“We’re going to do a deep dive” into the finances of the county ag board, or the fair board, Lipps told the Dayton Daily News Thursday.
“I do not believe the books are accurate,” he added.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Lipps said he does not believe the Dec. 1 deadline — which OHHA board member Scott Hagemeyer is seeking to extend or eliminate — “will hold.”
Lipps and Hagemeyer both questioned if recent cash payments made to the fair board were reflected in data presented to members before the Oct. 21 6-4 vote to evict.
There has been “misinformation shared about past due balances,” Lipps said.
When contacted Wednesday, ag board Treasurer Casey Fodor declined to comment on disputed financial issues until society officials meet with the Warren County commission, which owns the 94-acre fairgrounds.
The fair board’s meeting with the commission is expected to be Nov. 12, officials have said. State Sen. Steve Wilson said he and Lipps have sought to “create dialogue” between multiple entities.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“It seems like there’s silos of people that don’t understand what the other people are facing,” Wilson said. “And it would be good for us to get them all together and to have them work together to achieve whatever needs to be achieved.”
Lipps said public forums should have been held before fair board’s eviction vote.
“I’m really distressed that 100 years of horse racing in Lebanon … can be usurped without any public comments or any public involvement,” he said.
The WCAS board said in a statement this week that as of Oct. 25 it “has tens of thousands of dollars in outstanding, unpaid rent for 2024 from harness racing training facility renters.”
It will evict horse stall renters because “the harness racing stall/tack rental and harness racing training track operations have caused an overwhelming financial burden on the (ag society) due to non-payment of rent,” according to the statement.
The county ag board lacked the information “to make an educated decision,” Hagemeyer said.
Hagemeyer said the vote to evict came after a treasurer’s report that included “factually wrong” data.
“It did not include two of the largest single clients that had actually paid their bill and was not reflected,” Hagemeyer said. Lipps expressed similar concerns.
The county commission earlier this week raised questions about ag board’s operations and the commission’s contract with the society.
Commissioners said the society’s main purpose is overseeing the county fair and 4-H activities, both of which were mentioned in the WCAS board’s Oct. 28 statement.
The society said the deal with horse boarders “is no longer an agreement that the organization can financially maintain and still support our purpose as a non-profit organization.”
The WCAS board has taken several actions this year to resolve issues of non-payment from its renters:
•This spring, it issued updated stall rental contracts with no increase. To date, fewer than 10% of renters agreed to sign and return said contracts.
•On Oct. 1, stall monthly rent increased from $125 to $150, the first rate hike since September 2021, to better cover expenses for the facility.
•It required each renter have a credit card or ACH payment on file for WCAS to reserve the right to charge for monthly invoices. Notices were posted on each barn and emailed out to renters.
But when the board voted on the issue, “only 4 of 45 renters completed the required forms,” according to the statement.
However, Hagemeyer said, more than 90% “of their paying customers paid their bills in full as of September.”
The data presented to the board did not “include cash payments that the fair board received,” he said.
Cash payments to the ag society were “showing up as unpaid and back due bills.”
Lipps said the $150 a month rate is the highest of the rent charged by any of the fair boards in the state and the Warren County Fairgrounds has 90% occupancy.
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