Soap Lake council takes no action after meeting to discuss state audit

SOAP LAKE — There was no action taken by Soap Lake city councilmembers after a two-hour executive session on Friday to discuss matters pertaining to a recent state audit that uncovered issues related to the Soap Lake Police Department.

Numerous Soap Lake residents voiced concerns recently over an audit released by the Washington State Auditor’s Office which, among other findings, discovered that about $20,000 worth of gym equipment was stored at SLPD Chief Glenn Quantz’s personal athletic business, the ULBFIT Training Center, then located in Soap Lake.

Friday’s meeting was a continuation of Wednesday night’s regularly scheduled council meeting. The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting originally called for an executive session, but since the city’s legal counsel was not present at the meeting, the decision was made to continue the meeting to Friday and reconvene for an executive session to discuss personnel matters. There was no action taken by the council after the more than two-hour executive session. The only comments from the council after the executive session came from councilmember John Glassco.

“I would like to make a statement just to clarify our position as a council. We had a lively meeting. We had a good exchange of information from every single person in the meeting,” Glassco stated. “We benefited from our legal council and what we really agreed to do is look forward to improving our city policies and procedures for the future and to take a good solid look at many of the things that we discussed.”

The city received the gym equipment through the Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO) 1033 program, which is administered by the Department of Enterprise Services (DES) and gives police agencies the opportunity to obtain excess military assets for police-related purposes at no cost.

Through the program, the SLPD was able to acquire 285 assets, which included a piece of Bobcat equipment, an ATV, snow blowers, snowmobiles, trailers, a cargo truck, gym equipment, firearms, and other assets. The audit found the following discrepancies:

• Quantz signed a contract with the DES to receive the assets on the city’s behalf as the “Chief Executive Official,” despite not being priorly authorized to do so by the council.

• Assets were acquired for “speculative” use at a future off-road vehicle park in the city, which have a combined estimated value of $129,300.

• The SLPD acquired gym and training equipment in the amount of $20,350 that was stored and “maintained for use” at ULBFIT.

• The SLPD began surplussing and selling assets in 2013, with the sales done in cash only and five of the assets sold to city employees.

• Quantz was given authority to set a price for the SLPD’s surplussed assets, which he did verbally to another officer. He also reportedly didn’t examine final sales paperwork that was given to the city’s finance director.

After reviewing 64 of the 285 assets acquired, auditors found non-compliance concerns over 26 assets, with two assets totaling $1,700 that were not accounted for.

Christine Quantz, who owns ULBFIT with her husband, Glenn Quantz, told the Columbia Basin Herald the equipment acquired by the city was stored at ULBFIT because the city did not have any other location to store the equipment nor a location where officers could put the equipment to good use. Christine Quantz's assertion is in tune with former SLPD volunteer officer Yvonne Hoover's statement to the council at Wednesday night's meeting, who also said the equipment was stored at ULBFIT because the city did not have any other place to put it.

The audit brought into question floor mats and martial arts equipment that was acquired by the city and stored at ULBIFIT, which Christine Quantz refuted by stating the floor mats and martial arts equipment were never used at the training center and the mats were never even unrolled for public use. Also brought up by the audit were pieces of cardio equipment that were stored at ULBFIT. Christine Quantz confirmed that at least two pieces of cardio equipment were stored at her business, but stated their condition was "rough" at best and rarely, if ever, used, as the training center already had professional-grade equipment available to its customers.

She said the equipment that was housed at the business was only there for about six months and was later moved off-site. She said ULBFIT, which recently moved from Soap Lake to Ephrata in February, has already suffered in terms of business in the wake of the release of the audit and she wanted to make a statement on behalf of her business. Glenn Quantz declined to comment on whether or not the points raised by his wife were included in a written response to the findings of the audit that was submitted to the council, per the request of Mayor Raymond Gravelle.

The city’s response to the audit states the city council and financial staff have worked with the auditor’s office to address the findings of the audit in the following areas:

• All assets have been returned to the city for proper storage and administration.

• The council has updated its process for entering into contractual agreements.

• The city’s financial staff has implemented a city asset tracking policy.

• The city’s financial staff has implemented a process for the receipting and depositing of all cash sales of city property, written authorization for the sale of property at less than the advertised price, and proper council approval of surplus property.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.