Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Ketchum was and is still broke


I take exception to Ketchum City Administrator Gary Marks' recent opinion piece (Jan. 15) claiming that "Ketchum was not and is not broke."

During last spring's debate regarding the Sun Valley/Ketchum consolidation, the opponents of consolidation clearly detailed that Ketchum's fund balances were dangerously below the standards established by the Government Finance Officers Association (i.e. Ketchum was broke).

Since then, over $600,000 was transferred from the Ketchum Urban Renewal Agency to the city of Ketchum. These funds were supposed to be used to complete the Fourth Street renovation project or for other URA purposes. In September, before I moved from Ketchum to Sun Valley, I publicly objected to this transfer. In response, Mr. Marks asserted that Ketchum needed the money more than the URA did. Without having raided the URA of these funds, Ketchum would still be grossly in violation of cash reserve standards set by the Government Finance Officers Association.

Mr. Marks also ignores that the $1.5 million street maintenance fund (15 percent of the Ketchum budget) has no reserves at all. I also publicly objected to this practice because it violates the fund balance standards set by the Government Finance Officers Association. In response, Mr. Marks stated that Ketchum is not required to follow Government Finance Officers Association guidelines.

Finally, Ketchum's auditors recently noted that Ketchum's financial statements possess material weaknesses and significant deficiencies because Ketchum does not possess the quality and quantity of personnel required to prepare adequate financial statements using generally accepted accounting principals. In essence, even Ketchum's own auditors confirm that the financial information Mr. Marks regularly puts out is unreliable.

The fact is that Ketchum was broke, and is still financially broken. Mr. Marks should focus more of his energies on ensuring that Ketchum's finances are managed within the guidelines of CPAs and other professionals who oversee municipal financial operations, and less time on writing editorials.

Jim Donoval

Sun Valley




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