DALLAS – More changes are now underway at Fair Park after an audit found millions of donated money was misused.
“The community wants to make – and when I say community, it’s the larger community and those who live around it – wants to make sure that the promise is kept. This is part of keeping the promise,” said Veletta Forsythe-Lill, the chair of Fair Park First’s board.
Forsythe-Lill is working to get plans for a long-awaited community park in Fair Park back on track.
“This community park that we plan to build, that’s the next big project that we’re doing. It’s extremely important to the community because of its history and what has happened in the past,” she said.
This comes after an audit found that $5.7 million allocated for capital projects instead went to operating or other unapproved expenses.
Starting now, the Dallas Foundation will manage restricted donor funds.
“We are a fiduciary and we follow donor intent and have pretty strict compliance around all the funds and how they are used,” said Julie Diaz, Dallas Foundation’s president and CEO.
That will keep the funds out of the reach of the Oak View Group, the for-profit group accused of misusing the money for operating expenses.
Oak View Group disputes that claim.
“In the past, Oak View Group had access to all funds – operating, unrestricted, or restricted fundraising. Now, they simply manage direct operating expenses,” Forsythe-Lill said.
The Dallas Foundation has been around since 1929, and its responsibility in investing and distributing funds will be to those who make the donations for capital projects.
“This relationship ensures that there is trust with our organization and that we will do what we intend to do,” Forsythe-Lill said.
The first intention will be to soon break ground on the community park.
“We intended to complete the design in the spring. We intend to break ground right after Big Tex goes to bed in 2025,” she said.
The grand opening for the park is expected to happen about a year after that in December of 2026.
But there is more work to do to ensure that Fair Park First and its relationship with manager, Oak View Group, is successful.
“What we’re doing right now is the beginning of the resolution of issues, not the end,” Forsythe-Lill said.
As for the Oak View Group’s admitted shortfall between revenue and operating expenses, Forsythe-Lill said that can be resolved with the city’s new budget that takes back maintenance expenses on the 277-acre property.
