Board Members Fail to File Financial Disclosure Statements

Three members of the McLean Community Center board, including chairman David Sanders,  failed to file financial disclosure statements that are required by Virginia law.

The state requires members of certain local and state government board to disclose their financial interests each year. The reports are due Jan. 15.

Nearly a month after the deadline Sanders, a longtime board member, plus members  Craig Richardson, a local Realtor, and Robin Walker, occupation unknown, have failed to file their reports with Fairfax County.

The eight other members did file. They are Susan Bourgeois, Fred Dent, Lee DiCenso, Sean Dunn, Jim Howell, Risa Sanders (no relation to David), and student members Craig McKenzie and Sun Pak.

We asked Sanders, Richardson and Walker to comment on why they had not filed their reports. They have yet to reply to our inquiries.

The 11-member McLean Community Center board, which is elected, is the most powerful board in town because they collect our tax dollars to run the McLean Community Center. They have accumulated a $12 million surplus over the years by charging taxpayers more than it costs to operate the center.

Recently the board negotiated a $100,000 contract with real estate company Jones Lang to study the feasibility of the board building a new community center in downtown. The board is spending another $90,000 to install new signs that direct the public to the community center.

The state requires members of state and local boards to disclose their financial holdings to alert the public to possible conflicts of interest as boards let contracts.

The four-page form asks board members to list "salaried employments" and paid offices, businesses they represent, real estate holdings, stock holdings, and the holdings and paid positions of immediate family members.

Board members Susan Bourgeois and Jay Howell answered most of the questions.

Others such as long-time board member and treasurer Sean Dunn answered none. He marked each question N/A.

When asked about his responses, Dunn said, "As I understand the Form I have been filling out for years, I need to disclose financial interactions within the state of Virginia. Unless I am mistaken in my reading of the instructions, 'N/A' is the correct answer to most questions if I don't conduct any business within the state of Virginia and don't have any financial interaction with the State of Virginia. I have never heard from the recipients that my filings are incorrect."

The instructions for filling out the form, nor the form itself mention business only done in Virginia. Other board members have listed holdings and interests outside of Virginia.

Dunn added later, "I have sent an Inquiry to the Virginia Secretary of the Commonwealth to ensure I have not complete the form in error. I assume it will take a few days to get a response. As your story has no particular urgency or relevance to a current event, and you seem unwilling to wait for fact-checking to be completed, then accuracy in reporting is not a goal for your blog. I will not be responding to any further inquiries from your blog. I will, however, still be available for comments from all members of the press."

The statements are open to the public.