City gives CARS $1,000 despite earlier refusal

City gives CARS $1,000 despite earlier refusal

August 16, 2001

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

After refusing to donate any funds to Cortez Addiction Recovery Services in January, the Cortez City Council reversed its decision and granted the service $1,000 at Tuesday’s city-council meeting.

Alan Cook, director of the program, approached the council at the workshop to ask the city to help cover a $6,100 shortfall at the end of the fiscal year.

The council normally gives the service between $8,000 and $9,000 a year, but refused after CARS mysteriously lost $22,000 last year.

Cook said he discovered the $22,000 was missing in August 2000, when he was preparing the financial documents for audit and realized none of the payments withheld for payroll taxes had been made to the Internal Revenue Service.

The business manager responsible for filing the payments left the service the week before Cook’s find. Cook said that the Cortez Police Department investigated, and not enough information was found to charge anyone with embezzling the money.

Subsequently, the service had to write off a $13,000 loss; the remaining $9,000 was recovered through the service’s insurance, said Cook. But as a result of the loss, the service had to take out a $842-per-month mortgage on the CARS. building at 35 N. Ash St.

"What you guys do I believe to be a good and valuable public service. To say I have questions about the way you manage your money is a big understatement," said city-council member Jim Herrick.

CARS has offered non-profit out-patient education and therapy to court-ordered clients with DUI convictions for the last 12 years. The service also offers individual counseling and outpatient drug and alcohol treatment to self-admitted persons including youths, and is collaborating with the county health department to offer free HIV testing.

Cook said the program has the best success rate on the Western Slope, with a 40 percent recidivism rate within the first six months of treatment.

"The programs need to be there. We have to have the programs," said Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane.

"I cannot commit taxpayers’ money to an organization without accountability," said Herrick, who asked, "Are you comfortable that this problem won’t reoccur?"

Cook said that since the discovery the service no longer allows spouses to work in administrative positions in the same agency, because that "creates an accountability issue." CARS also has all of the financial records reviewed on a quarterly basis by Kuenzler and Boysen Accounting, and is employing a different accounting firm for the service’s annual audit.

"We had a looser structure," explained Cook, who said previous to this, all the bookkeeping was done internally and the agency filed its own quarterly reports for payroll and tax reports. It was audited annually by Kuenzler and Boysen. Cook also said the position of business manager was replaced by an office manager who splits financial responsibilities with the director, and the current seven-member board has become more active and reviews the records as well.

Cook admitted that CARS has been notoriously poor at reaching out for other sources of funding, but is now approaching businesses in the community and writing at least two grant proposals.

"We’re holding our ground, barely," explained Cook. "This is the first time we’ve ever had a $6,100 shortfall. I’m aggressively trying to fix that."

A tenuous balance between the costs of therapy and what clients can pay has to be struck, said Cook. "We’re not ever going to have hefty retained earnings. My goal is to break even."

"A lot of these people that’s in there, nobody goes out there and twists their arm," said council member Harold Foster. "Like Jim says, I don’t want to see taxpayers’ money go down the hole."

In the end, however, the council voted unanimously to grant the service $1,000.

In other business:

Dennis Garrou, the rector of the Anglican Church of St. Phillip the Evangelist, asked the council at workshop to consider implementing a beautification program on the County Road G and 21 leading to the municipal airport. Garrou said he is worried about the city’s "image." The council said that since the road was in the county, and there could be some property-rights issues involved in paying or forcing someone to clean up his or her field, they would wait for a "grassroots effort" before proceeding.
The council approved, on first reading, an ordinance that would allow the council to pass resolutions for new signage at public parks or city property. Once a sign prohibiting a certain activity is installed, such as skateboarding on the tennis courts or leading dogs onto the golf course, police can cite violators.
The council approved a contract to begin developing a new BMX track on the property the city purchased that lies east of Parque de Vida, south of Empire, and west of the ditch bank. The American Bicycle Association is designing the track, providing oversight for its completion, and providing ABA-certified equipment. The city must provide the property, electricity, water, 2000 to 4,000 yards of dirt, a concrete pad for the starting gate, equipment for construction, and a minimum of 20 sanctioned races per year for five years.

Chris Burkett, director of Cortez Parks and Recreation, estimated that the track would be ready three weeks from when the track-builder comes to Cortez this fall.