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JCC to get help with current andlong- e m debt.

The lobby of the JCC in West Bloomfield

Ken Guten Cohen I Story Development Editor

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

In essence, Financial One will serve tem-
porarily as the JCC's chief financial officer
(CFO) and assume responsibility for the
Center's accounting functions. Within the
next few months, the firm will reconstruct
the JCC's fmancial picture over the past
three years.
"Preliminary findings indicate that there
has been negligence, a significant lack of
internal controls and that the financial con-
dition of the JCC has been misrepresented:'
reads a Task Force report prepared for the
Jan. 21 meeting.
Attorney Stewart C.W. Weiner, lay leader
of the Task Force, said, "The controller was
doing her job and was
probably dealing with
issues that may have been
over her head in terms of
the types of reporting she
had to do for the board.
With the pressures of not
only being a controller
but also being respon-
Stewart
sible for paying bills,
Weiner
communicating with
vendors, reporting to the
board, management and so forth ... she
started preparing inaccurate reports that
the board and management and Federation
relied on:'
A year ago, strong recommendations

8 January 30 • 2014

were made by the Task Force for the JCC to
hire a CFO, and funds were made available
to the Center in January 2013 — $150,000
for each of two years. But a CFO was not
hired. Weiner said he does not know why
hiring did not take place.
Brian D. Siegel, immediate past JCC
president and chair of the JCC executive
committee, however, said the Center was
waiting for final recommendations from a
consulting firm hired to review the JCC's
financial and accounting systems to ascer-
tain appropriate skills for the CFO.
"The consultant presented findings in
the late summer, and a search began and
was in process when the discoveries about
the inaccurate financial
reporting were made
Siegel said. "The search
remains open and is
actively being pursued:'
A forensic accounting
investigation is being
done by independent
auditing firm Grant
Brian Siegel
Thornton LLP to deter-
mine if there were ille-
galities. Monies earmarked for the Center's
CFO position will pay for the audit and
investigation.
"The JCC has annual audits:' Weiner
said. "In prior audits, everything matched
up. The audit for 2012 matched that year's

numbers — 2013 seems to be a recent
aberration:'
Siegel said, "The JCC board, execu-
tive director and its auditors acted on the
assumption that the information provided
to them was accurate until concern
arose that financial irregularities had
occurred ..:'
Although Federation and Center offi-
cials have expressed confidence in JCC
Executive Director Mark Lit, saying he has
kept the budgets in relative line and the
legacy debt stable during his eight-year
tenure, they have begun implementing a
professional leadership succession plan for
the Center.

Legacy Debt
The JCC is an independent organization
with its own board, but like most local
Jewish agencies, it does receive annual allo-
cations from the Federation. Since 2011,
the allocation has remained fairly constant
at about $1.6 million. The JCC's 2013-2014
annual budget is $13.2 million — $1 mil-
lion more than the previous fiscal year.
For at least 20 years, the JCC has carried
legacy debt. Preliminary estimates of the
current total JCC debt (short- and long-
term) place it around $8 million, though
Weiner thinks it could be less.
At various times, Federation has made
recommendations to reduce the debt, with

the last major effort
being in 2009.
"That was when
the economy crashed
and the whole world
changed:' said Scott
Kaufman, Federation
CEO. "Our needs went
Scott
up in places like Jewish
Kaufman
Family Service. Our cam-
paign had its worst hit in
years. We put our fundraising efforts into
the urgent needs fund. We needed to keep
people in their homes. It's taken a few years
to get out from under all that"

JCC Here To Stay
Despite these financial woes, the JCC is not
in danger of closing. The Jan. 21 Task Force
report states that emphatically.
"The JCC is vibrant," Weiner said. "It's
business as usual. It's recognized that the
JCC performs vital services and benefits
the community at large in its two facili-
ties that are the second largest in North
America. We're very proud of the program-
ming the JCC performs for our commu-
nity"
Siegel concurred.
"The JCC is considered one of the finest
centers of its kind in the world:' he said.
"The JCC won four awards to be given out
at the upcoming Biennial JCC Convention.