Since several people have reached out and said why don’t you address the lies I figured I could start with the only actual statement that “they” have made public and presumably stand by. This was their post in standard text. The red text addresses the other side of the conversation.
Mr. B.A. Anderson and Mr. Shane Fernandez, whom have had ZERO involvement in this ongoing negotiation but hey I guess appeal to a higher power and overstep the track staff that handles 300+ tracks...
I am delighted to read we are all aligned on this being an unusual circumstance and the need to continue to stay focused on our roots of providing youth sports to the Santa Clara community. SCPAL has done so with the support of Santa Clara for over 52 years, and we hope to continue for at least another 52 years.
In the event some are not aware, it’s critically important to remind people how appreciative SCPAL has been of the BMX program we offer and the wonderful partnership we have had over the years. You absolutely appreciate the program and the funds it brings in, but it’s the volunteers and the customers/riders you seem to overlook. This relationship started with ABA and continued to flourish as ABA grew into USA BMX. As a team, SCPAL and USABMX have successfully completed numerous Nationals, Gold Cups, and State Finals, and continued to be one of the top 10 facilities in the country since the early 1990s. Ever since we started this program in the late 1970s, it has been a critical component of the funding for all our youth sports. SC PAL has been around for 50+ years but anyone with history knows that the BMX track has a much shorter life span. Whomever jotted this lovely letter made an assumption that the date coincided. Incorrect. Our commitment to working out an interim solution that supports all of our programs still remains one of our highest priorities. We sincerely appreciate the City’s support of continuing a SCPAL and USA BMX proposal which is amenable to all. Wait a second, when this letter was published 05/05, USABMX had already advised you that they were no longer in negotiations with you. The ploy of you mentioning the "city's support" is because it is a blatant attempt to cling to the city relationship as your last chance to salvage anything. The city didn't take you down this twisted road and the city nor its community should not suffer from your horrible decisions either.
I wanted to let everyone know that PAL is excited to announce that we can accept most of the proposals provided by USABMX on April 15th, including reinstatement of the management group that USABMX is standing behind. Notice they singled out USABMX as standing by the management and withdrew their support? Doesn't speak well for any positive outlook to me. The one item we need to align on is how the finances are managed while the audit/investigation the city has deemed necessary. Again, another lie. The audit was suggested by parents who were obviously concerned about the actions of the PAL board and those parents with experience in that tax arena said a true 3rd party audit was likely in order. The city of San Jose gutted SJ PAL several years back with a similar audit and your result would be much of the same, if not worse. FACT. You bringing in someone with an axe to grind who is 90 days into the program is in no way, shape, or form a true audit. The city agreed to let you finish your "audit", but one would be hard pressed to believe that what you are performing is remotely an audit. An internal audit from the very people who made accusations before even reviewing the books and who can’t even explain the day-to-day transactions is not likely to reflect any actual financial data. That pretend audit will be based on general average attempts with motivated findings that are based solely on personal agendas. It’s telling when the very person these charges are against has never to this day been given or shown where any calculation of any claim is coming from. Perhaps, you don’t understand the paperwork itself but never bothered to ask anyone before jumping to conclusions? We propose reinstating the same processes and procedures we had for over 20 years of operating this facility—meaning, all revenue generated on the grounds would be reported, and provided to SCPAL. Oh, as any board member versed in all aspects of the actual BMX finances, I can confirm they have never seen a single handbook, guide, receipt, fiscal audit, etc. Never been trained or even guided by an exec board member. Please do though go ahead and post the processes that you seem to claim exist but none of your volunteer staff has ever seen. You can claim that all revenueearned on the grounds is reported and provided to PAL, but a letter exists stating the exact opposite and that letter is from theprevious Executive Director of the program. A letter that the very person who jotted this lovely statement has seen himself. Hmmmm... before the next line, do you first want to mention that your volunteers paid those until now with their own money and then you reimbursed them somewhere down the line whenever you and your team got around to it? A track generating that much revenue simply cannot function on a $1000 credit limit so there was no other option, remember? Additionally, all expenses would be paid by SCPAL directly. This is not possible with your current structure of the board meeting 1x per month and your program running 12 events per month. Furthermore, your PAL bookkeeper under the direction of your treasurer works 1 day a month. Sweet job hours but not plausible that in 1 day that person can keep up on the books of the busiest track in the country. We realize there have been concerns over the years with our response time to requests made by the BMX parental advisory group. We also want to acknowledge this as a fact and something that needs to be corrected. As such, we would commit to providing a response in no more than 10 business days of a written request being submitted. Providing a response in 10 days? In the time it takes you to respond to that 1 item the track has run 3-4 additional events. These events are very hands on, and each event presents its own trials and occurrences which need to be handled quickly. The way you stay as a thriving track is you don’t give 10 days for something you handle it immediately. Your program runs far too much volume to think that anything, but your best is acceptable and frankly 10 days is laughable. To be clear, this would not relate to the normal operations or upkeep of the facility. For those items, we would set up business accounts with the vendors suggested by the parental advisory group to ensure they could order things as necessary without any delay in their operations. You don't need vendor accounts; you flat out need to pay your bills and in a timely manner. It was not uncommon for volunteers to have $5000+ invoices paid on personal cards and awaiting reimbursement for track expenses. Again, you don’t even know your clientele, so you think a net 30 account makes things ok. No. Net 30 is for businesses that can afford to wait on payment. The vendors we work with that just know the sport are quality people and supportive of our program and they need their payment handled in a timely manner. Nick would apologize constantly for the inability of PAL and finally just used his own card and let the burden fall on himself of getting paid back. You saying that you can simply wave a wand and fix that now is silly. You cannot run a program for an organization without the ability to pay invoices in a timely manner.
