Othello man questions crane festival finances

OTHELLO - A concerned Othello citizen wants to know where the financial records of the Sandhill Crane Festival are.

Sean Bates, of Othello, questioned the legitimacy of some figures previously provided by councilmembers regarding the profit made by the Sandhill Crane Festival during a city council meeting on Monday.

"In a recent (newspaper) article, city administrator Ehman Sheldon was quoted as saying the festival brought around $40,000," said Bates. "Councilman Kenneth Johnson also made a reference that the festival brought in $1.8 million to the city in the last five years. But when I go back to see where these figures are coming from, there is no way of tracing these financial records. I just want transparency."

Othello City Council recently gave the festival an additional $5,000 to help with festival activities, in addition to the $9,000 already budgeted for the festival.

Bates stated Othello city policy had a 30 percent cap on giving any additional tourism funding to organizations. Based on that policy, the crane festival would have only been able to receive $12,776 in total funds.

City finance officer Mike Bailey stated the 30 percent policy is not part of municipal code and is only a guideline to distribute funds.

"City council still has the discretion to distribute the tourism fund however they want," said Bailey.

Bates stated he had been exchanging e-mails with city employee Roger Krug, who reportedly provided Johnson with the $1.8 million figure, in an attempt to get a hold of the financial records. 

In an interview, Bates said he believes councilmembers were showing favoritism and were not dispersing tourism funds from the hotel and motel sales tax fairly among all other tourism-related events in the city. 

The city had $42,511 in the 2011 tourism fund to give to organizations promoting the city through tourism.

Bates stated RCW 67.28.1816 required funds used for any tourism promotion "must report to the legislature and the governor on the use and economic impact of lodging tax revenues by local jurisdictions since Jan. 1, 2008."

"There is no record that I could find dating to January 2008. Show me the money. Show me where the money is coming from," he said.

According to the law, the report is due Sept. 1, 2012.