Keeping the CCHS band boosters program honest. Booster program and treasurer being audited. Over the past several years parents of this program have been seeking records from the treasurer of this organization. The Treasurer for what ever reasons would not produce the records of all financial dealings while she has been treasurer. Some newly elected officers of this program started to look into why these records were not being made available per the request of band parents. I was voted on, as a new member to be the parent liaison between the board and the parents. My duties includes being at the board officers meetings to make sure the concerns of the parents were being represented at those meetings. The way the funds were being handled by the current treasurer, of over 8 years, was a topic that has been a concern for years. After asking several times for records from this treasurer I too was given every excuse in the book why she could not hand them over for review. Keep in mind these are public records. Through some digging around I was able to come up with a few records that immediately concerned me. After further review I noticed some of what seemed to be inconsistencies with the financials. This treasurer was asked by several parents in a public booster meeting to explain some of the inconsistencies and to turn over the records so they could be reviewed. Instead of promising to produce the records in a timely manner as requested she just walked out of the meeting. The frustration level from over the years of trying to get some transparency in respects to the financial handling of this organizations funds has finally reached its crescendo. I contacted the state Controllers office and gave them what I had and they felt the need to conduct a investigation and audit. Even after the announcement of this Audit some are still trying to short circuit state policy and continue with Business as usual. They newly elected offices that have brought these potential irregularities to light have now been accused of backstabbing by those that are being look at closely by the state. The treasurer had recently tried to keep the President and Vice President from keeping a close eye on what was being spent. She took the secretary of this program up to the bank and placed her as a signee on the account. This account NOW as of this year requires two signatures to sign checks. She figured if she could get her friend the secretary as a signee then the other officers would not be able to monitor her activities. In order to change a name on these accounts it takes a vote by the entire board and that approval to be placed in the meetings minutes then taken to the bank and changes made. This Treasurer had once again a FRIEND which is employed by this bank add on the secretary WITHOUT A VOTE which means without the minutes needed to make such a change. They proceeded to write checks for items that had never been voted on by the board during this time they were getting away with this unauthorized change. Once discovered this was happening our newly elected President and Vice President went to the bank and had this fixed. The bank executive that they spoke to was very apologetic that this was even able to have happened. The mind numbing things continue to happen. Any expenditures requires a board vote which includes The President, the Vice President the Treasurer and the Secretary. The way they have decided they are going to get away with not following those rules is to just order what THEY consider needed and get invoiced for these items. What really makes little sense is that most of the items that were obtained in this fashion would have gotten approved via a proper vote anyways. In an attempt to make sure the organizations venders are not caught up in this the President and Vice President went ahead and signed the checks to pay the bills for these expenditures even though the process for the approval of these expenditures were non existent. They could have easily refused to have signed the check for these items but chose as good stewards of the organization to not Penalize these vendors for the apparent underhanded way these items were purchased. The by-laws of this program dictate that the Band director summit his request for a need to the board and it is brought us for a vote by this body. Unfortunately it looks like the band directors are also side stepping the process and ordering things without booster approval and then handing over the invoice and saying this needs to be paid. We are currently working on fixing this as well. Believe me there is plenty of push back on this front as well. Since strict money handling processes were put in place this year by the President and Vice President this organizations funds have bloomed into a nice amount. When the new pres and vp took on there duties the organization was in the RED having unpaid invoices from previous years. We are now in the black and have funds to make good things happen for these band and color guard kids. The Band boosters has the concessions at the football games. The process before the new Pres and VP was as follows. At the end of the day the treasurer just gathered up the funds from both concessions and take it home in a bag and count it. Yes! This is not a typo. We were told that the concessions didnt make any money last year. This is the tip of the iceberg. The State audit is scheduled to be completed by early spring. My personal opinion after seeing what Ive seen is there will be many issues that will come to light. I hope as an organization we can continue with the safe guards these new board members have put in place to assure accountability and transparency will continue so we never have anyone feel the need to question what we are doing. We also need to make sure if anyone feels the need to look closer we will be compliant with the rules and regulations and have the records immediately for review if asked for. Anything less is suspect.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 18:27:07 +0000
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