By Dewey Terrill
JC Post
Financial information to the return of a popular Military Affairs Council Director were action items for the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors on Thursday.
The Board approved the return of Rob Wilson as MAC Director, on August 1. His termination by former Chamber President of Operations Mickey Fornaro-Dean in May set off turmoil within the organization that resulted in her removal, ouster of one board member and a staffer plus audits and resignations of some appointed committee members.
Wilson was almost immediately hired on a temporary monthly contract basis by the City as their military liaison but can now return as MAC Director. "As long as I continue to do the job for betterment of the community and assist our veterans I'm excited that they're willing to bring me back and continue what I've been doing."
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Cindy Robison, CPB, of CNR Consulting, outlined concerns raised by an audit. "The main concerns were pretty blatant violations of government standards and compliance standards for nonprofit organizations that were basically risking the Chamber of Commerce losing the nonprofit status if the items weren't corrected."
Robison noted that there were programs within the organization that share the tax identification number with the Chamber and those programs were loaning money to the Chamber and charging interest. "A nonprofit organization cannot loan money to itself."
She noted that the largest violation involved employing Fornaro-Dean as a contract laborer for a long time, and especially in the amounts, violated nonprofit standards. "Basically she was enriching herself." Robison noted that it became a major compliance violation and the Chamber should have had Fornaro-Dean on the payroll and should have been paying payroll taxes on her. The IRS is not expected to like that revelation. For contract labor there needs to be a specific end date but the Chamber kept extending the contract.
Fornaro-Dean was being paid $174,000 per year plus mileage reimbusement that totaled just under $1.2 million dollars, plus for other travel and expenses As far as any payback is concerned Robison believes it would be tax related and have to be worked out with the IRS.
Chamber Board Chair Ashley King said on the identification of problems she thinks that they're just at the tip of the iceberg. CNR is contracted to continue their review until the end of the year.
City and County tax dollars help fund the Chamber.