It’s critical that non-profits, utilities and those in charge of public schools be open, honest and transparent with the communities they serve. This week’s column provides examples of dragging such entities into the light.
Three months ago I asked when Indiana Black Expo (IBE) would release their 2011 financial data, which by law must be made public. They still haven’t.
But IBE must file an IRS Form 990 return, which is a public tax document. Guidestar, a national non-profit dedicated to nonprofit transparency, released the document this month.
Here’s what I found.
In 2011, Indiana Black Expo’s revenues were $4,827,624; down $149,841 or -3.0 percent from 2010. Overall expenses were $4,968,760; down just $2,341 of -0.05 percent from 2010.
The major portions of Expo’s revenues are in two categories: contributions and grants received by the organization; and revenues generated from ticket sales, booths and sponsorships at IBE’s two signature events, Circle City Classic and Summer Celebration.
In 2011, contributions and grant revenue was $2,874,887; down $53,084 or -1.8 percent. More ominous was a continued decline in program revenues which totaled $1,883,948; down $126,849 or -6.3 percent from 2010.
The IRS Form 990 data broke down revenue generated by IBE’s two keystone events. In 2011, despite a continued decline in booths and attendance, Black Expo’s Summer Celebration revenue rose $213,518 from $806,998 in 2010 to $1,020,516 in 2011; a 26.5 percent increase.
But severe declines in Circle City Classic revenue offset the Summer Celebration gains. Revenue from the 2011 Classic was $863,432; a stunning decline of $340,367or -28.3 percent from 2010.
IBE’s financial health for decades was sustained by the revenues generated by their major events; as grant dollars would fluctuate.
As late as 2008, Indiana Black Expo was in strong financial shape, with a majority (62.6 percent) of their revenues coming from Classic and Summer Celebration. In 2011, just 39 percent of IBE revenues came from those two events.
In 2008, IBE’s total revenues were $6,777 million and expenses $6.380 million. The organization showed a paper profit of nearly $400,000. In that year combined revenues from Classic and Summer Celebration totaled $4,240,291.
The 2011 financial data from IBE showed that in just four years, revenue from IBE’s two signature events has declined by 55.6 percent or some $2,356,343.
But between 2008 and 2011, Black Expo has gone from generating excess income over expenses of $397,031 (2008) to $63,600 (2009) to $6,364 (2010) to a loss of -$141,136 (2011).
The visibly low attendance at last year’s Summer Celebration and Classic could mean a greater paper loss for the organization and could place strains on their balance sheet, which seems adequate in my examination of IBE’s tax returns.
In Indianapolis, we have three monopoly utilities – gas, water, electricity.
When Citizens Gas bought Indianapolis Water, there were public meetings and meetings with community and civic leaders, even media, on their plans.
Contrast that to Indianapolis Power & Light’s (IPL’s) near secrecy surrounding plans to spend $511 million to revamp two aging coal burning power plants to make them more energy efficient and environmentally acceptable.
IPL will spend a half billion bucks to clean up their Petersburg plant in Pike County in southwestern Indiana and on Indy’s Southside on Harding Street.
In a suddenly sent e-mail, IPL said the project would create scores of jobs, most in Petersburg that needs them, but very few jobs in Indy, which also needs them.
Environmental groups attacked IPL’s proposal on environmental grounds and IPL’s plans to make every Indianapolis household pay $108 per year more to cover the project’s cost.
But here’s what’s more galling about IPL’s plan.
Interviewed on WTLC-AM (1310’s) “Afternoons with Amos” program, IPL’s VP of Community Affairs Greg Fennig was asked what percentage of minority-owned contractors would be part of the project.
Unlike Citizens Energy that pledged to adhere to the city’s minority business goals; stunningly, Fennig hedged; refusing to say that IPL was strongly committed to utilize minority, women and veteran-owned contractors in the project.
Later in a clarifying e-mail, spokesperson Brad Riley said IPL will use minority-owned contractors “to the maximum extent practical consistent with minimizing the total cost of the work.”
WHAT??!!
In all my years in Black media in Indy, I’ve NEVER heard anyone describe their use of minority- businesses in such an uninformative, callous way.
That raises another concern with IPL.
Recently, one of IPL’s most visible African-American managers suddenly left the company. So, I asked IPL’s Riley a simple question. How many African-Americans hold senior or middle management positions?
I know of one African-American mid-senior level manager. But, I’d hate to think they’re the only one. IPL flatly refused to answer my simple question.
IPL is a regulated utility. The majority of its customers live in a city/county which is 28 percent Black, 41 percent overall minority. For IPL to refuse to have a plan in place to utilize minority-owned businesses in a major project that they want our community to pay for for decades and to not even acknowledge how many African-Americans hold senior management positions, raises into the question whether diversity is even a value at IPL.
And then we come to one of the state’s original authorizers of charter schools.
For several years Ball State University has been criticized for allowing several of their charter schools to amass abysmal student achievement levels. Last week, Ball State’s charter school office finally woke up to their responsibility and announced that seven of their charters, a sixth of their total chartered schools, wouldn’t be renewed for next school year.
The charters being closed include Imagine East on Indy’s Far Eastside.
Ball State says Imagine East is losing its charter because “the school has not achieved Adequate Yearly Progress and just 32.75 percent of students passed ISTEP English language arts and math.” Besides low academic achievement, Ball State was concerned with Imagine East’s high student turnover, heavy debt burden, and an insufficient plan for improvement.
Hopefully Ball State’s belated actions at accountability will send a message to new charter schools that they don’t have unlimited time to achieve results.
See ‘ya next week!
Send comments to acbrown@aol.com
