OUR PLACE
The BID stumbles a bit.
Applying to the city council for that entity to rule on requiring an audit was accomplished at the last Business Improvement District meeting. Speedo Condos, the chairman of the board, pushed that through. The first time the BID appealed to have the former board’s financial dealings investigated with a forensic audit, the move failed on procedural issues. The real shock on the BID’s agenda were some items that didn’t seem like they should ever have been on that agenda at all. They were put there by Kristi Torrentino, the event coordinator.
Moving the municipal pier was on the agenda, something that the BID has no control over. Another issue was the potential closing of Wrigley Drive (later it was announced that the only consideration was a closure during Octoberfest and not permanently as one might have assumed from the reading of the entry). A parking garage to be built between Simple Restaurant and Towne Bank was also to be discussed, another subject wherein the BID has no control. That issue was turned into a discussion about having people park in that location and then be shuttled back and forth to Octoberfest and Center Street speed bumps.
The City Council met to determine if a forensic audit of the BID’s financial history should be conducted.
The brave and stalwart City Council of Lake Geneva stood up again, just like it did against the Town of Geneva. It voted unanimously to institute an action to begin a forensic audit by going out to auditing firms to contract and find out how much such an audit would cost. Some members of the council were not happy, although all voted the right way. The City Comptroller spoke against the need for an audit, as the BID is audited every year. Mary Jo Fesenmeir would not be stopped however in her bid to bring financial credibility back to the BID and noted that the comptroller had allowed checks to be written when no money was in the BID account, previously.
Speedo Condos, the chairman of the BID board, was brilliant in laying out why a committee that works directly at the behest of the city (and the city controls and oversees all its finances) needed the city to initiate and then pursue the forensic audit that will entail much more analytically defined information as to what money came in, what money went out and where it all went for the last three years.
Person of the Week

Sandra Finkmay the very fun and very talented local artists shares some of her wearable collections at the Richmond Cafe, but also has art at Gallery 223 in Lake Geneva. She travels the world for inspiration and creates along the way making the world a little more beautiful.