[Kzyxtalk] Form 990 Policy Question‏

[Scott Peterson]

Dear Mr. Coate,

I didn't know that making a point was required here. I was simply 

asking for reasonable inquiry. Something required by State law. if Ms.

Courtney sees no cause-and-effect relationship between MCPB policy

and grant revenue, that's fine. But it seems like a reasonable inquiry

to me. And maybe to other MCPB directors as well.

But since you're here, I've got a few questions for you. 

1.     What's the purpose of that policy?

2.     Who was the sponsor?

3.     How did that policy come about?

Feel free to answer them if you like. I'm not demanding any answers

here. But they'd certainly help.

Sincerely,

Scott M. Peterson

Mendocino


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

And your point is what exactly?  That because the MCPB Board didn’t insist on looking over our tax filing is the cause of KZYX’s financial challenges?  And that because the EFF does that, they have done better?  Really?  You think that is what it is about?In fact, I supplied the Board with great detail about KZYX’s finances almost constantly.  And any of the 28 Board members I served under who showed still greater interest was the recipient of as much, or more, detail as they wanted.  If any Board member wanted to look over, or call a vote on, the 990, I would have been happy to supply it.  But I think none of them thought it was necessary, due to the fact that I kept them supplied with plenty of detail necessary to do their work as Board members.So again, what is your real point here?  I was constantly being accused of not being “transparent” enough by people who, to me, seemed never to really come clean about their own goals and motives.  Should I include you in that group or are you going to spell out where you are really coming from with this?John Coatetex at well.comjohn@edgeryders.eujohncoate.com707-357-2223On Jun 17, 2016, at 10:17 AM, Scott Peterson <scottmartinpeterson at hotmail.com> wrote:Dear Ms. Courtney,As you should know by now, MCPB has had a unique policy regardingForm 990s over the past five years. It states very clearly on the Form990s: "No review was or will be conducted." That policy appears on"Schedule O" -- as an organizational policy. It appears on Form 990sfor 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. You can see them all here:http://nccsweb.urban.org/communityplatform/nccs/organization/profile/id/680050440/popup/1That policy was exercised by MCPB's Executive Director, without theinvolvement of MCPB's Board of Directors. And grant revenue hasn'tchanged much over that five-year time period. The Executive Directorfor that entire time period was John Coate. I believe that Mr. Coate was mistaken about the existence of this policy. Please see your email of April 10, 2016 below.According to Mr. Coate's resume, he was once the chief fundraiser at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2002-03. His resume is here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncoateEFF had a completely different policy about reviewing its Form 990s.You can see those Form 990s here:http://nccsweb.urban.org/communityplatform/nccs/organization/profile/id/043091431/popup/1Here's the policy: "After the Form 990 is prepared, but before it is filed with the IRS, the completed form will be presented to all members ofthe board of directors, who will be given at least one week to reviewand provide feedback and revisions. The Form 990 may be filed withthe IRS only after all board member comments have been addressedand at least one board member has given final approval." That policycan also be found on "Schedule O." Over the same time period, EFF'sgrant revenue has grown from approximately $2.5 million to well over$13 million.So my question to you is this. Do you see any apparent cause-and-effectrelationship between Form 990 review policy and grant revenue?Sincerely,Scott M. PetersonMendocinoPS: I'm copying this email to a newly seated MCBP Board Member, Mr. Jonathan Middlebrook for his information. And also to Mr. Coate for hisinformation as well.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Scott,According to our ex- GM John Coate, there IS NO policy.  Where did you get this information? John did not know what I was talking about when I inquired. Please let us know why you think this is the case?Meg CourtneyBoard PresidentKZYX & ZMendocino County Public Broadcasting 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/kzyxtalk/attachments/20160617/67cae12e/attachment-0001.html