by:  Diane Benjamin

The management company the City of Bloomington hired to run the Coliseum (CIAM) is required by their contract to prepare their own financial statement.  The City of Bloomington posted the 2013 report CIAM prepared on their website (http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=36).  It appears to be where CIAM gets the information to determine how much to pay themselves – a percent of the revenue, according to their contract.

I sent a Freedom of Information Act Request to the City for the other years statements since they are not listed on the website.  I received the documents for 2009-2012, shockingly the City requested copies from CIAM!  The City of Bloomington didn’t have their own copies?

From the 2004 contract:

8.1 Records and Audits.
(a) CIAM shall keep full and accurate accounting records relating to its activities at the Center in accordance with generally accepted United States accounting principles.  CIAM shall maintain a system of bookkeeping adequate for its operations hereunder.  CIAM shall give the City’s authorized representatives access to such books and records maintained at the Center during reasonable business hours and upon reasonable advance notice as often as the City shall deem reasonably necessary or appropriate.  CIAM shall keep and preserve for at least three (3) years following each Fiscal Year all sales slips, rental agreements, purchase order, sales books, credit card invoices, bankbooks or duplicate deposit slips, and other evidence of Operating Revenues and Operating Expenses for such period. In addition, on or before April 1 following each Fiscal Year for which CIAM is managing the Center hereunder, CIAM shall furnish to the City a balance sheet, a statement of profit or loss and a statement of cash flows for the Center, for the preceding Fiscal Year, prepared in accordance with generally accepted United States accounting principles and accompanied by an independent auditor’s report of a nationally recognized, independent certified public accountant.

CIAM is required by the contract to prepare the statement, but the City had to get copies from CIAM!

But it gets worse:

It is difficult to spell correctly when fibbing the truth!  CIAM claims the statements were never prepared before 2009.  They are required by the contract to prepare them, the Coliseum had just opened, and I’m being asked to believe NOBODY did a financial statement?  Insert your own joke here__________________.

Could it be that starting in 2009 CIAM began playing with the numbers?  Maybe they don’t want anybody to see how commissions were calculated in 2007 and 2008, and the changes since 2009?

Do you believe the City doesn’t have these reports?  A building was jammed down taxpayers throats, but the City has no financial statements for the first 2 years?

The City of Bloomington has ignored my requests for the 2007-2008 statements.  They either believe the Coliseum didn’t prepare them, or they are in on the game.  Either way, who is looking out for taxpayers?

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