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| Kant |
At the last council meeting, Mayor Kant confirmed the old Friends of the Fairhope Police Dept. Inc. (a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable corporation) had been using donated funds to help finance Christmas parties for employees/politicians -- as Chief Press had asserted last May.
Kant: ". . . it was set up for a christmas party . . . we had every year . . . every councilmember went to and every other elected official in Baldwin and Mobile County . . . didn't realize $185,000 was going in and out (of the account) . . . would have had other stop gaps on this thing years ago ... "
Lat May, Press cited such possible misuses of the funds as his reason for wanting to close the old FOFP bank account (being used for parties, alcohol, etc.) -- and for opening a new one in the same name.
Press: " . . . shortly after I was hired . . . discovered that the account was improperly using the city tax id number to purchase alcohol for . . . parties."
Press' actions subsequently led to the Mayor filing an ethics complaint against him (for using the new account to pass through pay for off duty police officer work). Kant's complaint was dismissed last week by the Alabama Ethics Commission.
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| 1989 incororation |
According to its Articles of Incorporation (1989) on file with the Secretary of State, the old fund's primary purpose was to "support the Fairhope Police Department and assist them in carrying out charitable activities."
"... the corporation shall not . . . engage in any activities . . . that are not in the furtherance of the primary purpose . . . "
COUNCILMEMBERS RESPOND
Debbie Quinn:
"When I was first app'ted to the city council, the police dept had a christmas party each year that invited virtually everybody...music, great food and alcohol. I asked how they were getting around paying for all of it and was told that it was coming from private donations. I was never told of the "Friends of the Police" non-profit until Press asked me about it about 30 days after he was hired."
Rick Kingrea:
"You would have to ask the Mayor about how the funds were used initially. It is my understanding a very political Christmas party was held, but that is only hearsay on my part. However, I do know the Mayor signed a letter (it was co-signd by Steve Griffis) authorizing an account for FoFPD at a local bank in early March 2008, but effective October 24, 2007.
The significance of that date is apparent when the records of the FoFPD are reviewed. The spreadsheet/checkbook reconciliation just happens to start on October 24, 2007, but the Mayor didn't know anything about how the police were getting paid for detail work!!!!
Interestingly, I'm told the records for detail work pre-dating 10/24/07 were destroyed in a fire."
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