Highland Council Books In Chaos. Meeting Scheduled
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10 Comments:
Council finds its finances in chaos
State has seized cash from bank to apply toward taxes
BY JASON HOPPIN and TIM NELSON
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 05/17/2007 09:23:15 PM CDT
Newly elected officers at the Highland District Council in St. Paul say the neighborhood group owes thousands of dollars in back taxes and penalties and that its finances are in serious disarray.
President Bill Poulos sent a letter to the group's board members Thursday saying the Minnesota Department of Revenue recently seized $1,568 in unpaid payroll taxes and that a conversation with IRS officials this week revealed the group owes more than $33,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties dating back to 1998.
"We have serious financial difficulties," Poulos said. "This is what we know we owe. We don't know what we don't know. We suspect it's considerably more than this."
Poulos was elected board president two weeks ago in a Republican takeover of the council that highlighted increasing partisanship in neighborhood groups. Gayle Summers, the council's lone full-time staffer and one of the city's longest-serving community organizers, resigned last week.
As one of the city's 19 district councils, the group is funded in part by taxpayer dollars.
In addition to the taxes and penalties, Poulos said IRS officials have no record of tax returns for the nonprofit organization from 2001 to 2005.
Summers could not be reached for comment. Her husband, Thomas Summers, said she was not home and could not be reached Thursday night.
"We are monitoring the situation and we hope that things work out for that organization and that they can continue to serve the community," said City Council Member Pat Harris, whose 3rd Ward includes Highland Park.
Poulos said newly elected officers began examining the group's finances once they were able to gain access to the office's computers. They found unopened mail stuffed in drawers and learned of the Department of Revenue seizure after asking the council's bank for updated statements.
The group has $12,000 on hand, leaving it unable to cover its IRS obligations, Poulos said. He stressed that the group is not bankrupt or insolvent.
"Anything that requires an expenditure of money, at this point we are not authorizing payment for," Poulos said, adding that it will pay for ongoing obligations such as telephone bills.
Besides a full-time community organizer, the group has a part-time crime prevention coordinator.
Under the group's bylaws, an elected, unpaid treasurer - a position that usually rotates from year to year - is responsible for overseeing the group's books. In reality, said immediate past president Peter Armstrong, that job was delegated to Summers.
"It's shocking. No one had any inkling of the kind of errors that were being made," said Armstrong, who is still a member of the board. "We're all eager to find a solution."
Former treasurer John Goering, who is no longer with the group, confirmed he had little oversight over the books.
"I'm very willing to help with what I know, which in truth isn't very much," Goering said. "I think I saw two checks in the whole time I was there."
The group has scheduled a public meeting at 7 p.m. May 23 at Hillcrest Recreation Center to update community members and discuss how to proceed.
Jason Hoppin can be reached at jhoppin@pioneerpress.com or 651-292-1892.
From the bowels of Saint Paul Issues and Forums "Mitch Berg of "Shot In The Dark and 1280AM "The Patriot" radio (Sock it to em Mitch!)
From: mitch berg Date: 2007-05-21 05:56 (UTC) Short link
Change at the District Councils?
It's about time. May we see such changes all over the
city; we might start to have some genuine democracy
and accountability in this city; it might even become
a two-party town, one of these days.
At its most benign, the Council system is effectively
"non-profit welfare" - a funding stream and sinecure
for non-profit professional bureaucrats - as well as a
place for people who love to tinker with the levers
and knobs of petty power to romp and play and
occasionally screw with their neighbors.
I've been a long-time critic of the Hamline-Midway
Coalition for using the full weight of its backroom
connections to destroy the life of a life-long Saint
Paul resident and scrupulously honest businessman,
Greg Perkins, when he had the temerity to open a gun
shop on Snelling. The Council not only used its time,
tax funds and energy to carry on a politically-correct
vendetta against Perkins - a deeply stupid action -
but, when challenged by locals who wanted to get some
pro-freedom people on the board to challenge the PC
orthodoxy, changed its bylaws to forbid any board
member from disagreeing with the board's majority
position!
