taxpayers are not being informed of,” she said.

Calder was specifically referring to the recent Valentine’s Day dance, which carried an $800 price tag.  

Former parks board chair Bennett Blaustein added, “One of the things that the current board hasn’t been doing is, when you have been scheduling events, you haven’t been budgeting for those events, they’ve been coming up at the last minute. You have to schedule your events a couple of months out. You set a budget: you bring it up at one meeting, approve it at the next meeting, and then it is set to go. But you’re doing this stuff between meetings without having any oversight at all.” 

Agreeing that both Calder and Blaustein had raised “valid points,” commissioner Michael Cressey pointed out that the next planned event, the spring dance, is scheduled for April 15, and noted that the April meeting would not allow the board to budget ahead for the dance. He expressed support for the event, saying that dances “keep the fabric of the community together.”  

Board chair Mitch Friedman emphasized the need to provide recreational events for the public and suggested costs could be lowered by partnering with businesses or non-profits to help carry the financial load. Friedman did not explain how such partnering would result in lower costs. Historically, non-profit entities on the Point have used events to raise money for their organizational aims. 

Friedman said, “I don’t want to put too much of a burden onto the taxpayers. We also have other funding as well, the park district rents a tower to the communications company SBA, and they recently added something to that tower (Ed. Note: T-Mobile is now a sublessor along with Verizon, the original owner of the tower), I negotiated a new contract with them that brought $25,000 into our budget.” Friedman was referring to the cell tower that is located near the water tank adjacent to Baker Field. The tower had been receiving rent of around $17,000 a year.  

Commissioner Kathleen Friedman estimated the cost of the April dance would be approximately $450, which included $350 for the band and $100 for supplies. Mitch Friedman introduced a motion to approve the budget for the dance despite the fact that it was not on the meeting agenda or had the benefit of the public comment period to allow members of the public to express their viewpoint.

“I am going to make a motion for this budget, and then from now on we will need to discuss these events at least a month ahead of time,” he said.

Several members of the community in attendance disagreed with the motion, pointing out that it was not in accordance with the standard rules for parliamentary procedure, known as Robert’s Rules of Order. Despite those objections and some hesitation from board members, the motion passed by a unanimous vote.  

In any event, it ultimately became moot. In a letter dated March 23, Kathleen Friedman resigned effective immediately citing personal health concerns. The dance was subsequently canceled because she was the commissioner in charge of the event, and it was too late to assign someone else for that duty, she said.

How the commission-approved event was canceled without the benefit of a board meeting was not explained. Under the commission style of government, individual commissioners have very limited powers of decision-making. Only the board itself has the power to make decisions affecting the district. An email to the district asking for details on how the decision to cancel was made was not answered before going to press.

Surprisingly, the commission did not discuss the summer kids program during the March meeting. Typically, planning gets underway in February or March. Last year, then-chair Bennett Blaustein reported at the March meeting that the district had been awarded a $31,000 state grant that would be used for enrichment activities during the summer program. It’s not known if the district has applied for any grants this year.