Questions about who sits on the Bradford Sports board
BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Starke has joined Bradford County in a memorandum of understanding for recreational funding, but not before contemplating changes to the Bradford Sports United board.
Seeing that two of the three funding entities — Bradford County and the Tourist Development Council — had voting members on the BSU board, Starke Commissioner Janice Mortimer said a city commissioner should also be on the board.
Starke is currently represented by Cathy Bradley, who is City Manager Drew Mullins’ chief assistant. Bradford County appointed Commissioner Danny Riddick and TDC appointed Gene Melvin from the town of Brooker.
Recalling that former City Commissioner Scott Roberts was active in the formation of Bradford Sports United, Mortimer suggested Commissioner Danny Nugent of Commissioner Bob Milner represent the city on the recreation board. Having city commission representation would provide parity in terms of influence as well as the ability to report directly back to the commission.
Mayor Andy Redding explained Bradley was appointed because of her sports background. Also, the organization will evolve from a joint government venture as it claims a private nonprofit status. From there, membership will be up to that independent board.
“It gets hard to keep those lines from being blurred, and people would say, OK, well, because they’re the city, they’re on the board, they’re donating the money, they can affect how we operate and how we do things in the future. So that was my thought process on that position, and that’s why I didn’t insert myself in that because I’m relying on this organization being autonomous,” Redding said.
Mortimer said the city commission should have someone with equal authority to the county and TDC on the BSU board.
There was also discussion with the city attorney about potential conflicts with having elected or appointed members of a public board voting to fund a private board of which they are also a member. The city manager said he has advised the county to reconsider “entangling” public and private board members.
“I would just caution about entangling ourselves with elected officials or higher management, entangling ourselves too closely with a 501(c)(3) like that,” Mullins told city commissioners, addressing the need for public officials to operate in the sunshine.
“Mr. Riddick had an awful lot to do with getting this thing up off the ground. I want to give him a lot of credit,” Commissioner Milner said, “but it may be time for him to look at it and say, OK, he can now back out and an appropriate county staff member or somebody that they appoint be on there rather than himself. And I think I would rather see that than either one of us have a representative.”
Mortimer agreed. Ultimately, the commission decided against mandating an elected official from the city be on the Bradford Sports United board, instead favoring staff or community appointees while encouraging the county to consider a similar approach. Redding said he and the city manager would follow up on that discussion with the county.
The memorandum of understanding was unanimously approved. Each of the funding entities contributed $150,000 during the first year. In the MOU the city and county agree to another $150,000 in BSU’s second year, although beyond that the youth rec organization is expected to become largely self-supporting. As a nonprofit, however, it may still rely on generous donations and fundraisers in addition to its business activities.
Bradford Sports United is overseeing management and improvement of the city’s ballpark facilities and is pursuing a Babe Ruth charter. It is currently advertising for a full-time manager to run the organization. The youth sports organization is expected to expand beyond baseball and softball, offering children and adolescents a place to play multiple sports in Bradford County and encouraging travel to the county for tournaments, benefiting the local economy