Power corrupts.
Case in point:
> I'm sure that she could see
> that she is going to have a very inexperienced board
> that will be tripping over itself, saying stupid
> things, getting its nose into places it doesn't
> belong
Really?
Where do citizens "not belong?"
Kindly explain that to the assembled multitude.
I don't know what the writer above intends, but I want
to make sure that statement gets publicized all over
the place, to make sure everyone knows the attitude
that's behind the status quo on these kommisariats.
Er, councils.
The community councils have been a de-facto DFL
sinecure for as long as I can remember. I expect
plenty of this forum's dominant clicque to start
squirming and bellowing as the insurgency starts to
uncover the corruption and rot that is almost
inevitable when a one-party system has control for too
long.
And boy, it's gonna be fun!
Mitch Berg
Death Or Glory!
The Midway
disclaimer- Mitch Berg did not post this here. I did...
Mitch didn't name the person who made the following statement. I WILL, it's Chuck Repke!
> I'm sure that she could see
> that she is going to have a very inexperienced board
> that will be tripping over itself, saying stupid
> things, getting its nose into places it doesn't
> belong
You can always count on Chuck, Bob Spaulding, and a few others over at SPIF to defend the indefensible.
GO TO SPIF AND READ BOB SPAULDINGS COMMENT ON THIS SUBJECT. MAKE YA SICK IT WILL!
SPIF IS LINKED UNDER THE LINKS SECTION ON THE FRONT PAGE.
Yup, I wrote it! I wrote it before any of the accusations had come out. If you read the tone of the earlier posters they were suggesting that Gayle quit because the GOP had taken over and they were evil. I was only trying to suggest that maybe she just didn't want to work for a "new board."
My thought was, if you followed the flow of my post, that sometimes new boards stumble around and that she might not want to go through all of that. I had no idea that there were going to be any financial issues at Highland, how could I?
Anyway, I am sure people will want to check on my 990s they are all on file and available.
Chuck Repke
I read Bob Spauldings post at SPIF.
Bob S. couldn't be more wrong. It is a common practice of major corporations to turn over their executives and bring in new blood.
Our City's inner workings are much like a large corporation. People that have had the same job year after year lose that drive for service and get stagnant in their positions.
Add the unpaid bills at the Highland council and who knows what else going on to the mix and I bet Gayle Summers did not look forward to going to work much. Then the threat of new blood coming in and exposing this mess must have provoked much anxiety.
It is best she is GONE! New blood will add vibrancy to the Highland council. And Pat Harris will include the council in the decisions of our community here in Highland or he will be seeking something else to do with his life.
GoshI am impressed, nobody has blamed Lantry in this whole thread.
Click onto Guide Star above to check on non-profits.
Compliments of Chuck.
From: Michael Mischke Date: 2007-05-22 05:55 (UTC) Short link
What do you get when you combine draconian city planning department
staff cuts, the move from a full-time to a part-time city council,
the loss of a city's district council coordinator, frozen or reduced
annual city allocations to the district councils, the end of outside
grants to support district council operations, reduced district
council staffing levels, and the abandonment of training sessions for
the volunteer district council board members who are legally
responsible for overseeing the work of their paid staffs?
No, you dont necessarily get the situation now facing the Highland
District Council. Shoddy bookkeeping lies behind that district
council's current fiscal crisis, as former HDC community organizer
Gayle Summers is the first to admit.
"I was a damn good community organizer; I was a horse(bleep)
bookkeeper, Summers told me in the first and only interview she has
consented to give since her resignation and the news of the district
council's financial plight hit the newspapers. "It was my failing
that I didn't ask for help," she said, "and it makes me incredibly
sad that I've cast a shadow over me, and an even longer shadow over
the council."