Additionally, SCPAL is prepared to commit no less than 50%, but up to a maximum of 75%, reinvestment directly back to the BMX program relative to all funds generated on an annual basis. To continue providing an affordable sport, SCPAL will not increase any racing, rental, or other fees for the remainder of 2022 despite all surrounding facilities increasing at least 20% from 2021. What has your past and current reinvestment been? How convenient that after a city meeting you now realize that important people actually want to see where PAL has given back to the very program that afforded you to bask in success so only now you are committed. What can you show that demonstrates any commitment before you had to answer to the City Council for it? Furthermore, we would hope that the ridership would not see any increase as they were your only revenue stream for the past 2 years. In addition, the volume of ridership that frequents the facility creates a system where in theory the riders should be getting MORE for their money and never asked to pay a higher rate. Other tracks are having to charge more to adjust for lower volume and we are the exact different scenario.
We believe this approach will greatly simplify the daily involvement of USA BMX. SCPAL proposes that all operations, fees, and payments are handled in a typical manner as the other 300+ facilities around the country (see attached image for details). For reference, this is the same as the prior interim agreement we reached for the 2022 Golden State Nationals. In other words, there is no need to have USABMX provide a unique situation for Santa Clara PAL in regard to the $2 per rider fee. Hold up. Did you just say "the same as the prior interim agreement"? Well, that's funny because we know that this was not the standard $2 per rider per event agreement and that PAL received $5 per rider per event during the interim $2 per rider simply wasn’t enough for PAL. In addition, PAL paid no bills during the interim with USABMX taking those as well, just to keep the in place National at the location. So, $2 and $5 are very much not the same, stop selling the people lies. USABMX paid all bills and gave up 50% of any revenue. They in fact lost about $8000 or so during that interim agreement and we won’t talk about the $10,000 payment for the national that PAL demanded, which is HIGHLY UNUSUAL to be paid but what choice did USABMX have at that point? And then, to double down one step further on your mistruth and have your newly appointed board member claiming on social media that she could “assure everyone that the city nor PAL collected a pile of cash and that all money was handed to USABMX”. She did hand that to USABMX, that is true. And then it was handed by them to PAL. Tisk Tisk. Although we appreciate USABMX committing to doing whatever is possible to keep the facility running, we also realize this isn’t their business model, as they have described to us over the past few months. It may not be their only business model but when it makes business sense, they are more than able to accommodate things and ensure a strong program does not stutter. This model has worked with success and believe it or not… psssst they even pay the track operator who runs the facility?!?! The model works but of course you do not want to see it go that way because it leaves your organization in the cold and unnecessary.
One last item we would need full alignment on is how to proceed once the audit is complete. In all situations, we would like to request increasing the BMX parental group to seven members. The seven members should not have any immediate family ties or be employed by one another. Well, isn’t it convenient that you cleverly know, along with many others, that several related individuals were the current “parent advisory group” making them not eligible and that Marisa is specifically “employed by” another board member as a Nanny, so that would rule her out of being on the board as well? PAL wants to add board members that have been involved with the track less than six months and give them equal voting rights to the sweat equity board members. Again, who does this? And by adding additional members you can then get a majority to I don’t know perhaps ummm maybe you know …vote out your problem? Frankly, not one of the dismissed volunteers would remain on the BMX board nor work under PAL in any way after the last 4 weeks so it’s now a moot point anyway. Additionally, SCPAL is fully committed to adjustments to our current reporting structure by the addition of at least one parental advisory member to the SCPAL board. What a great idea! Like what we requested the last 4 years of being a part of the organization you mean?. BMX is only represented in that board meeting when it needs money and that needs to be flipped around. BMX is the backbone of the organization, yet NOBODY from that PAL board could tell you how to even get to the BMX track. But now that a local “home grown” rooted in PAL is in the picture, that will suit the PAL Board just swimmingly. How swell.
