North Valley Arts Council's executive board decided Friday to decline the city of Grand Forks' offer to help with organizing finances, as board members said NoVAC will have financial statements completed soon.
At a City Council Finance/Development Committee meeting Monday, council members told NoVAC Board Vice President Bryan Hoime they wanted the city's accountants to help NoVAC organize its finances, as Hoime was not able to provide any financial information, such as the nonprofit's gross income from the past two years.
When the council's offer was discussed at a NoVAC executive board meeting Friday, some board members said it would be good transparency to have the city help, but others said it will complicate the work already in progress by NoVAC's new board treasurer, who works four hours each week sorting through old finances.
"I don't know what it is they (the city) want to do," said Board Treasurer Katie Darling, who is a certified accountant. She said she has been working to sort through NoVAC's finances from recent years, to see where the organization is financially, but that process takes time.
Board Secretary George Kelley said the City Council's questions likely stem from "the whisper campaign that's going on at City Hall."
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"We have some people in City Hall who really want to help out this organization, and then there are other people in City Hall who have made statements that are not as helpful," Kelley said.
"They're fostering a negative impression that doesn't exist anymore," Board President Bonnie Peterson added.
Board member Carrie Longmire said she thought it would be "good for openness" if NoVAC allowed the city's Finance Department to look through its financials. "If we deny it, what's that going to look like?" she asked.
While Kelley agreed NoVAC should be transparent, he said it would be best if Darling finishes her work without the city's help and then provides a complete, accurate financial statement to the city soon.
Peterson agreed, saying the organizational process could become more complicated by adding the city's accountants.
Also, in addition to preparing financial statements, NoVAC plans to get audited later this year, Peterson said. The last time the nonprofit was audited was 2012.
"What does the city want to do?" Darling asked. "I don't feel NoVAC has any real problem. There's not missing information. ... Financially speaking, I haven't come across anything that's wrong. It's just not in a readily available, readable format."
Kelley added that considering it took about two years for NoVAC's financial and other recordkeeping to reach the level of disorganization it has, it is reasonable for NoVAC to need a couple of months to sort through it all.
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NoVAC annually receives some public funding from the city, including managing about $123,400 this year for the Arts Re-Grant Program and receiving about $10,400 this year from the city's Special Events budget.
