Altus Public Relations Director Matt Coppock said that the auditors statement would be included with the City’s annual audit to be examined and discussed at a March City Council meeting. However, Randy Marple, the Parks and Recreation Director City of Altus, said he felt he needed to address some the issues from the statements made by Cottrell about him and AGPRI. Following is a letter to the editor from Marple:
To the citizens of Altus:
I feel I need to answer the recent allegations that have been made against me, the Altus Great Plains Recreation Inc. and the City of Altus Recreation Programs.
The Altus Great Plains Recreation Board Inc. started out as Jackson County Kids in 1962, the organization is almost 50 years old.
The objective of the Board was to solicit sponsors, develop, promote, and improve the City of Altus recreational programs for both male and females in Jackson County Oklahoma, for all ages and to assist the City Recreation Director with programs requested by the City of Altus Recreation Department.
In 1985 the name Jackson County Kids was changed to Altus Great Plains Recreation Inc. because most of the counties surrounding Jackson County were involved in the programs.
I hope that the following facts will answer many of the allegations:
#1. There was no audit of AGPRI, the City of Altus Auditors wee auditing the city and were asked to make observation sand recommendations to AGPRI about the responsibilities of their contract with the city. On page 7, paragraph 1, Mr. Cotrell, the auditor, says, and I quote, "We were not engaged to and did not conduct an audit." There have been no allegations of funds missing.
#2. The auditor recommended that AGPRI file for application with the IRS as a Not-For-Profit organization under section 501 c of the IRS code and begin filing Federal Form 990. Over the past almost fifty years there have been many prominent citizens who have set ont he AGPRI Board. People who owned large businesses, people who owned small businesses, attorneys, school teachers, bankers, Air Force Colonels, city employees, several city councilmen, and stock brokers. People who are leaders in this community and because of the close relationship with the city and with all the profits going back into the recreation programs, it was never determined that AGPRI needed to file for a 501 c.
#3. Back in the early 90s when it was requested by the city for AGPRI take over Christmas in the Park Funds, there was never a request for AGPRI to open a separate bank account for Christmas in the Park, by the city. The city councilman that sat on the board at the time knew that AGPRI had separate accounts for baseball, basketball, wrestling, swimming, etc. and clearly understood that there would not be a separate account but a separate line item account which AGPRI has for all its various programs.
#4. The only inmate I know of that worked the gate in her time off from the city was an ex-inmate who was an employee of the city at that time and had been out for over a year. She was my secretary in the Parks Department.
#5. The reason I use city employees to help operate the concession stands is I want someone I know, Trust, and can depend on to keep the concession stands stocked and oversee the depositing of the money in the bank. They perform these duties on their own time.
#6. The auditor on page 3 item #9 insinuates that AGPRI was suppose to reimburse the city for the Christmas lights purchased from Duncan. I believe this is just another example of the misunderstanding that the auditor had in regards to the relationship of the city and AGPRI has of working together to provide the best facilities and recreation programs in the state.
#7. It was noted by the auditor that the contract between the city and AGPRI had not bee renewed since Feb. 28, 2001. However section III paragraph I of the contract plainly states the agreement is to be automatically renewed for a term of one year as of March 1 of each subsequent year unless terminated by one of the parties as herein provided.#8. In 1995 AGPRI changed their philosophy of providing money for All Star teams to travel, paying for their motel, meals, gasoline and entry fees for out of town tournaments. The program has evolved from 3 teams in 1962 to approximately 125 teams this past summer. In 1995 AGPRI decided to only pay entry fees for tournament teams and use the majority of the money earned to provide for capital improvements for the City of Altus ball fields, facilities and equipment.
#9. Some of the allegations stated that me and AGPRI were not accountable for the funds that are raised. At each meeting (normally 2nd Wednesday of each month) we provide minutes of the previous meeting and a monthly financial statement to each of the Board members and anyone else present to review and ask questions. Checks and receipts are filed at my office for every penny of the money that AGPRI spends. The following is a list of some of the capital improvement items that AGPRI has purchased for the city. This includes: 1999 Ford 25 passenger bus, fencing for backstops and dug outs for two machine pitch ball fields with electric pitching machines, twelve new LED electronic scoreboards for 12 baseball and softball fields. Three utility vehicles to help maintain the ball fields, one John Deere three wheel field grooming machine, the new metal fence that completely surround Kiwanis Park, two new LED electronic scoreboards for the city gym, one new portable LED scoreboard for football program, over 2000 feet of new perimeter fence at Missile Park, replaced all wood bleachers with metal seating at Missile Park, Kiwanis park, and Davis Park, put shade screens over most of the bleachers, rebuilt press box at Kiwanis Park, new sound system at Kiwanis Park, built new concession stand and two men's and women's restroom facilities at Missile Park, the coaches and umpires office above the Missile Park concession stand, and many more items too numerous to mention. There is currently $20,000 in the AGPRI account that was raised by the baseball and softball teams through fund raisers. This money will be used for lighting the new machine pitch baseball fields at Missile Park. In the past 15 years AGPRI has provided $393,160 to the City of Altus in capital improvements averaging $26,210 per year.
#10. One of the recommendations was to give tickets at the gates. I have had four kids grow up in the recreation programs and have traveled all over Oklahoma and Texas attending tournaments and 90% of the time there are no tickets given - your hand is stamped and the gate keepers are trusted to turn ini the receipts. We have trusted our gate keepers for the past 23 years and if there is something that I am guilty of it may be I am too trusting of people. I have always trusted the people that work for me and until they prove otherwise, I probably always will.
-- Randy Marple
Parks and Recreation Director City of Altus
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