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(NewsDakota.com) – The Jamestown Finance and Legal Committee says it has no authority over the Frontier Village Association, and declined to take action Tuesday in a dispute between the FVA and the Buffalo City Tourism Foundation.
The Buffalo City Tourism Foundation is the main source of funding for the FVA, and recently voted to withhold funding from the FVA citing issues with the board and its finances.
The Tourism Foundation was asking the city to take some action regarding the FVA, such as creating an oversight authority for the Frontier Village.
The city owns the the land the Frontier Village is located on, and leases it to the FVA for $1 per year. Their current lease runs until 2014. Mayor Katie Andersen says that is the extent of any authority the city has over the FVA. The city appoints members to the Buffalo City Tourism Foundation, but the foundation board has autonomy over granting the taxpayer funds it receives, meaning the city cannot force it to give money to the FVA.
The Tourism Foundation voted to withhold grant money from the FVA until an audit is completed of the FVA’s finances from 2004 to present; and until the FVA has a complete and viable board of nine members that can submit a new strategic plan to the Tourism Foundation.
City Council members encouraged the two boards to re-establish a working relationship. Council member Pat Nygaard says the Tourism Foundation is well within its rights to request an audit to see where its grant money is going, but says the Tourism Foundation should not meddle too much.
“I hope it doesn’t get to the point where the Tourism Foundation is saying, ‘Well, no we don’t like that person on your board, so we’re going to withhold funding for that reason,'” said Nygaard. “There’s sort of that fine line between letting the organization run itself without meddling too much, but also having proper oversight.”
The FVA had five of its nine board members resign in November, and in December the Buffalo City Tourism Foundation had a unanimous vote of “no confidence” in the current Frontier Village Board and its current manager.