This document contains text automatically extracted from a PDF or image file.

For
matting may have been lost and not all text may have been recognized.
To remove this note, right-click and select "Delete table".
Telephone Facsimile sas 350-919 ( ) 9
_ (szs) aso-9394
December 8, 2010
Galy W. Jackson City Manager PO Box 7148 Asheville, North Carolina 28802
Re: URTV
Dear Mr. Jackson:
As you may know, the Weste1’11Noa"ti1 Caroîina Community Media Center, Inc., f/ida U
RTV, Inc. (“URTV”) has the responsibility of providing public access television in A
sheviileand Buncombe County. URTV has been delegated this responsìbiìity under a Man
agement Agreement with the City of Asheville that expire on April 27, 2011. Ther
e are a number of citizens,
including my client Davyne Dial, who are concerned with the and fuîure ofïhis Vaîuable
resource.
At her own expense, Ms. Dial retained Foster Shrìner, a CPA in Asllevillc, to revi
ew certain URTV financiaí records. Mr. Shri11e1"s report is attached Some of more
shocking revelations about URTV include the fact that approximately one month af
ter Board President Jerry Young publicly announced that URTV was in dire fînancial
condition and its very life was in jeopardy, lne three key URTV employees were
given raises. In response to an obvious financial crisis at URTV, the executive
director was given a raise. Such hubris cannot be tolerated.
Mr. Shriner’s report also reveals that, in to the public access channels in Chapel
Hill, Noñh Carolina and Vermont, URTV spends more than its revenue each year and
has a much higher percentage of its expenses incurred for payroll and beneñts. Sim
ply put, for the past several years URTV dipped into cash reserves to fund its o
perations. The purpose of pubïic access television is not to serve simply as an em
ployment opportunity for a few seìect souìs.
________________
Gary Jackson Decelnber 8, QOH) Page 2
Mr, Shriner is at least the third _ilroïesslonal to sound the al_arn_1 with regard
to the operations and fînances QÍURTV, Mr. Brezny, former treasurer, issued a dire
warning in 2007 about URTV’s Mr. Brezny’s warning was ignored. Ms. Dial, a former bo
ard member, was forced to suit against URTV simply to gain access to financial c
locuments that should have been made public by URT V, which receives funds to op
erate. Even after the suit was fìied, URTV refused to provide the names of its pro
ducers to Ms. Dial, even though contracî between the City and URTV requires URTV t
o maintain the names, addresses and phone numbers so the public can contact the
producers. Management Agreement, Section SC.
In response to the lawsuit, URTV has retaliatecl against Ms. Dial and her l1oS_b
an d, Herb Johnson. URTV has on occasion refused to allow the iecording of meeti
ngs of its boaitl indirect violation of section 2(B)(2) of its cont1 a_ot with t
he City. Moreover, URTV has permanently banned Mr. Johnson from public URTV meet
ings, in vioiatìon of its contract with the City. It is shocking that a non-profit
institution delegated the publie responsibility of providing access to the most
powerfut meclium has been attempting to quell protected dissent by banning peop
le from publie meetings.
The contract between URTV and the City of Asheville contains a number of provisi
ons allowing the City to stop this abuse. For exatnple, the City can conduct a r
eview of URTV. Managenient Agreement, Section 3. The City should immediately con
duct that performance review and, as part of that review, solicit wide-spread in
put from URTV producers, media center users and cable subs_crî_be1 s. Moreover, th
e City has the right to suspend the contract while the review is being conducted
into the financial issues raised by Mr. Sh1 iner’_s report. Management Agreement,
Section 18.
We are sending en similar letter to Wanda Greene, Buncombe County Manager. We si
ncerely hope that the City not continue to ignore this situation, but take conce
rted action with Buncombe County to investigate these issues. However, if the Ci
ty does not act quickly, it is likely that URTV will perish, and youi citizens
will be without access to the most powerful medium.
Michael G. Wimer Attachment
________________
F. FOSTER SHRINER
CERTIFIED PUBLIC AccouNTANT, P.A.
Accredited In Business Valuation ~ È - Asheviíle. NG 2880i Certified Valuation Analy
sî . (828) 254-1244
Michael G. Wimer, Esq. Wimer & .lobe »
_ 349 Haywood Road Asheviile, NC 28806
_
As you are aware, l did not perform an audit of the Co1npany’s accountî_1_1g i eço1 ds
and was provided

