I was provided yesterday with sixty-eight pages of check detail ledgers from the United States Marshal Museum Foundation and I spent several hours last night going over the details of the listed expenditures from January through December of 2018.
As a somewhat literate and semi-successful investigative reporter, I went into the research not expecting to find anything illegal or even questionable because my experience has proven time and time again that if there are shenanigans to be uncovered, seldom do you uncover them by asking someone who controls the narrative to provide you with the proof.
The bottom line? Back in 2007 when it was first announced that Fort Smith would be the site of the US Marshal's Museum, I concurred with whoever made that decision that given our historic ties to the agency we were the perfect selection. In fact, I was pretty proud of my hometown for being selected.
And they announced then they were were going to raise the money from private donations and spend "x" amount of dollars to make this dream a reality. The powers behind the scenes have been on ten-plus year excursion trying to do what they promised, but the reality of the dream is it was never going to happen the way they said.
Oh...and "x" turned into "x, y and z" and a few more letters. About 55 million of them.
It was always going to cost more than originally stated, the notion of "private funding only" was only going to last until those involved faced the folly of their concept and we, the taxpayers, were going to be called upon to come to the rescue.
I have spent the better part of a year chasing unicorns, reading documents, vetting individuals and looking for answers to questions that have gone largely unanswered through sins of omission. And not just on the subject of the USMM, because there is enough back-door-dealing and municipal profiteering going on at several levels to go around.
It's cliche' but true...all you have to do is follow the money.
Back to the check detail ledger for the USMM. I'm not an accountant, but mostly everything in there can be put down to business expenses. So let's quash the notion right now that I am inferring irregularities or illegalities. I looked for them. Hard. Didn't find any.
However (and there is always a "however"), it doesn't take Pythagoras or Albert Einstein to come to some conclusions.
For example, salaries and benefits.
When a guy who is the point man on a ten year pie-in-the-sky mission of building Valhalla makes more money annually that the City Administrator or local Superintendent of Schools for producing nothing more than ten years of promises, hopes and dreams, it's a little tough for us broke-ass people to be told "it's just a penny".
When that same guy makes more than the six highest paid state government employees, (of which the Governor is sixth), the entire concept of "non-profit" is kind of a misnomer.
There are plenty of people who are--or will--profit from this project. It's just not us poor folk.
There is a software /IT company that is pulling down $12-$13,000 a year for "services rendered". There is a member of the Gang of Nine that is netting in the neighborhood of $16,000 a year in rental fees ($160,000 in ten years?). There is one--and only one--radio group that has been paid for advertising. There are plenty of "consultant fees", reimbursement for meals and gas mileage and even some liquor and champagne expenditures in the mix.
We can even talk about the country club membership later. And remember. You have to multiply everything by ten years of largess.
All totally legal, I'm sure. I don't even question the legality of any of it. But spare me the "non-profit' sad sack tales.
What we are really looking at is a cottage industry that has been taken root in the community using conjured images of Rooster rescuing Mattie by riding Little Blackie to death before he steals a team and wagon to get her back to McAlester's and saving her life.
I knew an ol' boy in Crawford County back in the 70's that was home builder. He decided he was was going to start building spec homes and did pretty good for awhile. Nice guy. Bought two houses from him, in fact. But then he started building houses with money he didn't have and when he couldn't sell them, the bottom fell out of his hopes and dreams.
These museum people started building a museum with money they didn't have. If nothing else, you have to question their business acumen beyond the self-serving business of collecting a salary and throwing a party.
There's more to be said and I plan on saying it between now and March 12.
I have absolutely nothing against the notion of a Marshal's Museum, although I think the potential impact it will have on our tourist traffic has been grossly over stated.
I just think should keep their word, and promises were made back in 2007.
