McHenry County Sportsplex LLC seeks to build a huge sports and retail facility on Route 47 between Huntley and Woodstock in an area controled but not yet part of the Village of Lakewood. At the late-December meeting of the County's Finance and Audit committee when the group presented its application for the stimulus funds the group's president introduced Terry Gaouette, Vice President of Administration and Business Consulting Services for H&K Sports Fields, Egg Harbor, WI, as a consultant.
Gaouette, FEN has learned, was once the Chief Financial Officer of the Milwaukee Public Museum and indicted on four felony counts in 2007 for draining money from the museum's endowment funds to cover its declining operations and hiding it. Gaouette claimed he was just trying to keep the troubled museum afloat. Prosecutors said he was protecting his prestigious $150,000 per year job.
The museum basically went bust and Milwaukee County had to step in with a rescue plan estimated to cost $39 million over a 15-year period. Gaouette pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of falsifying a report, gave the museum about $50,000 and surrendered his Wisconsin CPA license.
Reached on his cellphone Wednesday Gaouette said, "I don't want to talk about it," and hung up.
Sportsplex CEO Lou Tenore was willing to talk about it Wednesday. "Everybody knows about this," said Tenore. Besides, he said, his group developed the Sportsplex's financial plans, not Gaouette who, Tenore said was just their consultant on artificial turf. "That's what H&K sells," he said.
At the December application meeting Gaouette never mentioned plastic grass, however. While he only spoke for a few minutes what he talked about was the sportsplex's financing and its business prospects.
Lakewood Village Manager Manager Katherine Peterson said while "We have heard rumblings", she didn't know the details of Gaouette's history. "Our understanding is that he is a consultant and sort of the financial analyst" for the Sportsplex she said Thursday. "They haven't actually submitted a formal application yet," she said.
Finance and Audit Committee Chairman Marc Munaretto was likewise unaware of Gaouette's record. "I understood him to represent himself as the consultant for (McHenry County Sportsplex's) business plan," said Munaretto. "I thought he was a paid consultant that helped develop the application." Munaretto said it wasn't his committee's job to "drill down that far".
H&K Sports Field's Vice President for Marketing and Business Development Eric Kordon said Wednesday he didn't know what Gaouette's precise role was for McHenry County Sportsplex. "I don't know much about what's going on down there," he said.
Meanwhile in other developments, earlier this month the Finance and Audit Committee learned McHenry County hasn't been designated a Targeted Employment Area for the federal EB-5 resident visa program. That means foreign investors in the sportsplex's complicated plan to pay back the county's stimulus bonds would have to pony up $1 million apiece instead of $500,000.
Naperville EB-5 broker Lu Sun said Thursday that would set a very high hurdle for the plan at least for investors in China. "They don't want to take a $1 million risk," he said. "Ninety nine percent of our investors are at the $500,000 level."
Certifying McHenry County as a TEA should be a simple administrative matter but it depends on a declaration by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, according to officials. No one knows how long it might actually take.
Tenore last week said that McHenry County Sportsplex Management Group, minority owner and manager of McHenry County Sportsplex, was recognized by the Secretary of State in late January. A records check shows the Secretary of State registered the organization Jan. 26. FEN had earlier reported the management group had failed to organize to do business in Illinois.
In the pics: (above) Milwaukee Public Museum. (below) Gaouette and Tenore at the County Finance and Audit Committee in December.
1 comments:
Bravo, Pete!!! You're doing a great job!
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