Details emerge in Rec. Dept. financial investigation

The financial investigation into the Recreation Department that was alluded to in a recent announcement by the Board of Selectmen has its roots in the Canton Travel Basketball program, according to two town officials with direct knowledge of the situation.

The prepared statement by selectmen, which first appeared on the town website on February 10, had acknowledged the discovery of “financial irregularities” following an audit of the Recreation Department revolving fund and also outlined various steps the board had taken as a result. However, it did not identify the programs or individuals involved, citing an ongoing review that has since made its way to the state Attorney General’s office.

Selectmen Chairman John Connolly confirmed the board’s position on Friday, indicating that the case remains in state hands and therefore he was not at liberty to divulge any further details at this time.

But two other town officials, both of whom agreed to speak to the Citizen on the condition of anonymity, said the review has focused on the financial relationship between the Recreation Department’s in-town basketball program and the independent Canton Travel Basketball program owned and operated by longtime resident Tony Braconi. Until recently, Braconi had managed both programs.

The investigation led the town to terminate Braconi as head of the Recreation Department’s in-town program, known as the Canton Recreation Basketball Association (CRBA). Two Recreation Department office employees — director Jeff Kaylor and administrative assistant Audrey Cohen — were subsequently placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation’s outcome.

Although town officials have declined publicly to explain the reasons for those personnel actions, town sources say  the investigation had its roots in late August, when a group of parent/coaches learned that the School Department, which leases its gym facilities, was billing the town Recreation Department not only for the in-town basketball program’s gym use, but also for the private travel program’s gym rental costs.

The parent/coach group, which went on to form its own travel program — the nonprofit Canton Youth Basketball Association (CYBA) — was told at the time that, according to Kaylor, gym costs for the private CTB program had historically been lumped together with the costs for the Recreation Department’s own in-town program.

According to one town official, Braconi had “blurred the lines” between the two programs by using a single website and email address and also by allowing the schools to bill the Recreation Department for his travel program despite the fact that he collects the bulk of registration fees in advance of the season.

The CTB registration form for the 2009-10 travel season even attributed the private program’s $275 fee to the fact that its “youth basketball programs spent $49,000 to use gyms in Canton” and were required to “pay for every minute.”

In 2010-2011, for instance, the Recreation Department authorized a budget transfer of approximately $59,000 to the schools for basketball-related gym costs. Of that total figure, a large portion — the exact amount is in dispute — was for costs incurred by Braconi’s CTB program.

As of late October, according to an email from one town official, selectmen had determined that the CTB still owed the Recreation Department an estimated $18,000 for gym time from the 2010-11 basketball season. At the time, the official likened the outstanding debt to a municipality providing a private business with an “enormous amount of funds, interest-free for a year.”

Braconi, who declined requests to comment for this story, reportedly told selectmen that he had incurred the debt due to the rising number of need-based scholarships he had handed out over the past few seasons.

In recent months, however, selectmen have received information leading them to believe that the unpaid balance from CTB exceeds that $18,000 figure, with the unpaid balance allegedly extending well past the last basketball season.

Town officials say privately that former Recreation Director Kaylor had indicated on several occasions that the gym costs for Braconi’s program totaled $23,600 in the 2010-11 season. However, a review of the data by the newly formed CYBA places that figure closer to $50,000 — a figure more or less consistent with the findings of an independent auditor, according to sources.

The auditor, who was brought in by the Board of Selectmen after multiple meetings with both Kaylor and Braconi, reportedly found other inconsistencies in the Recreation Department revolving account, prompting selectmen to place Kaylor and Cohen on paid leave sometime in early February. They also referred the entire case to the Canton Police Department, who immediately turned it over to the Public Integrity Division of the Attorney General’s office.

According to CYBA estimates, last season’s in-town basketball program, with 291 participants each paying a seasonal fee of $140, would have netted the Recreation Department an estimated surplus of more than $30,000, although it is not clear whether any of that surplus went to finance the private travel program.

Braconi has since been replaced by Larry Bogue as head of in-town basketball. The gym costs for CTB’s 18 travel teams are no longer being billed to the Recreation Department, and town officials say CTB has paid all bills for gym time incurred since October.

Meanwhile, the newly formed CYBA kicked off its inaugural season this year with six girls’ teams (grades 5-8) and two boys’ teams (grades 3 and 6). Some of the girls’ teams participated in the competitive South Shore League; however, Braconi’s CTB program is currently the only one from Canton with teams participating in the Metrowest League.

Braconi has been highly critical of the new organization, claiming, in a series of emails sent to parents, that the CYBA board members have mischaracterized Canton Travel Basketball as a profit-making venture and have sought to “destroy” both the CTB and his reputation within the community.

In one particularly pointed email, sent to hundreds of parents on the night that the CYBA held its first public meeting, Braconi defended his program while also denouncing the CYBA board members as a group of “malcontents” who were guilty of “shenanigans, duplicity and … repeated, personal, underhanded attacks on [his] character.”

CYBA board members, however, have vehemently denied such accusations, insisting that their sole aim has always been to foster a competitive program with proper oversight.

They have also produced emails showing that they reached out to Braconi in September with a proposal to unify the two programs, and even offered to make him president of the new nonprofit group. They say Braconi declined both requests.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=12138

Posted by Jay Turner on Mar 8 2012. Filed under News, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.