August 12, 2004

Nancy Pyle asks for Youth sports project audit

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

In a letter to Mayor Gonzales and the City Council dated Aug. 5, District 10 city council candidate Nancy Pyle formerly requested an expedited audit of the McKean Road Youth Sports Facility Project.

“I am deeply concerned about the much needed youth sports complex on McKean Road in the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve,” she wrote. “Our children deserve to have a safe place in which to participate in sports activities. Time to complete this decade-old project is long overdue.”

Vice Mayor Pat Dando said they will respond to the letter much like they do all requests of that nature—the city staff will collect the information and the city manager will prepare a response for her and the mayor to review before it is released.

“We take this very seriously,” she says. “Our hope is to have something out by the first of next week. But I don’t think there’s going to be a whole lot more information other than the response I’ve already given, which tells how the money was allocated and that there was obviously some misunderstanding or miscommunication with the reporter that did the story (referring to an article in another publication). I still have no idea where their $2 million figure came from.”

In light of the recent events, the AYA board is clearly frustrated, however they say they have nothing to hide. “Everything is well documented and above board,” says President Dan Smyth, “and we will have it available as requested. We’re also currently working on posting all of our financials on the Web site as suggested and plan to go live with them soon.”

However, the cloud appears to be shifting directions, casting as much confusion on the issue of who’s in charge and who remains responsible for the paperwork.

According to Pyle, the examination will serve to determine who is ultimately responsible for the project, whether it is public or private, and how funding has and will be used—casting blame on meager accounting controls and audit trails and calling it a game of hide-and-seek with taxpayer money that will prohibit the city from carrying out its fiduciary responsibilities.

“I think it’s predominately the city’s responsibility to ensure that the funds that are dispersed are accounted for,” Pyle says. “I’m looking for us to be able to proceed forward by getting the problematic areas taken care of.”

Pyle states that she is not out to stall the process, rather to shed light on the project so that the AYA can move forward in a more positive manner. She says she is confident that it will not require a full-blown investigation, but [that it] is necessary in order to settle the controversy that has been raised over the past few weeks.

“The AYA wants to proceed without a cloud over what they’re doing and the city wants to engender trust in what they’re doing,” Pyle adds. “Both would benefit by providing a better guide to good business practices.”

Rich De La Rosa, who is also running for the District 10 seat says the request was premature, but adds that the AYA should have been more transparent.

“That wasn’t the way to do it,” he says. “They should have been given the chance to answer some of the questions first. Now it’s been brought forward to the mayor and the city council and they certainly have to honor her request.”

“We all know what it is to be volunteers,” De La Rosa adds. “It’s a lot of hard work and long hours. You never have enough help or enough time. I can certainly empathize with the AYA and what they’re going through, but they still have to answer the questions so this can go forward.”