Letter to the Editor - June 19, 2013

Follow the Money

Dear Editor:

One investigative technique when investigating a person or organization is to “follow the money.” Recently a group of us have discovered how money has moved from the commercial food vendors selling at the Sanders County Fair to a company called Comp-Dyn, Inc.. Read on to find out who controls Comp-Dyn, Inc..

Here is how it is done: Mr. Hashisaki, the Sanders County Fair manager, has been writing the commercial food vendors contracts. For at least the last three years many of these contracts state that the vendor must “donate” $100.00 to the Sanders County Fair Foundation, a 501 c3 non-profit foundation. Recently the county auditor said that this was inappropriate and should not be done. It should be noted that County Commissioner Glen Magera is the president of the Fair Foundation. Also, before Mr. Magera became the Commissioner, he was the chairman of the fair board. Bruce Icenoggle is a director of the Fair Foundation and currently the vice-chairman of the fair board. He previously was the chairman of the fair board when he replaced Mr. Magera. We don’t want to forget Mr. Hashisaki who is director and treasurer of the Fair Foundation. These Fair Foundation facts can be found on the Montana Secretary of State website.

According to Montana Law, “a public officer or public employee may not acquire an interest in any business or undertaking that the officer or employee has reason to believe may directly and substantially affected to its economic benefit by official action to be taken by the officer’s or employee’s agency.” Violation of this law “constitute a breach of the public trust and public duty.” The county commissioners and the county attorney should take a closer look at the relationship that these people have with the Fair Foundation.

So now after the fair is over, the county, acting as an agent for the Fair Foundation, receives the money and then must transfer it to the Fair Foundation. Mr. Hashisaki has in the past written checks from the Fair’s petty cash account and paid the money to the Fair Foundation. This last year Mr. Hashisaki took the money out in CASH to pay the Fair Foundation. Both of these methods of payments have been found by the county auditor to be inappropriate based on Montana Budget Law.

Now the Fair Foundation has the money. Because the Fair Foundation is a 501 c3 and considered a private entity, we the public do not have the legal right to know how it spends the money it received. However, at a recent fair board meeting, Mr. Hashisaki disclosed that the Fair Foundation has been paying Comp-Dyn Inc. to maintain the Fair’s website. Based on the Montana Secretary of State website, Mr. Hashisaki is the director, president and treasurer of Comp-Dyn, Inc.

If you know of any inappropriate actions or have any opinions of the fair, now is the time to voice them. If you need the telephone number or email address of any of the county commissioners or fair board members, please contact me.

Sincerely,

Bob Heckman

Plains

826-3405