Something Smells Fishy on Waterfront Drive
Oct 01, 2008
goldeyes, katz;, mayor;, non-profit;, riverside;, sam;
Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz is at the centre of a highly-publicized conflict-of-interest debate. If you haven’t been reading the papers or watching TV lately, the issue surrounds Katz’s baseball team (the Winnipeg Goldeyes) and a non-profit group called Riverside Park Management (RPM).
In 1997, this non-profit was created to give underprivileged kids the chance to enjoy a Goldeyes game free of charge. Nice idea, right? Then why does this non-profit lease Canwest Park and three adjacent properties from the city and then sublet them to the Goldeyes?
Sound fishy? Wait, it gets better. Earlier this year, the city decided to erase a $233,000 tab on outstanding taxes on one of the properties (a 2.4-hectare gravel parking lot at the corner of Water Avenue and Waterfront Drive) – a very nice gesture from a city that is financially scraping by to deliver essential services and fix crumbling infrastructure.
To compound matters, RPM will not make its financial statements available to the public – a move that should rub every tax-payer in Winnipeg the wrong way. After all, it’s their taxes that will make up the $233,000 shortfall from the erased tax bill. And for what? A non-profit that leases land to a baseball team?
I worked for years in the non-profit sector and never saw the government forgive that kind of tax bill for any of the organizations I worked for. And every one of them made their financial statements available to the public. But in RPM’s case, they will not show how their revenues are spent or what their directors are paid.
Which begs the question, is Riverside Property Management actually a non-profit organization? And even if they are, what makes their organization more worthy of such a gift from the city than any other non-profit?
I’m sure that’s the question on the minds of every non-profit group in the city. I’m sure they’re also wondering how they can become better friends with the Mayor and a few city councilors.
Comments
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This does sound fishy. There is such a conflict of interest with our mayor and this Riverside Park Mgmt. I just hope for the next civic election that there is someone better to run against Sam Katz. He hasn't done anything for Wpg, except create broken campaign promises, like fixing traffic.
Aries - 2008-10-01 15:02
When can we vote for a new mayor? He's done nothing to help Winnipeg.
Frank - 2008-10-16 12:15