limited access to certain accounilìng a Consent Protective Order
. Had 1 pe1‘f ormed an and been granted unlimitccl access to accounting and financ
iai reco_rds and management matters may have come to myatteniìon that altefed my @
pinion expressed in this rephrt. Accordingly, I take no responsibiìity for the und
__erlyîng data presenïed reliçtf upon in lhis_ report.
-
.
I havç: the following recorcls thát were not subject to tìie Consent P1 ot__ective ()r
de1 for the periods I, 2006 through June 30, 2009; -
_ ,
f\nnua_l U.S. Treasury form 990. by Stephen C. Corlìss, CPA, PLLC 0 URTV, Inc. lnc
lepenlcìent Report and Financial Statements, Annual, prepared by
Stephen C. Corliss, CPA, PLLC and Corliss 8;. Solomon, PLLC a URTV î4,2008 Annua
l Report\for Fiscal Years 2007, 2008, 2009, sublnitted by the URTV Board ol“
_ Directors to the City ofàshevìlle and County 0 E-NC Authority State Grant Applîcatâon
and _Acceptance .
.
internal Audit Tmnsmìttal, July I2, 20l0, :submitted to Wanda Greene, County Manag
er, and
Michael Prue, County Attorney, by Tim Flora, CPA, Ínternaì Auditor
________________
URTV Treasurer’s Report, October 18, 200?, proparecl by Peter Brezny, with
attaoîtlnehts and notes
»
1» Memorandum...WNC Community Media Contet ...May 24, 2010, from Young, URTV
Board President, _to Lauren Bradley, Assistant to tho City Managen , Asheville,
NC
t
1 have the documents for the periods Jalmary 1, 2007 through juno 30, 2010, whic
h were subject to the Consent Protective Order:
6 P_r0duccr Activity Totals
9 Check Book Registers Credit Card Statements
ln addition, I have interviewed Ms. Davyne Dial. The purpose of this interview w
as if lvls; Dini wished lo retain my services and for me genmal baekgrellnd E ha
d not known Ms. Dial rior to this meetin f and have not talked with her since. I
t has been m ex )ress
|
1 1 , l
. .
y
purpose to be unblaseci m my revlew ofthese materials and l believe the opinions
expressed m tins report are mine and mine alone. _
I also interviewed Tini Fiom , CPA regar_ding his Internal Audit of July I2, 20E
0. Ma". F|ora’s review states that “diere is no indication funds lizíve been spent ina
ppropriately.” I asked Flora if he had, in fact, audited the expenditures, and he ìn
clicáted that he did not, but upon the independently prepared audìtor’s reports. Audit
reports de not purport‘to comnlent approprìateness of expcmiitmes. They do represen
t that they can give a reasonable assaäeimce that the financia! sŕatemenîs are free nlìs
statcmelxt. audit reports do not on the efficacy of management or their activiti
es. Their primary goal ig compliance with gelxcrally accepted accounting princip
les in all material reápects. I Stcpheat C. Corliss, CPA, and he indicated that he
believed he had pe1‘Fo1 med sufficient testing and internal control that enabled
him to give the statements an opînicm. I wouicl reiterate that Mr. Corliss

can his
audit competetttly and cthicaìly without regartl to his opinionà of 1na nageme11t
or operètting È
One of my p1 oc_eclures in analysis was to review the Ilistorìcal balance sheets a
nd operating statements of activities for the periods indicated. The Following r
eflects these historäcai Figures:
As of June 30, 2006 June 30, 2007 June 30, 2008
ï luge 30, 2009
The above data indicates sa reduction in nm estricte<{ net assets of over ze men
th period. have ocelwreci in every year. However , a goed sign is that a evenue
s increased at a much higher rate than expenses, and the anmlaì deficits declining
. On a pre-clepzeciatìon cash :flow basis, the average monthly for the year ending
June 30, 2009 was $1,638.
________________
In addition to the above I determined it would be usefuî to compare thc Co
mpany to other PEG public access eolllpattìfäi. To this end, I reviewed pubiicìy form
990’s for the years indicated to determine operating ratios and resuìts. x
_ .
URTV
- Chapel
Hill NC
Gross
100%
(119,400)
(92,759) 56.90% (269,332) 49.08%
Occupancy
Total
Income
63.60%
46.86% 7.40
%
96.77%
The comparison indicates îhat the greatest clivergence betxvcen URTV and the compa
rabic

