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The PRCA Rodeo at the Northwest Montana Fair. BEACON FILE PHOTO
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Carmalt has also led another com- plaint against Campbell with the Human Rights Bureau, though neither she nor Campbell said they could yet discuss it due to the investigation process.
Having worked at the fairgrounds full-time as the O ce Assistant III since 2008, Carmalt said she questions Camp- bell’s nancial strategies. The goal is to turn the fair into a revenue neutral oper- ation, meaning it brings in enough in rev- enue to cover its operational costs.
According to gures provided by the Flathead County Finance O ce, the fairgrounds’ total, annual expenditures outpaced the revenue earned in scal years 2011, 2013, and 2014. These gures include employee and maintenance costs.
The pattern changes in scal year 2015, with $1,314,048 in expenditures and $1,372,021 in revenue, ending up with a positive balance of about $58,000. How- ever, the department received an addi- tional $92,000 that year, transferred by the county to o set operations costs.
Sandra Carlson, director of the county nance department, said that transfer came out of the money headed toward the fairgrounds’ capital improvement fund, and the $92,000 transfer means it will take longer for the fair to pay back the loan from the county’s general fund for infrastructure improvements.
Flathead County Commissioner Gary Krueger serves on the Fair Board, and said he believes the fairgrounds are on track for better nancial reporting and operations now that there is a better accounting system in place compared to previous years.
He also said the fairgrounds hosts plenty of activities that are found to have community value but bring little in the way of revenue, such as 4H and the Future Farmers of America.
“If you would track those things that are happening out at the fair, we’re prob- ably better than revenue neutral because we don’t charge for them,” Krueger said.
And there’s no end in sight for 4H or the FFA at the fairgrounds, despite rumors implying otherwise, Krueger said.
“I wonder where the ethics are of people claiming that, because that is an unethical statement to be making to the public,” Krueger said. “That’s cruel and that’s mean and it’s not based on fact.”
One of the fair’s new cost-reduction strategies also faced criticism, when county employees worked jobs normally lled by contracted workers. Carmalt said
she disagreed with that move because it took those minimum-wage jobs from res- idents who depend on them.
The plan, as described by Carlson, was to have county employees use the hours they’re already paid for to work at the fair instead of paying hourly wages to out- side personnel. It was part of Carlson’s six months of work cleaning up the fair- grounds books, she said.
“I called around to see how other fairs were doing it,” Carlson said. “I found that often times county workers were partici- pating a lot more than we ever had.”
The county commission approved Carlson’s plan to allow employees who are able to step away from their desks to work the fair to do so. Carlson noted that she worked at the fair, and she’s budgeted to work for Flathead County for 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.
“Where I spend that time is up to the commissioners,” Carlson said. “It didn’t cost any additional dollars.”
In fact, Carlson said, it saved the county thousands of dollars. The county paid $296,417 for contracted workers in scal year 2014, but after the change this last summer, that number dropped to $225,833, a savings of more than $70,000.
Public comment at county commis- sion and the Fair Board meetings has also raised concerns about inconsistencies in sponsorship pricings at the fairgrounds.
Sponsorships make up about 10 per- cent of the fair’s revenue stream, Camp- bell said, and he wants to nd solutions for interested businesses.
“I strive to nd what’s important to them,” he said. “Sponsorships as a whole are incredibly important to us.”
F
Krueger said he believes the fairgrounds are underappreciated for all the good they do for the community.
Most of the attention is placed on the Northwest Montana Fair, but that’s just one week out of the year, he said. Nearly 200 days a year, there’s something hap- pening on the grounds.
“There’s so many good things that hap- pen at the fair. For those things not to be talked about in the community and have the focus be on other issues, on a minority mindset, is just wrong,” Krueger said. “(The fairgrounds are) a great asset to our community in all that it does.”
mpriddy@ atheadbeacon.com
rom his unique perspective as a com-
missioner and a Fair Board member,
DECEMBER 9, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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