BID audit invalid, chairman says
By Michael Jahina
April 9, 2003 9:00 p.m.
The Westwood Village Community Alliance met Wednesday to discuss
the results of its audit, released Tuesday, with local community
organizers and merchants.
The private auditing firm Cannon and Company was hired to audit
the WVCA, the title maintained by the previous Business Improvement
District, for the three fiscal years in which it failed to audit
itself.
However, Cannon & Co. was unable to certify any of the three
annual audits, claiming that “substantial uncertainty
exists” due to councilman Jack Weiss’ decision to not
renew the BID.
BID Chairman Kam Hekmat was very vocal in his desire for Cannon
& Co. to certify the audit, at the Nov. 12 board meeting, and
expressed great displeasure that it didn’t happen.
“This audit is not worth the paper it is printed
on,” he said.
Hekmat also specified during the Nov. 12 meeting that the city
clerk should be responsible for finding out who has been paid and
who hasn’t.
City Clerk Michael Carey agreed to work on that and said he
would release the results in the upcoming weeks.
The audit states that the WVCA had $99,642 as of Sept. 30, 2002.
Carey said that $19,400 remains at present. It is unknown how
exactly the difference was spent, and community organizers are
yearning to discover this.
However, as of Sept 30, 2002 the WVCA had $263,084 in
liabilities.
Whole Foods Market owner Doug Brown expressed a desire to move
on because former WVCA executive director “Bob Walsh kept
everything in boxes and handled all financial records” during
the three years in which the BID wasn’t audited.
Doug Brown was the WVCA treasurer for two of the three years
during which the BID wasn’t audited, from 1999 to 2001.
Also during the meeting, some discussed an attempt to transfer
sponsorship of the Farmers’ Market to a non-profit
organization, in essence giving Village merchants no say in the
activities of the open market, which blocks two streets once a week
and presents competition to some merchants.