comgwanies is the labor ratio. The comparabìe companies, whicih are both p|
of ftabIe, show an average cost of ìabor and benefits of 49.99% URTV 76.58% for fi
scal year 2008, and 63.60% for year 2009. In addition, occupancy and opelatîng, ex
penses average 35.61% for the profitabìe comparables, versus an average of 51.76%
for the Company. Once again, while the ratios were improving through fiscal year
2009, I am concerned by the Young lnelnorandunï of May 24, 20I0.
With respect tothe evidence reviewecl subject to the Consent Protection O1 der,
l am reluctant te speak too specifically and will limit my cliseussìon te general
observation_s.
Firstly, there appears to -be three key employees; Pat Jonathan Czarny, and Curt
Arleage. All have _received salaries and bonuses, as weil as health care and ot
her 1 eimbu1 seme11ts. All three have URTV American Express cards and company maìn
taínecl eell phones. While I cliçlohserve some evidence of retlucecl cost in 2010, I
also noted apparent raises to these three in june 20l0.
________________
Soco_ndly, I cannot opine oni the. validity or purpose of the food, meal
s, and e11tertaîám1ent charged to the American Express Cards, bui ì was surprised by t
he volume of those transactions nt Trippa, Wild Wings, The Fâying Frog, Mikado, Re
d and Rezaz, Many of these charges were simply labolecl “staff”, j also obsowed a $4
06 purchase of an espresso the a car rcntai in Raleigh, NC, and multiple food co
ffee from Starbucks, lnglcs, Earthfare, and Again, it is not myintention to ques
tìonlhe business validity of any of the charges made, but rather to question .the
.Of Such in view -ofthe pour performance ratios indicated above, and the dire se
ht by Mr. Jerry Ymmg. 4
in conclusion, basccì on the evidence presented above, it is my opinion that

URT-V
, hte.- represents a meaningful assetto Western North Carolina. lt is my t u1 th
er opinion that labor, perk_s, and operating expenses are excessive for the size
ofthis operation. The ccntpalíson to the PEG access company in Chapel NC showed V
ery simiîar revenues to those of URTV, Inc., but with consiclctïably
less labor and
n_pcra_ting expènses, and, as si result, n bottom-Eine profit. Comp ¿1risons of-9 co
nnpanyfs performance is essential for the management of any enterp1*ise. il is m
y opinion that the Board of and the key managenient of URTV, inc. hzwc failed in
this regarcl. I have mentioneçi repeatedly |nemoa anci1_zm issued by Mr. Young in
May of 2010. This memormldum indicates to me a lack of proper internai accounti
ng and reporting.
The Company’s tteasurer, Mr. Brezny, begged the Board to aclcîress accounting and ma
nagement issues going back to October 2007. Mr. Fiora conclttded in his internal
attclit report of July 20E0, that the Board needed to address financial issues
with greater regularity and provide proper minutes of meetings to provide pubiic
transparency. Cíeariy, the ctn | ent Board of Directors
and key mmulgement have dropped the ball on these issues.
I cio not suspect that dw Boarcl or management have acted in bad Faith, but I do
beìieve that clmnges in aluuzagemelxi behavior, elnpïoyee compensation, overhead, a
nd spending al|tho1‘ities should he comrolietl and better reported for this pubîic a
sset to survive.
URTV, Ine. should not exist to previde _a job and benefits to a few; it is a pub
lic asset directly or indirectly by publie menîes, and should provìcle a benefit to
the community

as a whole . in my opinion, all decisions and policies for this n
ot-t or-profit entity should be laid open to the public. I
Respectfìlliy submitted for the firm, I am
F. Foster Shrìner Certifìml Valuation Analyst President F. FosîcrShrine1‘ Cerlilîed Public
-Accountant, PA
________________
December 21, 2010
Mr. Michael Wimer WIMER & JOBE 349 Haywood Road Asheville, NC 28806
Re: URTV
Dear Mr. Wimer:
This will acknowledge receipt of your letter of December 8, 2010, regarding URTV
. Your letter attached a copy of a letter from accountant Foster Shriner. Nlr. S
hríner’s letter was a report based on his review of financial records of URTV and ot
her information, including discussions with Ms. Davyne Dial and others.
Since neither your letter nor ivlr. Shriner’s letter were copied to the management
of URTV, or to their attorney, Michelle Rippen, we are providing them with copi
es for their review and response. in this respect, l note that the Management Ag
reement between the City and URTV provides for an Annual Report, to include fina
ncial statements audited by an independent certified public accountant, This rep
ort is due on or before March 15. Sec. 14.
The term of the Management Agreement expires on April 26, 2011, but may be renew
ed. Seo. 17. We will take your and Mr. Shriner‘s letters, and any response provide
d by URTV. including the Annuel Report, under advisement.
ï Sincerely,
City Manager
GWJISC
cc: Robert W. Oast, Jr., City Attorney Lauren Bradley, Administrative Services D
irector
________________