ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County leaders got an explanation of what went wrong with onePulse Foundation during Tuesday’s commission meeting, but an investigation into the organization’s finances may take some time.
During a meeting Tuesday, commissioners heard an update on the Pulse Museum Tourist Development Tax (TDT) Funding Agreement and the steps to be taken before a property purchased using TDT funding can be transferred back to the county.
The property on Kaley Street was supposed to be used for a museum dedicated to the victims of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting, but the project was canceled before onePulse Foundation announced it would dissolve earlier this month.
“As a county, we do have to do our due diligence because of the contractual relationship that we had with the expenditure of the peoples’ money,” said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.
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Lots of emotion, little interest in donating
Speaking publicly for the first time since the foundation’s dissolution, vice chair George Kalogridis told commissioners there was initial enthusiasm for the project.
“At the time, I think, the intensity of anger and sadness and frustration was so great in the community that, as we developed plans, we had immense support,” Kalogridis said.
The foundation got an interim memorial going while time constraints meant it had to forge ahead with museum plans, Kalogridis said. But as time went on, he said big donations for the memorial and museum project were hard to come by.
“What we were starting to find out was that people, corporations in particular, had very little interest in donating toward a memorial and just as little to a museum, which meant that we were going to have to try to find individual funds,” Kalogridis said. “And so we’re doing that at the same time COVID hits. And by then the costs had risen to something that was clearly not acceptable.”
Kalogridis, a former Walt Disney World president, said the biggest fundraising challenge involved the Pulse property itself. He said some contributors did not want their financial gifts to be used to purchase the building and land. One of the nightclub’s owners was unwilling to donate the property.
Last month, the city of Orlando agreed to purchase the Pulse Nightclub property for $2 million.
“I think once the city made the decision to purchase the site and build the memorial, it was clear that funding for anything else was going to be impossible. And because the negative media was not helping anybody wanting to give money to us,” Kalogridis said about the foundation’s dissolution.
Calls for a full audit
Even with the group’s internal issues, Kalogridis is confident that the group spent its funding properly. That includes the $10 million grant it received in 2018 from the county through the TDT agreement.
“We weren’t wasting money. Our percent of spend from design fees as compared to the national average was right in line (with other memorials),” Kalogridis said. He pointed out, for instance, that millions went to scholarships awarded to almost 200 young people, something people were interested in donating to.
County commissioners asked Comptroller Phil Diamond whether an audit of the foundation’s records would be possible.
Commissioner Mayra Uribe said there was clearly poor decision-making and potentially misspent money. She said hindsight was 20/20 but wondered if it was possible for the foundation to start something small.
“One thing I hear consistently is, ‘What’s happened to the money? Where did the money go? Where did the money go?’” said Uribe.
Diamond said that because of the TDT agreement onePulse had with the county, he could audit the money the county gave the group.
Records show onePulse used $3.5 million to buy a property off Kaley Street and Division Avenue for the museum. Another $3 million was used for design services. The county never allocated the rest of the grant.
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“We looked at that purchase, and by all counts the purchase was done properly,” Diamond said. He also said the design services costs were also accurate.
As for a broader audit outside of the TDT money, Diamond did not rule it out. However, there was some question about whether he had the authority to do it. Diamond also said that usually when he did an audit, it was with the goal of finding and recommending ways of improving.
However, that was not really a necessity since onePulse was dissolving.
“That’s the other thing we have to balance when we consider where do we do that, where do we audit and what the benefits are, what can we hope to see as a result, what positive changes can we see,” Diamond said.
But commissioners pushed back, saying the recommendations from an audit would inform the commissioners themselves, going forward, in investing in other non-government groups.
“I think that it’s important we understand very intimately what led to the decisions that were made over the years that got us to this point so that those decisions don’t reoccur,” said Commissioner Mike Scott.
Next steps for Kaley Street property
Once the property is returned to the county, officials can sell the property and recoup the $3.5 million it gave onePulse to purchase it. It may also use the building for another purpose, or build the museum itself.
There are some hitches though. One, onePulse had leased parts of the Kaley Street property before dissolving, in violation of the TDT agreement.
The county gave onePulse 60 days to terminate the lease and for the company using the space to vacate. No word on whether that has been dealt with.
Two, the state of Florida gave onePulse Foundation a separate $400,000 grant, and under the rules of that grant, the Kaley Street property must be used for a “cultural facility” within 10 years. Since the property is reverting back to the county, the county may have to pay the $400,000 back to the state if it decides to do something else with the property.
“I hope that my colleagues on this board, as we’re discussing TDT again, will join in making sure that we allocate funding to make a museum at the location that was purchased,” said Uribe.
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