In the event the audit/investigation comes back without any unreported income in excess of $4,999, SCPAL would issue a written public apology to all parties involved in the audit/investigation. Keep your apology. You have already cast a shadow that is far more than any cheesy apology could ever begin to repair. You tore down years of community devotion and you have made formal accusations before even admittedly having completed your own internal audit to support those claims. Who makes an accusation of this magnitude BEFORE an interna audit and presents that to city council as your reason? You use the words "unreported income" and "financial mismanagement" all super vague so that you can bounce back and forth between each accusation without sticking to one. Volunteers had explicit permission that dated back far prior to any of your current team’s involvement with the program.
(Don’t worry, it’s below so you can read it yourself too. You’re welcome). That Executive Director letter gave explicit permission for volunteers to provide “private instruction/camps as a way to fund raise for your race teams or track improvements”. Notice it doesn’t say anything about that money needing to go to or through PAL, no maximum amountcould be earned, was never noted in any way as intended for“pizza money”, and never that it was required to be put back into the track or program. So wait, that money belonged to whomever earned it? The letter continues confirming this was an offer “as a way of us showing appreciation for the efforts that you and the other volunteers put in throughout each and every year”. Let me break that down… so in exchange for 60ish volunteer hours a month, one could run a clinic say 1 hour per week and keep any funds earned right? And one could take time away from his other paying job to devote maybe 4 hours a day on a weekly basis to the very kids he volunteered for day in and day out, and keep that money too? You read the letter and decide. Notice, this email also confirms this as a standard practice amongst PAL sports citing those very same permissions for softball/baseball (ie. Batting coaches). So, why are we singling out one person here and calling that embezzlement and theft? And why? Because when it started it was small and inconsequential the first five years no one cared. This practice did not just being in 2021, its just the first time it became lucrative enough to fight for that too. So, now that someone spent the last 6 years building it up (don’t forget the ridership and PAL dollars were building simultaneously so it wasn’t like their revenue was staying the same), PAL wants to come in and grab that money as well? Some people realize the value in not just supporting their own small team but building back a program that was neglected and that everyone would benefit. That wasn't done with less than $4,999.99 and to be blunt it was not done with less than $49,999.99 either. This was passion on full display both improving our kids on the course and using the revenue generated to pour right back into the facility. Instead of taking those funds and using them personally, they were set aside for countless awards and promotions, track improvements, etc. and were paid for through those very camps and lessons in its place. So instead of trying to point a finger, you ought to raise a glass, tip a cap, and give a round of applause for the person who took the time to commit and make this place something we are all very proud of. SCPAL would also fully support their involvement in continued operations for the foreseeable future. If unreported income exceeds $5,000, SCPAL would need USABMX to support SCPAL in full, and without hesitation, with any adjustments to the parental advisory group deemed necessary by the SCPAL board. Any adjustments would require a majority vote of SCPAL board members. There is that majority vote again. The simple fact that this is even mentioned shows the intention. And again, what that audit needs to reveal truly is all the inequities and lack of management and oversight. Hold yourselves accountable and stop looking to place the blame on the volunteer person at the bottom of the chain. Your organization itself is responsible. If there was a policy or procedure that wasn’t followed, this would have been a shut case if there had been theft or embezzlement. without an agenda, hence why no 3rd party audit will ever be completed or agreed to by PAL.
We want to state our appreciation for committing to the 2023 Golden State nationals and world qualifiers being hosted at our wonderful facility again. We would also like to request to host the 2024 Golden State nationals and world qualifier as well, considering how difficult a transition like this is on the local community. Your arrogance making you think that national events are just handed out like pieces of candy is a joke. This is a premiere event and should be treated like such. Millions of dollars of economic impact and you really just asked for 2 years of nationals as if it were a glass of water for the very organization you need to be in partnership with? You also don't have the slightest clue that the 2024 Worlds qualifier physically will not fit at our site. Arrogance and lack of experience are your absolute kryptonite! Go ahead and check the last time the worlds event was hosted on US soil and tell me you think you are ready for a qualifier of that magnitude? Stop.
