Attorney Defends Use of Tax Money to Build The Regent

Responding to a request last week from the Hillsborough County Commission, The Regent’s beleaguered board of directors has agreed to turn over its books for a county audit this week.

County commissioners requested an audit of The Regent following accusations that Community Tax Investment funds were used inappropriately during construction of the banquet venue at 6437 Watson Road in the Winthrop development. The $7 million facility, which opened in January, was constructed using federal, state and county Community Investment Tax funds.

Marsh Rainey, attorney for The Regent’s board, known as the Brandon Community Advantage Center board, said the board is more than happy to cooperate with county auditors.

“We’re going to turn everything over to them, all project documents, and we’ll sit down with the auditor,” said Rainey. “We have no problem with that. They will get an accounting and get all the ledgers, and will find this project was run very well by a lot of people who spent a lot of time on it and were aware they were dealing with public money.”

Rainey bristles at accusations that the BCAC board has been anything but forthcoming.

“There was a quote from former County Commissioner Joe Chillura (who authored the Community Investment Tax legislation) that we misappropriated money,” said Rainey. “There’s nothing further from the truth. The county will find we spent this money exactly how we told them it would be spent when we submitted architectural renderings of the building back in 2008. Everything was presented to the county.”

Rainey said those renderings included the marble flooring the BCAC board is now being lambasted for including in the building’s construction.

“In fact, the marble is in the business plan given to the county before The Regent was ever funded, said Rainey.

He said the only expenditure the county may quibble about is the $75,000 spent on administrative costs.  But he said those expenses were necessary to submit all of the paperwork required by the federal, state and county governments. He added that those costs constitute about 3 percent of the total construction project. The state, he said, allows up to 5 percent to be spent on administrative costs.

“They’re (the county) is very lucky this is a real honest group of people,” he said, referring to the BCAC board. “I was proud of fact I was associated with such assiduous people who made sure public dollars were spent appropriately. None of these people were paid a nickel.”

What the county auditor won’t see are the board’s banking records and rental agreements.

At last week’s commission meeting, County Commissioner Kevin Beckner said he wanted the county to review the facility’s rental incomes “and how excess earning or profits are distributed or retained and who benefits from them.”

But Rainey said, as a registered private not-for-profit entity, the BCAC board is not subject to the requirements of Florida Statute, Chapter 119.01, popularly known as the Sunshine Law.

The Sunshine Law requires that all state, county and municipal records be open for inspection. It also requires that meetings be open to the public.

“Banking records are not subject to public disclosure, and we’re not releasing them,” said Rainey.  “We’re not going to reveal our event money.”

However, he said the board has acknowledged that it needs to work more closely with the community and ensure that the building serves the community purpose for which it was intended.

“The group has freely admitted we need to work better with the community and ramp up the community piece. No doubt about it,” said Rainey.

To that end, the BCAC board has scheduled the first of what will become quarterly public meetings to give residents input into how The Regent is used. The first meeting is scheduled for June 23 at 5:30 p.m. at The Regent.