An independent report released Tuesday by the city of Minneapolis found that most of the $680,978 in taxpayer dollars spent to celebrate local Black businesses at a February expo went to businesses from outside the state. Investigators also found that there was no detailed plan for the event and they discovered peculiarities with dozens of invoices submitted by vendors.
Council member Linea Palmisano chairs the city’s audit committee that received a briefing from the authors of the report.
“I’m extremely disappointed that this event was promoted as a celebration of Black History Month and supporting local Black businesses ended up expending almost as many city funds to out-of-state businesses,” Palmisano said.
Organizers promised to bring in 20,000 visitors to the expo. But actual attendance fell far short of that. Some Black business owners told MPR News, the “I Am My Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams” expo was bad for business.
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Investigators say they also found several anomalies. Tim Voncina, of the firm Baker Tilly said a number of vendors used the same generic invoice template.
“There were 49 vendor invoices for the expo utilizing this generic invoice template,” he said. “Fourteen of those being related to potential duplicate invoices themselves.”
Voncina said duplicate invoices were caught in the process. However, he says it’s not clear to him if the city paid for services that were never delivered, and that the next phase of the audit should look more closely at the anomalies his firm discovered.
Palmisano said the report showed that at times city staff didn’t follow proper procedures.
“Our employees also need to be held accountable to existing processes and following the rules as Baker Tilly helped us point out and also to accept help when it is offered,” said Palmisano. “If this expo had followed the established rules many of these issues would have been avoided.”
The expo was created by the city’s Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging department. The then-director of the department, Tyeastia Green resigned from her post several weeks after the expo.
A report released to the city of Minneapolis’ Audit Committee Tuesday June 23, 2023 found that the majority of taxpayer dollars spent to celebrate local Black businesses at a February expo went to businesses from outside the state.
Courtesy of the Baker Tilly report prepared for Minneapolis City Auditor
