The park, which is owned by the City of Union, has served as the home of American Legion Post 22 since 1947. The post leases the park from the city and operates it on behalf of local veterans and the community. The city does not, however, provide the Legion with any tax funds beyond $1,000 in its annual allocations for outside agencies. That money goes to support the Legion baseball team.
The Legion’s main source of public funding is four-tenths of a mill included in the county tax levy for the operation of the park. The millage was not established through an ordinance approved by county council but by state statute passed by the General Assembly in 1946. The statute directed the county auditor to levy for one year a 2-mill tax “for the purpose of assisting in the expenses of creating and maintaining a Veterans Memorial Park.”
At the end of fiscal 1946-1947, that statute stated that the levy would be reduced to a half mill which the county treasurer would collect and hold in a separate fund and credit “to the account of The American Legion for Veterans Memorial Park.” The millage was reduced to four-tenths of a mill in fiscal 1981-82.
Treasurer Dianne Wilkins said her office continues to collect the revenue and credit it to the Legion as directed by the 1946 statute. The revenue generated is placed in a general ledger account and paid out in May. She said the check she cuts for the operation of the park is turned over to the Legion treasurer.
Mrs. Wilkins said she follows the same procedure with the revenue generated by the millage levied for the county’s fire districts. She said the revenue generated by the millage allotted for the school district is distributed on a monthly basis.
(The Legion also uses private funds to help maintain the park, mainly from the rent it charges groups using the facility.)
The operation of the park has come under scrutiny after the board voted in November to approve the purchase of a new car by then-post commander Herbert Johnson. The purchase was not approved at a formal meeting but by a telephone poll of the 12-member board, nine of whom Johnson said voted to approve it. He then bought the vehicle for $13,900 and the trade-in of his old car which he said he wore out doing post business.
Johnson resigned as commander in March after disagreements with some members over the operation of the park and administration of Post 22. He still serves as District 8 commander for the American Legion and still uses the car he bought in November.
A group of Post 22 members led by acting commander Paul Davis met Tuesday with Mayor Harold Thompson to ask the city to revise the lease. The revision would incorporate the recommendations of an internal review of the operation of the park and the events surrounding the purchase of the car. Davis said it is hoped that a new lease will clarify the lines of responsibility for the operation of the park and related issues.
The review conducted by Davis found a dozen documents that provided “often conflicting, contradictory, and confusing” for the operations of the park and Post 22’s responsibilities. He said he also found that over the years the institutional memory for the operation of the park had been lost, creating a situation where its governing board operated more on opinion of its members and others rather than a written set of rules.
Thompson and the group were scheduled to meet again this afternoon.
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