 Money MattersIt’s summertime — peak season for parks and all the facilities and programs they offer. Between pools, golf courses, snack bars, gift shops, restaurants and entry fees, PDRMA members can take in tens of thousands of dollars a day in cash and credit card payments. All those transactions mean an increase in the risk of theft, associated crime, employee dishonesty and cyber liability. What can you do to protect your agency from such losses? Here’s how some PDRMA members keep a tight rein on financial controls to reduce those risks.
The Elk Grove Park District maintains 473 acres, with 43 parks, a community athletic field with football, soccer and baseball fields, a golf course, 19 public tennis courts, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a banquet facility, and two theme parks — Pirates’ Cove, covering 2.5 acres, and Rainbow Falls, a water theme park.
Between the pool, golf course, theme park and registration areas, there can be as many as 2,000 transactions a day. “We use 28 cashiers a day when all facilities are open,” says Finance Coordinator Debbie Christensen, whose job covers day-to-day operations as well as purchasing and other controls.
The park handles cash and credit card revenue from fees for registration, along with daily fees for Fox Run Golf course and driving range, Rainbow Falls, and Pirates Cove. To ensure park revenues and customer information stay secure, the agency uses a multi-layered system of training, accountability, monitoring and security systems.
 “All staff handling cash or credit cards are trained before they are allowed to work a register or computer,” Christensen says. “Summer staff that work Rainbow Falls and Pirates Cove go through PDU, our in-house Park District University training, and each person is responsible for balancing out at the end of his or her shift.”
Cameras at selected park locations and at most registers monitor activity, as well. “An IT department of four people monitors the system. For safety reasons, we secure all deposits in limited access safes at facilities until a security service can pick them up. The service also delivers the deposits to the bank after we verify and balance all cash/checks,” Christensen explains. Daily deposits and balancing end-of-month statements are done by different people, and unannounced audits also are done periodically throughout the year in addition to an annual audit.
The park does accept credit cards and follows standard Payment Card Industry rules and regulations: no credit card numbers are ever written down on forms or contracts and all credit card numbers are masked in all systems. “We direct people to the online system and discourage phone payments,” says Christensen, “and we encourage Electronic Funds Transfers for scheduled payments for activities like the fitness center or kids’ camps, so the credit card numbers can be masked.” A dedicated server handles the credit card processing, segmented in a separate area in the network; the agency has the system scanned quarterly to preserve security.
The tight controls, Christensen says, have contributed to Elk Grove not having any theft or incidents. As far as loss prevention is concerned, the park is on a winning streak. Since 2001, the agency has received the prestigious Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting every year. “Financial controls are very important to us,” says Christensen. “We are using taxpayer dollars, and we have to use them wisely.”
As one of the largest independent municipal agencies in Illinois providing quality recreational programs, facilities and open space, the Glenview Park District also has a special responsibility to taxpayers. “We are funded 50 percent by local taxes and 50 percent by patron fees and charges,” says Barbara Cremin, Superintendent of Administrative Operations. “And we have our own taxing ability, so our park district is a separate line item that residents can see when they pay their property taxes.”
  That same sense of accountability is a key element in the financial controls at the 845-acre park district and its 51 parks and facilities. Serving an estimated 1.5 million visitors a year, Glenview Park District owns, maintains and operates a large community center with a variety of recreation programs, a fitness center, a pre-school, an ice skating rink, two golf courses, three aquatics centers, tennis and paddle tennis courts, a dog park, rental facilities, a museum and one of the last working dairy farms in Cook County, plus more than 150 special events.
“Park districts have become so diverse that there are many areas that need financial controls in our day-to-day operations,” says Cremin. “It’s needed anywhere money is involved: cash registers, cash boxes, petty cash, pro shops, registration desks, anywhere admission fees are charged, wire transfers, refunds, purchasing, selling, inventory control of fixed assets, and guarding patrons’ credit card information.
“There are general parameters for setting up controls, but each area needs to look at how it operates. It’s not one size fits all,” she explains. Her office strives to use technology as much as possible. “We try to have as much customer financial activity on the website as we can, so the customers control their information in a secure online environment. Only certain employees are authorized to process refunds, and fees and discounts are set in the system whenever possible to limit the ability to change them. If a discount is applied, we want it to be the one we authorize.” Cremin also champions receipts, which she calls “the cheapest and easiest internal control.”
Cremin estimates that with so many different parks and programs, Glenview could have 50 or more people collecting money at the facility at any one time. The philosophy behind her best practices for cash handling controls includes levels of accountability, monitoring, not allowing any one individual to have too much access, and following these nine points:
- Always set up a process that establishes a chain of custody in the event you need to track back.
- Set up individual logins for system access so you can tell who processed transactions. Avoid generic logins shared by several employees.
- Give receipts. Include a sign or incentive to have the customer report any time they do not get a receipt. It is the easiest internal control.
- Use daily balancing of cash to system totals or some other supporting documentation.
- Always have two people count the cash together.
- Always use a drop safe, and limit the number of people who have the combination.
- Use a safe log to record who and what was put in the safe, and who removed what from the safe. Require a third person to witness and sign safe log activities.
- Segregate cash-handling duties. For instance, the person taking in cash cannot give refunds. The person doing the bank reconciliation has no way of getting money out of the system and cannot issue checks or make wire transfers. The person taking in cash cannot change the fees.
- Have ongoing internal audits of selected transactions (i.e., confirm discounts were appropriately given and supporting detail is available).
Cremin cites the human element as the critical factor in financial controls. “One of the greatest risks is the perception that ‘it can't happen here.’ Park districts need to continue to think of themselves as a business and set up appropriate controls — even if many employees are members of the community, neighbors and people we know. Park districts are very family-oriented,” she points out. “They’re neighbors, they work in the community, so there’s a tendency to think nothing will happen because you know these people. But,” she continues, “we so often read stories about trusted, longtime employees who are suddenly arrested. You never know if or when something happens in their personal lives, they become desperate and decide to take a chance.”
The key to maintaining financial integrity is to be sure your agency does not leave managing those risks up to chance.
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