Problem Solvers: Claims of mishandled documents, conflicts of interest by La Pine Parks & Rec Board members
(Update: Adding videos)
La PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) -- KTVZ News' Problem Solvers Team investigated alleged misconduct by the newly appointed board members of the La Pine Park and Recreation District and an apparent lack of transparency. Other community members have even pointed to possible conflicts of interest.
“They're not transparent. They are still covering things up,” said Teri Myers.
Myers was a clerk for the La Pine Park & Rec District for 14 years and says her position was terminated by the district’s board in December. She tells the Problem Solvers she witnessed newly appointed board member Carlos Soto allegedly mishandle documents.
Myers said, “He took stuff and he just shredded stuff. He would just shred things."
Another former employee, Caleb Campbell, corroborated these allegations claiming he saw it happen.
Campbell said, “On October 27th, I went inside the public Parks and Rec building. When I walked in, a newly appointed board member, Carlos Soto, was sitting at the front desk shredding documents. I'm not sure what exactly he shredded, but he was definitely sitting at the desk shredding documents.”
KTVZ News spoke with Soto about the allegations. He tells the Problem Solvers the documents were miscellaneous items.
"The only things that I shred is I made a couple of signs on office for, just the office writer, and they didn't come out right, so I shred them. And then, as part of the pickleball club, all of our members, we have membership release form and a liability waiver all stacked right there in the gym."
Myers also claims Soto hired an IT company to remove electronic documents.
She said, “He had them wipe everything out of the computers."
We asked, “And how did you know that he did that?” Myers responded: “Well, because I was there and I watched him.”
Soto refutes these allegations, saying, "The computers and everything was completely outdated. You, we kept getting messages popping up non-stop. You need to update us, and nobody could update it."
In addition to updating software, Soto claims the IT service was hired to remove former employees' or board members' remote access -- not remove documents.
Soto said, "Everything is web-based, so you can't get rid of anything. And all he did was come in and just clean up all these people who had access that haven't even been there for years and years and years."
According to the district's Public Records Policy, original records of the district may not be removed from the district files without board of directors’ approval -- a step Myers claims was skipped.
According to the November 5th meeting minutes provided by Soto, the board actually did approve a company to remove former user access.
Despite this, Myers is reluctant to trust meeting minutes.
"They didn't take the minutes that I had turned in for the December 3rd meeting and they said, 'Oh, we're going to make changes to the minutes. And I specifically stood up afterwards and said, 'You can't change any minutes that I submitted when I was still your board clerk, unless you do it in a public forum.'"
Another concern expressed to the Problem Solvers: Soto not only has a seat on park board but is also vice president of the board's foundation, as well as the president of the pickleball club, which Campbell says directly benefits from Soto's board position.
Campbell said, “He had arranged to utilize the gym for 58 hours a week, for a set time period for a donation of $10,000, with the amount of time that they were using the gym, and it amounted to $0.23 an hour as far as what he was paying to utilize the gym. The publicly stated rate at that time was $60 an hour, for the public to utilize that facility. So I do believe there's a conflict of interest there."
Soto provided a breakdown of pickleball club maintenance costs and club donations to the board for the 2023-2024 season. That total number of spending came out to over $94,000.
Draxton asked Soto, “Does the pickleball club get any special privileges or gain access because of your position on the board, or even the foundation of the board?”
Soto responded, "Not at all. We don't get special treatment, we pay and we pay and we pay that. We even doubled, no, quadrupled our cash donation yearly to the district."
Myers also claims that the new board is not properly recording meetings.
She said, “Whenever two or more of board members are meeting, it becomes a public meeting, and they would sit and talk about things together in the office and make their decisions up and make decisions, period, when they weren't in the public sphere."
According to La Pine Parks & Rec. District Board Policies, it is actually three or more board members sitting together that make it a public meeting.
Campbell noted, “This community seems to be divided at the moment. The people that are suffering right now are the kids and the members of the public that utilize those facilities."
In the interview with Soto, he emphasized efforts by the board to make strides to rebuild trust with the community.
He pointed to these efforts saying, "As soon as our meeting minutes get done, they're able to be posted on our website. We have, we got a new Owl, a video conferencing system, and those are Zoomed every month as well. And then we have been telling the entire community, come down and ask us questions."
Oregon State Police confirmed to us that their Criminal Investigation Division is looking into the park district, but they did not specify what their focus is due to it being an ongoing investigation.
KTVZ News will continue to report on these issues as more information comes to light.
The mission of the Problem Solvers is to inform, investigate and inspire.
- Inform our audience with accurate, actionable, and timely news stories.
- Investigate pressing community issues, holding individuals and organizations accountable for their actions.
- Inspire positive change by highlighting solutions, encouraging collaboration, and empowering individuals to take action in their own lives and communities.
Contact the KTVZ News Problem Solvers at problemsolvers@ktvz.com.
Note: While responses may not be possible for all inquiries, we will address as many as possible. Please include your name, phone number, email address, and a detailed description of the issue/story you need assistance with.