 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Audit faults museum's management
By LISA GREENE, Times Staff Writer Pinellas County auditors say management at Heritage Village, the county's open-air historic museum, was so lax that they have recommended nearly 50 changes to the museum's operating and financial practices. Auditors found no evidence of fraud but documented a pattern of sloppy bookkeeping, some questionable spending and lax safety practices at the village, which receives some 160,000 visitors each year. The biggest problem was the lack of a clear agreement between Heritage Village and the nonprofit groups that help run it, creating general financial confusion. "There are certain lines you do not cross, and Heritage Village crossed that line," said Bob Melton, internal audit director. Since Melton arrived in Pinellas last year, no single audit has recommended so many changes. Staffers already are working on most of the changes in the audit, which commissioners will receive today. The audit involves a relatively small amount of money -- the county budgeted $612,000 for the village last year -- but comes at a critical time. County officials start interviews today to hire a new director to replace Ken Ford, who retired in June after leading the operation since the village's creation 25 years ago. And members of the Pinellas County Historical Commission clashed with staffers recently after the staff removed a fence separating the village from the rest of Pinewood Cultural Park. The commission and the audit say the fence is needed for safety, but county officials disagree. "The new director is going to have quite an assignment list when he or she starts," said Liz Warren, who became parks director in July. "But it's a phenomenal property, and it's such an asset to Pinellas County." Among the problems the audit found this spring: County staffers encouraged visitors to donate to the nonprofit Pinellas County Historical Society, rather than directly to the county. But staffers still decided how to spend some $10,800 worth of the nonprofit's money. Some of those donations paid for things that county policy prohibits, including sending flowers to sick volunteers and throwing parties for volunteer groups, Melton said. Society funds also were used to pay county workers about $3,150 extra to clean village houses, although the county should already pay for such work, and taxes weren't withheld from the money, Melton said. Auditors saw several safety problems, including a maintenance worker standing in the scoop of a front-end loader while working on the side of a house. Also, docents who gave tours of three historic homes to schoolchildren locked the doors behind them, creating a serious fire risk. And county staffers and volunteers didn't have CPR or other emergency training. After a 1993 effort to win national accreditation for the village failed, the accrediting group listed changes needed. Most of those have not been made. Part of a historic home was closed to the public because Ford was storing a drum set, couch and other furniture there. Ford couldn't be reached for comment Monday. But Connie Mudano, a member of the Pinellas County Historical Commission and a former historic society board member, said the audit shouldn't detract from Ford's legacy. "If it weren't for what Ken Ford did, we wouldn't have the village there today," she said.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times North Pinellas desks |
