News

By Jane Smith

    The Community Redevelopment Agency in Delray Beach successfully addressed 10 of 19 items found by state auditors in 2013, board members learned in early October.
    Five additional items were partially corrected and four remain uncorrected, according to the follow-up report from the audit conducted by the state Auditor General’s Office.
    “Auditors have to find stuff, that’s their jobs,” said CRA member Paul Zacks. He liked the tighter controls over nonprofit donations.
    For finding No. 15 that questioned expenditures for food and decorative items, CRA member Bill Branning said the expenses were related to CRA activities and events. “I appreciate the staff’s efforts to tighten up,” he said.
    At the second October meeting, the CRA executive director gave board members a revised staff response to the partially corrected and uncorrected findings. That response was forwarded to the state Auditor General’s Office before it issues a final report.
    Two findings addressed money given to nonprofits. In March 2014, the CRA secured a state Attorney General’s informal opinion that said, “Ultimately, however, the determination of whether a particular project satisfies the terms of the act is to be made by redevelopment agency itself.”
    The CRA has a policy to determine whether the nonprofit needs the money and limits funding in most cases to a maximum of 25 percent of the organization’s budget.
    In the case of the Arts Garage, operated by the Creative City Collaborative, the CRA is withholding this financial year’s $275,000 until it receives a complete financial audit that shows the Delray Beach CRA tax dollars were not used for the organization’s site in Pompano Beach.
    Also, the Arts Garage has not raised the $2.5 million needed to buy its Delray Beach site from the city, prompting the mayor to recommend it merge operations with Old School Square. CRA board member Branning, who is chairman of OSS, is working on that deal with his counterpart at the Arts Garage.
    “We are only interested in the Delray Beach location,” Branning said.
    The CRA money given to the Arts Garage sparked the audit in 2013. Delray Beach resident Gerry Franciosa, president of Delray Citizens Coalition Board, thought CRAs should not be giving tax dollars to music and entertainment venues, even if they are nonprofit. It became an issue in the 2013 Delray Beach mayoral race.
    The audit was requested by state Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, in March 2013. Joint legislative auditing committee Chairman Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington, then ordered the review into how the CRA is spending its tax dollars. The audit results were released in September 2013.
    The state auditing procedure gave the CRA 18 months to address the findings, and then the state reviewed the corrections.