Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

down the drain returned unspent) . The auditors rerummendcd t hat S I .:. m illion of t h ar rr-ver rc d mon l'y he a p pro p ria ted to ai d in ac q ui ring a Los Ang-('I('s area p ark . a proj e ct that c o u ld (' OSI upwards ofS IU m illion tot al . • The Director's only excuse was that other projects of higher priority had claimed the Bond Act funds. No mention was made in th e Director's r~'Sponse of the philosophy that guided the setting of priorit ies , nor the identities of th e individuals charged with setting priorities. Products ...... ~'. • . .... 11 By Lane Campbell Hollister Hills boondoggle Bike packing...•.. . .... 12 An audi t:' ordered by the California J oin t Legislative Audit Committtee has revealed that subst antial amounts of money were siphoned from the state's O ff-H ig h wa y Vehicle Fund d ue to questio n a bl e accou nting a n d man agement The audit found that attendance at Hollister Hills, one of the first "Gree n Stickle" acquisitions, was 75 percent below budget projections . Reported figures indicate that the budget itself was grossly in er ror. causing the park to incu r costs far in excess of what was actually necessary to run it . In 1973 , the last full year when th e property was still the Harris Ra nch . an attendance of 35.669 vehicles was recorded. Ca lifornia 's Depa rtment of General Services p rojected 40.000 in attendance for 1974. Somehow Parks & R e c managed to inflate that est im a te to 150 .000 vehicles , a nd budget accordingly. Even t hough the Department's own budget office squawked at th e amount. $400 .000 was approved for the first yea r of operation (wh ic h began in 1975 ) in cl u di n g four house tra il ers for employl'l's and 15 man ·years worth of labor (equ iva lent to the sa lary of 15 full -rime employees) . Actual park attendance was less than 20 ,000 veh icles. income was about '50 .000. The ne t effect is to drain t he OHV fund of money wh ich cou ld be better used. The auditors recommended that the Department low er adm ission fees , open th e " u p per ranch" to organized competition , reduce sta ffing, and install di r ect ional signs on surrounding routes. The department's response to the charges ranged from open admission of past mistakes to a modified form of "It 's not my job , man ". IINSIDE ~ E Trans-AMA 6 Roger DeFroster (?) at Puyallup Free W heeling . . . . . . . . .. 8 Who knowswhat evil lurks in Parks & Red 9 Roberts signs KR's plans for '77 include Yamahas Killed classic . ..•....... 10 Gila Bend to Yuma die. before it's born '. " Yau meet the nicest kids in a Bell bag Another mountain high West & Dez : 14 Rain blesses some. curses others New bikes Trans·AMA weaponry previews produ ction hardware 26 Results 28 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 FRONT PAGE PHOT O: Italian Da rio Nani ona nAustrianbi ke with an American name leads American Wayne Boyer on a Spanish bike over SoCal turf. International color at the Saddleback T rans·AMA. O1.arles C. Clayton, Pre sident Bobi Seen. Assistant Sharon Clayton. Publi sher Edna Mewton, Secre tary t o Publisher Advertising Robert L Nor Velte , National Advert ising Sales Manager Debb ie Wil kins, Western Regi onal Advertisin g Sales Manager Chris Kolbel. Advertising Assistant Ed itorial Lane Campbell, Edit or. Jody Weisel . Editor. John Ulrich Edi t or. Art and Production Produ ction: De nnis Cox , tab Techn icia n ; Ma ri o n Hatashita , T ypographer; Mike Klinger, Lab and Product io n Assistant. • Circulat ion Rhcba Sm it h, Manager: and Pam Grecn Assistant . : Account ing Gay lene Zaio n z, Manager; Ken Lorin. Assistant ; Jeanne Hammond. Accu. Re ceivable : Pamela Dickerson and Carolyn Branh am, Ass ist ants ; Judy Klinger. Cred it Dept.: Rhonda Van Doren, Cc tleet tc n Dept, Service" lnd Support ~l ichad Co tlkas. Denn is Wa tts. J u an ita - Bla nton. receptionis t. West P.O. Bo x 49 8, Lon g Beach, CA 9080 I(2 13) 427·7433; L.A . Line 636·88 44 . East , P.O. Bo x 805, Tucker . GA 3008 4 . (40 4) 934- 7850 . Suboc ript ion One year. sec o n d class m ail S 12.50; 2 yea rs. second cl ass mai l. 522. 50; 3 The case of the leaking OHV Fund Since 1m $2,000,000 practices o n the part of the De partment of Parks and Recrea tion. The Auditor General's office released on November 5, a report of the audit , a long with Parks & Rec, Director Herbert Rhodes ' response (sign ed by an aide). The overall effect of th e many irregularities was to make available less money for new ORV park projects. Due to the kind of accounting techniques used, the full exten t of the fund loss may ne ver be determined. The audit did reveal , a t a minimum. $1. 