SCPAL's goal is to have the facility open for our youth no later than Friday (05/13/22). If a response confirming this is acceptable could be provided within the next three business days, we would appreciate it. In doing so, this should provide ample time for us to develop a social media post notifying everyone of our back to track start day. On the topic of social media, I believe USA BMX is aware that SCPAL has not been provided ownership rights to the social media assets managed Created/Owned would be more correct here by the parental advisory group despite numerous requests to do so. We would greatly appreciate USABMX's support in transferring these over from the advisory group’s personal accounts to our SCPAL non-profit business account. To be fair, and this is ironic, USABMX made a push a few seasons back to become admin to track pages and we politely declined them as well. The volunteers take the privacy of messages and details about children very seriously. If a parent trusts us with private information, you do not get to assume that trust by default. PAL had also ironically gained access several times in the very week last week prior to their statement, so let’s not pretend they have been on the up and up here. PAL didn't create the page to begin with, so go start your own. Imagine if the now “dark” page with the 5k followers had posted that there was going to be practice on 05/13/22 as their team put out. Imagine people drove up from Salinas, down from Napa, down and over from Roseville …only to find out that oops there wasn’t practice. There was actually nothing at all. No statement, no explanation, no apology, nothing. These people don’t have a clue what they are doing and they do not value the ridership in any way. That’s why the page is dark and that’s why we won’t just hand it over. The branding is ours, the photos, the rights, the messages, and the list goes on. Build your new brand it is really that easy.
Once this is done, we will assign administrator rights to all parental advisory group members within five business days. Our intent is not to manage the day-to-day activities of the site but considering this is the primary medium through which our organization communicates with the public, we do need the ability to manage the admins as the parental advisory group changes with time, and ensure content is complementary to the Santa Clara PAL legacy. The control is to keep the narrative pro PAL by their very own words. Same reason that your own actual PAL page (not SCPal) has all comments turned off? You don’t want the task of answering questions or doing customer service. You simply want the 5000 people that we have direct access to be in the dark about what has been occurring. Trust that there is way more than what’s in this letter they posted on 05/05/22, but since this is the only actual thing in writing and already taking multiple pages, we will have to wait for them to actually havesomething to say formally before I take the time on those. We kept the SCPAL page neutral, again out of respect for our ridership, and if and when we choose to use it as a tool that is our discretion but PAL does not get to decide that.
***Below: Actual letter from current SCPD Officer and longtime Executive Director confirming his permission for Nick Valencia to keep funds/revenue and distribute as he saw fit. Verbal Conversation and email below took place mid-February 2022 confirming what allowance was previously approved by him directly and was provided to all parties, including PAL, USABMX, and the “parent advisory group”. Do you see where it says report and/or provide to PAL maybe I misread it?
Hey Nick,
It was great talking to you today. I was informed last week by Sergeant Bell that he attended a meeting at the BMX track and that there were some issues up that had come up, He asked me to intercede, but I told him that I was not going to get involved unless someone asked me to.
Sergeant Bell briefed me on what occurred at the meeting and I apologize if I added to the confusion. Back when I was running PAL, the BMX crew and I had a verbal agreement that you and the other volunteers at the track could do private instruction/camps as a way to fund raise for your race teams or track improvements as a way of us showing appreciation for the efforts that you and the other volunteers put in throughout each and every year. I don’t believe that people realize that BMX runs throughout the entire year except for the final two weeks in December. Further, the track maintenance and management which was more than just the three days a week that the track was open, was being done on a volunteer basis.
As far as private instruction, some of our softball coaches gave private pitching or hitting lessons and they kept the money for themselves. I didn’t believe that private BMX instruction was any different.
I don’t believe the board realizes what the volunteers up at the track have done for the track. I remember when the PAL board purchased the new barrel gate and it sat in storage until the volunteers arranged with a construction company (Albanese?) to have the new starting gate put in. This entailed a lot of man hours dealing with setting the forms, pouring the concrete, and ensuring that the gate was installed correctly. Throughout the years improvements have been made at the track and PAL did not pay for them.
I too have experienced issues with fundraising as I help coach a local high school team. The monies that the coaches and families have raised as a group, have been funneled into the school and it’s like pulling teeth to get equipment or to see the efforts of our fundraising as we have to deal with the athletic director in order to purchase equipment or other necessary items. It’s gotten to the point where I just simply purchase the items myself and I just eat the costs.
Hopefully this helps to clear things up. By the way, I frequently go up to the track when the alarm goes off up there and the track looks amazing.
Keep up the great work!
