1/2/14

Dear Park Board,

I am writing you in response to the letter I received from the Mayor on December 30, 2013, entitled “Job Reassignment”. I would like to respond to the allegations and ensure that you have an understanding of my position.

I disagree with the allegations made by the Mayor and Jeff Logston that are being used to justify my demotion from Director of Parks and Recreation to Marketing Coordinator. These allegations are unfounded and do not merit reassignment or demotion. Here are the facts:

Commons tenant rent and utilities. Allegation- Excerpt from Mayor’s letter- “When these omissions were brought to your attention, you failed to notify me or the president of The Commons Board for more than a month…”

The Truth – 12/13/13 Stan Gamso, Heather Pope, and Sarah Cannon called to notify me that there was an issue. 12/18/13 Jamie met with Tim Larken of Snappy’s in efforts to resolve the problem.12/19/13 Stan called me after speaking with Jamie and said he was very concerned they may not pay and said one of us needs to notify the Mayor. I volunteered to call her.12/19/13 I immediately called the Mayor and got voicemail. I then called Sherry Stark, president of the Commons Board.

3:02 PM – The Mayor called me back and we discussed the issue. I informed her that I would be happy to contact Larken myself and she told me not to call, that this would be handled by attorneys.

Credit CardsAllegation- Excerpt from Mayor’s letter- “A recent internal audit of City credit card expenditures the last 12 months shows questionable judgment in the use of the credit cards in the Parks Department…”

The Truth – The credit card misuse allegations are unconscionable. These charges relate to lunches for the Park Board during meetings that were approved by Jeff Logston, volunteer boards($201.00 for soccer board, $120.08 for Baseball Board), and the Parks and Recreation Christmas lunch($510.74).All of our expenditures are reviewed by staff, board, Clerk/Treasurer’s office and State Board of Accounts.

Deferred MaintenanceAllegation- Excerpt from Mayor’s letter- “…close the gap between the annual cost of maintaining our parks system and available funding. In the last 24 months you’ve been unable to make any progress…”

The Truth- The Mayor is correct that there is a considerable amount of deferred maintenance. Thanks to the City Council our Parks and Recreation Department Received $3,000,000 to focus on catching up with deferred maintenance and we have been working hard over the last 24 months to focus those funds on asset preservation and improvement. Also in the last 24 months, thanks to our hard-working staff and the leadership and generosity of community philanthropists we have been able to secure $2,750,000 in private contributions for Parks and Recreation facilities.

I hope this clarifies my position. I welcome any questions you may have. Thank you for your service.

Sincerely, Ben Wagner