1090 Arrington Circle Oviedo, FL 32765 September 16, 2010
City of Oviedo City Manager’s Office 400 Alexandria Blvd. Oviedo, FL 32765
Re: OLYF and City of Oviedo Parks & Recreation Department Agreements
Dear Mr. Richard Gestrich:
I live in the City of Oviedo at the address stated above. I have also been associated with many local youth organizations like Oviedo Babe Ruth Baseball, OBR, as a coach and Vice President on the Board of Directors, the Florida JETS Wrestling Club as a coach and Board Member and Oviedo Youth Football League, OLYF, as a coach. Two of the organizations mentioned, use the City of Oviedo Parks & Recreation facilities to practice on and or play games throughout the week and or weekend.
It has come to my attention that the Parks & Recreation Director is selectively enforcing the City of Oviedo facility usage agreements and payments to benefit one organization over the others that use the sports facilities for practice and or games. This organization is OLYF, which Frank Sloan is the Commissioner of. Also, there appears to be a conflict of interest as Frank Sloan and Drew Boulware, Director of Parks & Recreation, are personal friends as well as Frank Sloan had served on a board for Parks & Recreation in the past. Because of this relationship Frank Sloan’s organization has had a financial advantage while others have paid the correct cost for field usage.
What I have uncovered through The Freedom of Information Act and a pending law suit against OLYF is that they are in breach of the agreements from 2006 through 2009 by not making payments in full outlined in these agreements, see below list. Another complaint is that the agreements are not equitable and fair when comparing them with other youth organizations that had agreements with the city in those same years i.e. OBR as one example.
2006: Weed & Feed 2007: Weed & Feed 2008: Weed & Feed 2009: $15 in resident and $20 out of city resident 2010: flat rate $10 per head, was paid
I have several questions based on the above findings.
1. Why are there different agreements written for OLYF verses OBR or any other youth organization that uses city fields? They should all be the same based on in/out of resident fee, which I believe is $15/$20. 2. Why in 2009 was the agreement for $15/$20 and then changed to $10 in 2010? 3. Where are the payments for list above? 4. Who has fiduciary and contract oversight over the Director of Parks & Recreation? 5. It appears that no one in the city management is reviewing these contracts based on what I have uncovered. Is this an accounting department task to ensure that these types of agreements are written properly without bias and paid? In conclusion, I feel that the Director of Parks & Recreation is using his position to benefit a friend and his organization while other youth groups are paying the full price. From the records obtained from The Freedom of Information Act and the OLYF bank records that I have shows that these payments were not made to the city. I would expect the city to request in full all outstanding payments from OLYF. I would like to obtain all documents that show these outstanding payments have been made under The Freedom of Information Act. In addition, I believe the Director of Parks & Recreation Department needs to be scrutinized in detail on these types of activities prior to final signature of these agreements as he has shown he cannot be trusted to write fair agreements across all youth orginazation and be trusted that the monies due are paid per the agreement.
As the city faces tighter budgets and cut backs to services it’s not in the best interest of the city and citizens to allow this type of activity to continue. I fully understand that these fees are not capable or designed to account for 100% of the expense in maintaining these fields, but act only as to help offset the expense as a service to the city residents. Having Directors fail in their responsibility to the city and citizens is unacceptable and should not be tolerated. If we are to keep The City of Oviedo as a Top 100 City in America we need to purge this type of activity. There is no room for “the good old boy network”, now and in the future.
I look forward to our meeting Thursday at 2:00pm at your office. If you have any questions please contact me at 407-493-8348.
Sincerely,
Dale E. Di Bernardo
Cc Honorable Mayor Dominic Persampiere Councilman Stephen Schenck Councilman Keith Britton Councilman Steve Henken