Viewpoints
Unfulfilled Public Information
Request
By Kathleen Svenson
May 08, 2008
Thursday PM
Dear Ketchikan Community Members,
You are probably aware the Ketchikan-Kanayama Student Exchange
Program is funded by both the Borough and the City of Ketchikan.
As a publicly-funded body, the program is required to share their
By-Laws, Policies & Procedures, Meeting Minutes, Articles
of Incorporation, etc., etc. with anyone who asks. But they don't.
The Kanayama Association does not even publicize their meeting
place and time. Not even the Borough and City Managers can seem
to extract the most baslic information from the Kanayama Association.
To whom are they accountable then?
Other non-profits who stand before our governmental Council and
Assembly at granting time, looking for funding, are transparent
in their accounting and other internal dealings. We demand that.
Why has the Kanayama Association been allowed such a "buy?"
We must be funding them the tune of about thirty grand a year
in flat- out in grants (our tax dolars); not counting all the
fundraising dollars they exact from our community in raffle tickets
and indigestible pizzas.
"Curiouser and Curiouser"
What's the big Kanayama Association secret anyway? Why is it
so difficult to get public information from them? And why do
we put up with their opaqueness? The Kanayama Association depends
upon our support for their very existence.
Already scrutinized for being elitist in their student selection,
their financial underpinnings and "good faith and fair dealing"
policies (or lack thereof, which appears to be the case) warrant
more than a cursory look-see by someone with more authority and
qualifications than I possess in these areas. I am merely a perplexed
taxpayer who smells a rat running from what may end up being
a sinking ship.
So think twice before you buy that next $10 raffle ticket. Try
asking a few questions yourself. In this day of shrinking dollars
and growing needs, let's see if the Kanayama Association Board
(Ole Sullivan, Pat Perrier, Eileen Truitt, Carrie Allen, Christa
Bruce and Jim Alguire) can pony up with some basic infrastucture
answers to the same questions we ask every other non-profit we
pay for.
Kathleen Svenson
Kanayama Parent & Whistle Blower
Ketchikan, AK
About: "Kathleen became
affliated with the Ketchikan-Kanayama Student Exchange Association
when her daughter was selected to go to Japan in June, 2008 with
the group."
Sent: April 27, 2008 - Received
May 07, 2008 - Published May 08, 2008
Viewpoints - Opinion Letters:
 Webmail
Your Opinion Letter to the Editor
Note: Comments published
on Viewpoints are the opinions of the writer
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sitnews.
E-mail your letters
& opinions to editor@sitnews.us
Your full name, city and state are required for publication.
SitNews
©2008
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska
|