If I know Summers, she has beaten herself up more unmercifully than
some of the on-line commentary I've read since news of the HDC's tax
problems came to light last week, and I have no intention of piling
on. Summers and I go way back--all the way back to the very first
Highland Fest that she was hired to help organize for the Highland
Business Association in 1984--and I have nothing but respect for her
and the work she has done for the Highland Park neighborhood over the
past 23 years. Her inattention to detail has cast a shadow over both
her and the HDC, but the council's board is addressing the situation
forthrightly, and Summers has volunteered to pay for the internal
audit that I expect will throw sufficient light on the subject to
begin clearing up the matter. That is as it should be, and Summers
and the HDC ought to be able to put this behind them posthaste.
But the HDC's present predicament is best and most broadly understood
in a citywide context. District councils and the neighborhood
volunteers who run them have been asked to do more with less since
the early 1990s on the heels of city budget cuts and the move to a
part-time city council. In addition to their traditional advisory
roles to the mayor, City Council, Planning Commission and Board of
Zoning Appeals, the district councils in St. Paul have been tasked
with organizing neighborhood cleanups, creating their own
neighborhood plans as part of the city's periodically updated
comprehensive plan, and providing an array of constituent services
that full-time City Council members and their legislative aides used
to provide. The Department of Planning and Economic Development no
longer has the staff to provide a citywide district council
coordinator, a city planner assigned to each district council, and
training sessions for newly elected district council board members.
As a result, the district councils have been cast adrift to function
on their own with little oversight or accountability from city
government. Perhaps at no time since its creation in the mid-1970s
has St. Paul's once vaunted district council system been weaker--and
more susceptible to abuse.
That susceptibility is all the more apparent now that the Republican
Party of St. Paul has decided that its outmanned minions will attempt
to establish a political beachhead at the district council level,
beginning in Highland Park. The DFL Party in what is, for all
practical purposes, a one-party town has had the beach to itself for
decades.
HDC board members who would attempt to politicize the work of the
nonpartisan district council might want to read up on the Internal
Revenue Service rules that 501(c)3 organizations are required to
follow with respect to partisan activities of any kind. They might
also want to bone up on the HDC's bylaws, which state in part: "No
officer or director shall permit his or her affiliation or position
with the HDC to be used in any manner on behalf of, or in opposition
to, any candidate for public office, or on behalf of, or in
opposition to, issues on which the HDC has not taken a public position."
Michael Mischke
Summit Hill
On the guideStar link, if you type in Highland Area Community Council you will see that there are no records of there ever being a 990 filed in the last 10 years.
If you want to check on mine type in District 2 Community Council.
Shows all of the 990s for the last 10 years and the pdf links work for the last 2.
Chuck Repke
from the bowels of SPIF-
From: Wahlt "Wally" Arminius Date: 2007-05-22 18:21 (UTC) Short link
I believe you have all missed the main point. The Highland District Council
(HDC) is in the rears $33,000.00 from not paying its payroll taxes. Seemingly
going back some years. Non-profit or not, the HDC needs to pay it payroll
taxes. According to published reports the HDC does not have $33,000.00 in its
bank accounts. If its not there, where is it? Plain and simple this is not just
“an oversight”. Apparently this money is missing and Ms. Summers was the person
in charge of it. She has a lot of explaining to do!
The newly DFL endorsed Councilmember Pat Harris once called the Highland
District Council (HDC) the “Crown Jewel” of the Saint Paul Cities District
Council system. If this is an example of the best, one only needs to wonder how
the other 18 District Council are run. The question begs to be asking why the
Mayor Coleman and City Council does not have better over sight of the Citizen
Tax’s dollars and City Staff. This is what we pay them for. It is their
responsibility to be good stewards of the taxpayer’s money not City Staff! The
Mayor and City Council needs to be held accountably. Maybe the Mayor and City
Council should spend less time complaining about the States Local Government
Aid (LGA) and more time managing the money they have.
Mayor Coleman and the rest of his DFL friends, that hold a strangle hold on the
City of Saint Paul; have taught us one thing “that it is the seriousness of the
allegations that are more important than the nature of the crime”. The Ramsey
County Attorney office (DFL due to a conflict of interest) should refer this
matter to the Scott or Dakota County for a total investigation into the whole
Saint Paul Distinct Council System. It is time that the Saint Paul District
Council system is disbanded. After all it has only been a self-serving training
ground for DFL activist.
