The leader of a group of parents concerned about an apparent lack of transparency in the finances of River Forest Youth Baseball and Softball (RFYBS) is weighing his options after a promised audit never materialized at the annual meeting recently.
“The excuse I was given is that the audit has not been completed yet,” Gino Fioravanti told West Cook News.
Besides having his children in the league, Fioravanti has coached and sponsored a team for the last three years.
Greg White
The meeting was the second held by the board, and Fioravanti said that and the fact that proxy voting is now allowed shows that some progress has been made in the operation of the league. The finances, however, remain the big concern, especially after a vote amended the bylaws to loosen the requirement on audits.
“From requiring the audit ever year, it’s been changed to being at the discretion of the board,” Fioravanti said.
He says the trouble with that is that the president of RFYBS, Greg White — whom Fioravanti says he’s asked numerous times for a full accounting of the finances — controls the board.
In a previous interview, White said all the questions about the finances had been resolved “20 times over.”
“It’s all water way under the bridge,” he said.
Fioravanti said he’s consider contacting both Little League International and the Illinois Attorney General’s Charitable Trust Bureau, which oversees the operations of non-profits in the state, but he worried that some parents are getting “worn out” fighting White and the board.
He cites the fact that only 50 people turned out for the annual meeting at the Lincoln School auditorium, nearly all of whom were White supporters. Last year, more than 100 people came to the first meeting.
“A lot of them are sick of the politics of it all,” Fioravanti said.
All that parents know from Tuesday night’s meeting about the finances is that the RFYBS is operating in the black on an annual budget of nearly $180,000, and for the first time the league is keeping receipts for expenses.
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