Park board failed to steward our money | Letter to the Editor

I think the Vashon Park District board as a whole has failed our community in its fiduciary responsibilities. As a medical center CEO, I know what it is like to have financial “surprises,” but not finding thousands of dollars of bills from a prior year or to suddenly find there is a substantial deficit in cash flow when the budget forecast was a surplus — these are all things that get chief financial officers fired.

September 25, 2012 2:41 pm

I think the Vashon Park District board as a whole has failed our community in its fiduciary responsibilities. As a medical center CEO, I know what it is like to have financial “surprises,” but not finding thousands of dollars of bills from a prior year or to suddenly find there is a substantial deficit in cash flow when the budget forecast was a surplus — these are all things that get chief financial officers fired.

There is no question that individual commissioners are good people. That’s not what is in question. But they have failed us all in stewarding the money they have been entrusted with. I am saddened that our Vashon community needs to suffer so much when, with a little oversight, the situation could have been identified early on and steps taken to respond to it.

 

— Rick Skillman