As Deep Throat once said "follow the money"
Wahlt “Wally” Arminius
St. Paul Highland Park
From: Chuck Repke Date: 2007-05-23 08:01 (UTC) Short link
Well "Wally" we don't yet know that $33,000 is missing. Let's try this
scenario:
What is alleged is that the District Council didn't pay payroll taxesfrom mid
1998 to mid 2000. So, whatif the District Council owed $2,000 in payroll taxes
in 1998 and $4,000 in payroll taxes in 1999 and $2,000 in 2000. So, we have
$8,000 in payments that should have been made to the Feds. $8,000 is a bad
thing but it isn't $33,000. So, how does $8,000 become $33,000? What if the
penalty for failing to pay the tax is 10% a year and the interest rate is 10%?
For any of you that have dealt with the Fed's that sounds about right doesn't
it?
So, not pretending to be a math wiz but my numbers would say that $2,000
increased at 20% for nine years is $10,300; $4,000 at 20% for eight years is
$17,200 and $2,000 for seven years is $6,000. $10,300 plus $17,200 plus $6,000
is oh my gosh $33,500!
Again, I don't know any more than what I read in the paper, but I do know how
little monies district councils have and a little bit about the Fed's and tax
penalties (you don't want to know), and I am guessing that my scenario is much
closer to what happened than to Gayle walking away with a pile of cash.
Just My Opinion Not Those Of My Employers Past Present Or Future
Chuck Repke
Ward 2
▶
-----Original Message-----
From: ""Wahlt "Wally" Arminius" wahltarminius" ( at ) yahoo.com>
To: St. Paul Issues Forum
Sent: Tue, 22 May 2007 1:24 am
Subject: Re: [SPIF] Change at District Councils
I believe you have all missed the main point. The Highland District Council
HDC) is in the rears $33,000.00 from not paying its payroll taxes. Seemingly
oing back some years. Non-profit or not, the HDC needs to pay it payroll taxes.
ccording to published reports the HDC does not have $33,000.00 in its bank
ccounts. If its not there, where is it? Plain and simple this is not just an
versight. Apparently this money is missing and Ms. Summers was the person in
harge of it. She has a lot of explaining to do!
he newly DFL endorsed Councilmember Pat Harris once called the Highland
istrict Council (HDC) the Crown Jewel of the Saint Paul Cities District
ouncil system. If this is an example of the best, one only needs to wonder how
he other 18 District Council are run. The question begs to be asking why the
ayor Coleman and City Council does not have better over sight of the Citizen
axs dollars and City Staff. This is what we pay them for. It is their
esponsibility to be good stewards of the taxpayers money not City Staff! The
ayor and City Council needs to be held accountably. Maybe the Mayor and City
ouncil should spend less time complaining about the States Local Government Aid
LGA) and more time managing the money they have.
ayor Coleman and the rest of his DFL friends, that hold a strangle hold on the
ity of Saint Paul; have taught us one thing that it is the seriousness of the
llegations that are more important than the nature of the crime. The Ramsey
ounty Attorney office (DFL due to a conflict of interest) should refer this
atter to the Scott or Dakota County for a total investigation into the whole
aint Paul Distinct Council System. It is time that the Saint Paul District
ouncil system is disbanded. After all it has only been a self-serving training
round for DFL activist.
s Deep Throat once said "follow the money"
ahlt Wally Arminius St. Paul Highland Park
Wahlt "Wally" Arminius Highland Park, Saint Paul
ore info: Info about Wahlt "Wally" Arminius:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/contacts/wahltwallyarminius This topic's messages
may be viewed at:
ttp://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/20wYVXK0evyzP9mYOWIH68
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AOL at AOL.com.From: Pat Byrne Date: 2007-05-23 10:51 (UTC) Short link
Actually Chuck, the way I read the comments, the big issue is not the
"33,000", but the "missing". And the way I read it the implications were worse.
And equally misapplied.
It'd be my guess that the money is not missing. Again, guessing, I would think
it was spent on something to do with the district council's business.
Just as long as we're all guessing.
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