5 m illion in Bond Act Funds approved by voters but never spent; and over $450.000 in lost interes t wh ich could ha ve been co llected for th e fund , In addition . the audito rs' find ings revealed in co r r ect tim e c h a r ges, " d o u b le d ipping" . a n d excessive operating costs budget ed to Hollister Hill s recreation area. An internal memo . c ir c u la te d in June 1976 . ad vised D ir ector Rhodes : "T his situation may have occured for a va riety of reasons. including at least , the lack of broad departmental interest in ... the ORV field . This whole situ ation will not make us look very good , so this information should be more a m a tt er of internal use and recognition of the situ a tion and not something to publicize. " T hat memo, along with the audit and the Director's attempt to expl ain the irregularities. are all a part of the public record . Following are the highlights from the report : ClA SS • M(M'tA Copyri~hl Cy dC' NC'~ . Inc. 1976, Trade mark rC'KislC'rC'cJ P .S. P41C'nl Offic C': All righlS reserved. Published wec klv except IhC' firsl and 1.lS1 week o f Ih C' calendar ye ar hy C)' rl c ~('":'s. In c . P,O , Box 4 9 X. l.onK Uc.u:h. C a.lifu rn ia , Second d.1s S POSI..l (C p.rid Jot l.ooK Bt·ae'h . C.\. 9 0XOI. / You'd ha ve to be a cost accountant to fully un dersta n d them ; but th e tactics used by Pa rks & Rec in cost allocation wou ld be familiar to anyone who has monitored the costing of defense contracts . II igh -rank ing employees' salaries were charged to the OHV Fund twice, th en totally omitted in a subsequent transfer, as if to cover up. Employees' time cards were filled out in advance, charging their time in a predetermined manner unrelated to how they'd actually spent thei r time. The OHV Fund was tapped with such things as general a d m in is t r a t ive services (even though Parks & Rec was not billed for them); expenses of the H isto r ical l. an dm a rk s Ad visory Committee: and e~penses of th e Ad visory Boa rd on Underwater Parks and Reserves. Anyone for motorcycle snorkeling ? The Department . in admitting th e The bond drain In 1974 , vot~rs approved a $250 million bond act wh ich provided tha t $1.5 million of that total would be used to acquire OH V parks. (T he allocation was m a de in a 1974 Parks & Rec p re -election document . as required by law ). The auditors found th at as of August 1. 1976 , all 1974 Bond Act funds had been disposed of, and none had been spent for OHV facilities . In addition , the audit found a $4 million Bond Act appropriation sc h e d u le d to be reverted ( i .e . , 2 bl ilnr iJoI siuri n. cart oons, phu to s , etc . J,f(' wch-ome . Addressed. srarnped t'n\.'e-Iope· assures return o f u np urch ascd e d ito ri al matt er . Reprint in g in whole o r p .lfl unl ~ by p e r m issio n o f t heu puhli she-u , . \ d \"t: rl i ~ i n ~ r..ll("s a nd circulation inform .ltion will lx' sent upon reques t . Sn ." S .R . D.S , (JH, I' 5VR£YOV'LlRIr'P 71ft: M #£IGH$ORj{OOPJ ARtlVI'/PH$K E. A!<£cll!5r mu» WITH C HILPREN. INFAcr;H!~ CP~£ }(lMe PF 11IEMII(lW;.~ \ .\ ~ I " ( ~ ~% , Other misfiled money and people According to both th e auditors and t he L,·~isl a t i Vt' Counsel (Il'~a 1 advisor) . delays in transferring gas ta x money cost the OHV Fund nearly a half million dollars in income. A portion of each yea r's gas tax (t ha t part estimated as fuel used off· road) is by law reverted to the OHV Fund. It is then banked until it's spent and ea rns interest like any passbook account. Because the t ra n sfc r was not made monthly (according to law) but yearly , much of that earned interest was lost to the OH V Fund, when the Brown Fi na ll y , Admin istration inherited th e p rogra m . Parks & Rec had an orr. Road Vehicle unit as a focal point for OH V program activities . In J uly. 1976. the Dep artm ent reorganized itself, eliminated th e O RV unit . a nd scattered its responsibilities through out th e Department. According to th e audit report. many O RV unit responsib iliti es were still unassign ed. Re sponsibi litie s unassigned means jobs undone ; and the who le situation re vea ls a general reluctance on th e part of management to see that th e jobs ge t done . The report contains no evidence of deliberate int ent to gut th e OHV Fund , but if the id e nt it ies and organizational a ffi liations of Parks & Rec staff management were uncovered in a subsequent investigation, it might shed more light on th e whole subject. Cost accounting tricks years, second cl ass m ail. 530 .00. L1.tI1 errors. b lamed m isunderstood in st r u c t io ns and inadequate supervision for most of it. The net effect (how much will never be known) was to shi ft money from th e OHV Fund to th e General Fund , whe re it could be spent for anything but ORV facilities . . Winner of the M ichigan Nat'l. Trials round and new U.S. Champion is Marland Whaley, who' f inished [ ust tenths of a point, ahead of Honda teammate Joe Gug lie lmelli Saturday, November ' 13 near t he town of Jeddo. Don Sweet was third. Several CMC ro a d r a cing c ha m p ions hi ps ma y be d ecided at Willow Springs next Sunday. Super Cafe , 350 Production , 500 Production are all close. But the biggest news 0 all is that if Da vid Emde rides the righ classes at tha t race. he cou ld be CMC Champion in 250 . 350 , 500. a nd Open '! GP . Not bad for a kid who sta rted on a Hodaka .

• Cover