Pow Wow executive elected …but financials get rejected

An $11,000 payout from Lac La Biche Pow Wow Days officials to a group best described by some of last year’ s Pow Wow board members as "berry-picking students from Gibbons" was just one of several financial head-scratchers that caused the financial statement from last year’ s premiere summer event to be rejected at Wednesday night’ s special organizational meeting.

The financial statement, which showed a loss of more than $14,000 - but ballooned to more than a $56,000 loss when it was learned the $42,000 surplus funds from 2015 could not be used as revenues for last year’ s event - was a main discussion point at the meeting held in the BCMI conference room.
About 30 people attended the event, including Lac La Biche Mayor Omer Moghrabi who served as the meeting’ s moderator during the election of a new executive board for this year’ s upcoming event.

In a series of close votes - all held by secret ballot at the request of last year’ s board members - a new executive was announced, with Martin Desjarlais returning as the president of the 55-year-old annual celebration. New board member, and last year’ s parade marshal, Lavon Fleming is this year’ s vice president. Yvette Ducharme returns as the executive secretary, and last year’ s treasurer - also the 2016 Citizen of the Year - Doris Burdek, was replaced by newcomer Brian Axenchuk. Three new directors were also voted in. Pat Desjarlais, the wife of the newly re-elected president, was nominated, but she declined after being reminded by Mayor Moghrabi that her position on the board could be seen as a conflict of interest. Moghrabi then declined a nomination himself, citing difficulties and his own conflict issue because the municipality that he leads is a large financial supporter of the Pow Wow event. Four nominees were selected for the three positions. A secret ballot resulted in Twintel’ s Lee Hillary, former Pow Wow vice president Clayton Ross, and newcomer Fabian Chalifoux being elected as directors.

And while the directors went one, two three, the financial statements weren’ t adding up that easily.
With nearly $57,000 being spent on Pow Wow Days events in 2016, depleting a surplus bank account left from 2015 of $42,000, many around the table agreed the concern wasn’ t just about the expenditures, it was more about a poor paper trail account of the expenditures. More details from the previous board were requested.

“Being one of the County representatives and also a representative of a business, I am not willing to accept this,” Moghrabi said after a run-through of the association’ s financial statement was attempted by former board member Colleen Pierce. “I think it will require more information ... more research."
In the run through, several categories from the annual August long weekend celebration were touched on in general terms, but some in attendance wanted more specific accounts of spending, especially where connections to executive members were evident.
A company Pierce and her husband are involved in - a tent rental business - is still owed $14,000 by the organization, according to other financial documents attained by the POST.

The Mayor was clear to say that he wasn’ t pointing to any wrong-doing in any of the journal entries, but said more answers were needed before he could vote to approve the financial statements.
“I think we need to let the new executive take a hard look at this,” he said.

One of those things needing a hard look, says the newly elected vice president revolved around the $11,000 expense paid out to a single person in a category described as security.
“Who are these people? What did they do for eleven grand?” asked Lavon Fleming.
An answer was attempted by Al Beniuk, a director from last year’ s executive, who wasn’ t re-elected this time around. He said he had recruited a group of people from the Gibbons area who had been working at his local berry-picking business to take on paid positions around the Pow Wow Grounds.
There were no local volunteers available to help, said Beniuk, who also owns a company called Bold Media which was paid more than $3,000 by Pow Wow last year for advertising and promotion.
At Wednesday’ s meeting, Beniuk went on to express his displeasure at being put on the defensive for expenses paid out during his time on the board.
“Going after people for the amount of money they were paid back then is a moot point today,” he said. “We tried our best to pull it off.”

Mel Kuprowsky who describes himself as a Pow Wow volunteer and an “un-paid coordinator” of the last year’ s event, echoed the troubles the group had finding volunteers.
“People didn’ t come forward,” said Kuprowsky. “The people of Lac La Biche didn’ t come out."

The decision to accept or reject the financial statements came down to a drawn-out count of hands. After several attempts to count the raised hands of voting members, the decision to reject the document was made with a 9-8 decision with one member abstaining from the vote.
The meeting ended without a followup meeting date confirmed, but the president said he would contact the executive members in the upcoming days to formalize a date.
The Pow Wow Days celebration in Lac La Biche County starts on Thursday, August 3 this year with the announcement of the 2017 citizen of the year.