City officials should have dug deeper
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DANETTE GOULET
I have two words for you, city officials -- Internet search.
That is all it would have taken for the city to find out that Joe
O’Connor and the Community Parks Foundation were not a good choice to
build phase two of the Sports Complex.
It took our new City Hall reporter, Dave Brooks, one phone call
and less than an hour of tapping at the keys to find out that
O’Connor didn’t take the necessary steps to make his nonprofit
company legitimate.
Gee, you think the city might want to go at least that far before
handing over close to $1 million to someone?
The city hired O’Connor and the Community Parks Foundation to
build an indoor soccer arena, batting cages and roller hockey rinks
because a clause in the bond financing required a nonprofit do some
of the work.
According to Internal Revenue Services records, O’Connor’s
foundation never fit that bill.
Sure, if the city looked at the Oregon Business Registry O’Connor
listed his business that way, but the IRS is a little more picky than
that. It demands that someone wishing to start a nonprofit file with
the government -- you know -- fill out some paperwork, those sorts of
mundane details.
In a lawsuit the city has now filed against O’Connor, City Atty.
Jennifer McGrath referred to his companies as “mere shells and shams”
serving as “alter egos of Defendant O’Connor.”
Shouldn’t someone have figured that out earlier?
Maybe the city just looked at his stellar website before it handed
over the million bucks. Everyone should check out the joke that is
https://www.playparks.org.
If you can get through the absurd all-capitalized type, skip the
carefully worded nonsense that says very little and go straight to
the “images & pics” where you’d think you’ll see O’Connor’s work.
Hmm, a picture of the Denver Airport.
Upon closer inspection he doesn’t claim anywhere to have built the
arenas and such in the photos he is merely touting the fabric used to
build them.
Everything about O’Connor, his business history -- or lack thereof
-- his three not-quite nonprofit companies and his say-nothing
website, should have alerted our city officials.
I would certainly like to think more research, any research, is
done before $950,000 in taxpayer dollars are handed over to someone.
This is just one more thing that makes the Youth Sports Complex a
boondoggle.
* DANETTE GOULET is the city editor. She can be reached at (714)
965-7170 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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