Phoenix residents accused Phoenix City Councilmembers of misappropriation of funds concerning the Phoenix Parks and Preserves Initiative at a city council meeting.
At the meeting, the speakers demanded more accountability and transparency from city officials about how Phoenix Parks and Preserves Initiative funds are being used.
The initiative was approved by voters in 1999 and renewed in 2008 as a sales tax program that would allocate its funds to improve and expand the Phoenix park system as well as purchasing and maintaining desert and mountain preserves.
The reason for the distrust of these officials was attributed to a situation in 2013 where $15 million of PPPI funds were used to pay off debt from the city’s municipal golf courses which did not fall under the requirements of how PPPI funds were meant to be used.
While the City Council eventually agreed to return $7.5 million of the $15 million to the PPPI fund in 2017, concerned citizens like Jeremy Thacker believe that the PPPI fund “has turned into a slush fund.”
The PPPI fund is separate from the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation budget.
Thacker said that “the operating budget of parks remains well below the growth of the cities budget, while the PPPI budget has exponentially grown,” which raises concerns that the PPPI fund is still being misused.
Another reason for the public speakers’ distrust stems from the city’s apparent unwillingness to be forthcoming with PPPI financial information.
While the City of Phoenix releases an independent accountant’s report of PPPI funds yearly, public speaker Jim Sierakowski requested that he and the public be given access to see the actual checking accounts in which the PPPI funds are located.
Sierakowski said he “has done record requests for this for the last six years,” and “they’ve never produced any of this information.”
“We want to know where the money is going at the present time,” Sierakowski said. “We don’t want it misappropriated because you guys have no clue how to really manage anything.”
The Government Oversight and Accountability team obtained a legal opinion from attorney Joshua Carden on whether the actions of the City of Phoenix have complied with the legal requirements approved by voters for PPPI in 2008.
Carden said that the “use of PPPI funds for golf debt retirement was unauthorized by voters,” and the “voter-mandated annual public audit was never implemented,”both of which violated legal requirements for PPPI approved by voters in 2008.
When the public speakers were given a chance for final remarks at the end of the meeting, Sierakowski said “once again, I want to see the accounts, I want to see the balance sheet, I want to see it all, and if I have to go to court to get it, I will.”
