Washington Square Park Conservancy Inc.

“Organization's process to review irs form 990: once the draft of the 990 has been reviewed by the audit committee and the executive committee, the document is distributed to the board for approval before filing.”

“In connection with any actual or possible conflict of interest, an interested person must disclose the existence of the financial interest and be given the opportunity to disclose all material facts to the directors and members of committees with governing board delegated powers considering the proposed transaction or arrangement. Once facts are presented, the interested party is removed from discussion and the rest of the board determines if a conflict exists. If it is determined that the member/interested party has failed to disclose an actual or possible conflict of interest, the board will take appropriate disciplinary and corrective action.”

“The executive director is employed by the nyc parks department as the administrator for washington square park and directly reports to william castro, a voting member of wspc board. The park administrator's job description includes serving as the executive director for wspc. Compensation for the parks administrator is determined and paid by nyc parks. The executive committee and executive director consulted a salary report from a professional association in the nyc area to determine an appropriate salary level for the community development director with experience on par with that required for this position.”

“Documents are available on guidestar.com and the nys charities bureau website.”

“Governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements are made available to the public upon request; information as to how this can be obtained is posted on the organization's website.”

“Since may 2017, george vellonakis has served in the position of nyc parks administrator and wspc executive director. The executive director is an nyc parks department employee and is paid by the nyc parks department. Starting april 2018 the executive director also received a stipend from wspc. For the fiscal year ended june 30, 2018 the total stipend received by the executive director was $10,000.”

“Volunteers contribute their time and effort to maintain and enhance washington square park by performing a host of tasks such as planting, raking, weeding and general clean-ups. Volunteers assist in gathering data on park usage, volunteering for special events and leading tours of the park. For the year ended june 30, 2018 there were 176 volunteers contributing 886 hours.”

“Wspc received pro bono legal services which is recognized for financial statement purposes as an increase in donations and a corresponding increase in legal expenses. -15,000.”

“No changes in its oversight process or selection process during the tax year.”

“In prior years, wspc recorded as an expense the making of a grant to the nyc parks department in anticipation of the hiring of certain nyc parks personnel such as maintenance workers, gardeners and the playground associate. However, as nyc parks could not guarantee that the positions would be filled at the level and for the time requested, there would often be a mismatch between the amount accrued by wspc and the amount actually expended. Starting with fy2017 wspc elected to switch to recording such grants to nyc parks on an "as incurred" basis upon the presentation of an invoice for services rendered. While a request is made for specific positions to be filled for a specified period of time, and wspc commits to fund such positions, there is no guarantee that the positions will actually be filled; thus, the accrual method was no longer applicable. During fy2017, some expenses, in particular, the full-time gardener, were charged against the prior year's accrual, resulting in recorded expense in fy2017 below prior year levels as well as future expected expenditures.”