County clerk calls for another fair audit

The county fair could be in for another audit, and people connected to the organization are not happy.

The Kootenai County Board of Commissioners considered a proposal Tuesday, put forward by County Clerk Jim Brannon, calling for a forensic audit of the North Idaho State Fair’s finances.

In the commissioners’ small boardroom, a standing room only crowd of roughly 30 fair employees, volunteers and supporters turned out for the open session. Considering the forthcoming North Idaho State Fair is Aug. 24-28 and the fact Brannon wasn’t present to voice his reasoning for calling for another review of the fair’s books, the commissioners opted to push talk of a potential audit to a later date.

But not before hearing from some who attended the meeting.

“Brannon has looked at our books. We’ve talked to him, we’ve interviewed with him. There’s no need to continue this harassment for a while,” said Fair Board Chairman Gerald Johnson.

The first audit, completed earlier this year, raised financial concerns about the county fairgrounds, which gave employees payday advances and had Quickbook numbers that did not match an external auditor's balance sheets.

In a June 14 county finance memo, officials noted most of the financial controls related to the fair were in order, but identified poor financial oversight and bookkeeping.

The Clerk's Office wants to take another look at the books with a wider scope. Johnson was adamant enough has already been done.

He noted the upcoming fair could be the best one yet and wanted the commissioners to disregard the clerk's requests for another audit or at least wait to revisit the issue until early 2017.

“I think everyone in this room can see what's going on. And it doesn't stop, and you guys need to stop it,” Johnson said.

Commissioner Dan Green, who said there was no wrongdoing or malicious intent by the fair board in its audited bookkeeping, believed the topic wasn't worth revisiting. Commissioners Marc Eberlein and David Stewart, thought differently but weren't ready for action to be taken before the fair.

"It's not the right time to mess with this stuff," Eberlein said.

Johnson also requested that Stewart step down from his duties as the Board of Commissioners’ liaison to the fair, noting the relationship has deteriorated over the last six months.

Another fair board member, Linda Rider, said Stewart attended half the meetings and would leave three-hour meetings after just one hour.

Stewart disagreed.

"I think I represented the fair well to this board. I've attended almost all of your meetings,” he said.

Eberlein said he doesn't blame Stewart for leaving the three-hour meetings early.

“That's a long meeting. That's a busy day. I'm making a comment that I wouldn't be there for three hours,” Eberlein said.

Katie Bane, a fair volunteer, also spoke on behalf of the fair.

"The contentious relationship that now exists in Kootenai County between the fair board, the fair foundation, the fair manager and the general public has never before been as bad as it is," Bane said. “You have a volunteer base that starts at 5 a.m. and oftentimes goes until midnight or 2 a.m. Many of us are business owners who are active in the community. We're business owners. We put in the time. We have the passion and we are subject to losing the entire fair board, the entire fair foundation and entire management of the fairgounds because this is so contentious. It's not fun anymore. You've taken the passion away from the people, and I want you to know that."