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BREC chairman disputes treasurer's concerns about park system's financial situation
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BATON ROUGE - BREC's nine-person commission may be at odds Monday following the treasurer's revelations to the WBRZ Investigative Unit.
Commissioner and treasurer Dwayne Rogers began expressing concerns about BREC'S finances late last year, telling the Investigative Unit there was pushback from BREC when he started asking questions.
Though we requested comment on Friday and did not hear back, Monday morning, Kenneth Pointer, BREC's chairman, sent out this statement to the media.
As chair of the BREC Commission and on behalf of a majority of the Commission, we strongly object to the false claims and criticisms of BREC’s finance department that have been recently expressed to the media. The sentiments expressed by the Commission’s treasurer regarding agency financials and leadership are not those of the BREC Commission. Neither our Treasurer nor any other member of the public has ever been denied any public records that we have in our possession. Any concerns of members of the Commission should be addressed with me as the Chairman or with the Commission’s legal counsel.
We recently celebrated more than $50M of improvements at Greenwood Community Park including our nationally accredited zoo and historic JS Golf course. Those improvements came after successfully completing hundreds of improvement projects all across the parish as part of Imagine Your Parks (IYP) and IYP2 plans over the past 20 years. No additional taxes were raised, or debt was incurred to make these improvements.
All reported misappropriations of public assets, such as theft or fraud, were discovered and reported to the proper authorities in accordance with state laws by BREC’s internal audit team.
While BREC has had some staff turnover in the finance department, this challenge has been no different than the challenge faced across the country due to shortage of professional accountants. With the recent hire of a highly qualified Chief Financial Officer, who comes to the agency with more than 20 years of governmental accounting experience here in Louisiana, the department has already significantly improved its operations. The new CFO and his staff have completed the 2022 audit and are awaiting a draft of the report from the external auditors. The audits must be completed consecutively, as such, the finance team is currently working diligently to complete the 2023 audit.
We have full faith and confidence in our Superintendent’s management of our nationally accredited and Gold Medal award winning agency. Our Superintendent was recently recognized and inducted into the American Academy of Park and Recreation Administration. Under his leadership, the park system was able to secure our first national Gold Medal as the best park system in the country in more than 30 years. These recent accomplishments highlight our continued efforts to provide quality services to the community through our parks, facilities, and programs.
BREC's treasurer Dwayne Rogers told WBRZ there were "major problems" with BREC's finances and alleged there were financial records being kept from him. Pointer was not available for an interview.
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