When Peter Bynoe wanted tickets to a White Sox game last summer, he didn’t go to the box office at U.S. Cellular Field. Nor did he contact a ticket broker.
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The former executive director of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority simply went to its office manager.
“Can you help a Brother out,” he wrote in an email in June.
The manager, P.J. Frayer, wrote back that she would “certainly try.”
Frayer, who receives a $57,240 taxpayer-funded salary, was used to handling requests for help in purchasing tickets, records show. She fielded them from others linked to the agency, including former Gov. Jim Thompson, who once ran it, and the auditor examining the agency’s finances.
Such assistance was discussed on opening day in the authority’s suite, where officials host contractors and vendors, said the auditor, Mike Senko, a partner at Oak Brook-based Wolf & Co. LLP. “It’s routine,” he said.
Kent Redfield, director of the Sunshine Project at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said it isn’t ethically proper for a government employee to spend time on this kind of work, even when people are paying for the tickets.
“To me, it seems pretty straightforward,” he said. “You have a public salary and you’re performing duties that don’t have a public purpose.”
The authority, with offices at Cellular Field, at times has seemed conflicted about its role and has been criticized for its cozy relationship with the Sox. The ticket services from its office manager again raise questions about the agency’s priorities at a time when Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who determine appointments to its board, are demanding professionalism, transparency and taxpayer protection.
Until a new policy last year, the board and employees had long received free access to suites during games. And when the agency paid most of the cost for a sparkling new restaurant for the Sox, it didn’t arrange for a cut of the profits.
Kelly Kraft, who began as executive director in November, told the Tribune last week that the process had occurred for years and she is reviewing policies. She said she will make changes, including requiring employees to refer ticket requests to the Sox.
“The state of Illinois is the landlord of a world-class ballpark, and the more fans that we have here in the stands buying tickets to support the Chicago White Sox, the more revenue for the state of Illinois,” said Kraft, a former Quinn spokeswoman.
In a statement, she added: “The employees here should walk outside to buy those tickets during non-work hours rather than buy them across the hall, as to ensure the general public and employees have the same access to tickets.”
The authority built the stadium, which opened in 1991, but today also pays off the public tab for the 2001 renovations at Soldier Field. The authority is funded mostly with hotel tax revenue and subsidies but gets $1.5 million annual rent from the Sox.
Kraft said selling tickets helps taxpayers because the Sox pay the agency extra money once a certain number of tickets are sold. However, last season’s ticket sales fell below the threshold for the second straight year, so no additional payment was made.
Frayer did not respond to emailed questions. A copy of her official job description does not directly mention ticket purchases, nor does the management agreement between the authority and the Sox.
Earlier this year, Jeannie Romas, the agency’s attorney, asked Frayer about ticket requests from non-board members, records show. In a September email responding to Romas, she explained that she has helped individuals buy tickets — including friends and family, some for several years — and listed 10 people she said had requested assistance. It’s unclear exactly how many people she helped.
Frayer wrote that she received telephone or email requests for tickets, then contacted the White Sox or walked over to their offices. She asked Romas in their email exchange: “If I get a call from a non-board member such as a personal friend or neighbor, etc., does that mean I am to tell these individuals that I am no longer able to assist them in purchasing tickets?”
Frayer also has access to the 10 seats per game the authority receives as part of its management agreement. After questions were raised about these seats, as well as suite usage, Romas issued a policy in May that said they would be donated to charitable or community groups and limited the number that agency board members and employees could claim.
When she helped Bynoe, Thompson and her friends and family, Frayer went directly to the Sox, records show.
Thompson is credited with keeping the Sox in Chicago by giving owners a publicly funded stadium. He signed the bill in 1987 creating the agency, which he later ran as board chairman and executive director.
He made his request this past season through Frayer for four tickets directly behind home plate that can be accessed via private elevators. Records show that she relayed the request to Sox management, who ended up giving them to him for free. Attempts to reach Thompson for comment were unsuccessful.
Joan Etten, who left the board in July 2011 after nearly a decade, called Frayer for tickets last season, according to an email. Etten paid for and retrieved them from Frayer. Attempts to reach Etten were unsuccessful.
Bynoe, an attorney with positions at DLA Piper and Loop Capital, did not respond to messages for comment.
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Frayer also helped Senko, whose firm has been paid $82,800 annually for six years. On one occasion, she got him second-row seats, an email shows. Another time, Frayer left passes and made reservations for Senko at the Stadium Club. The restaurant is limited to select ticket holders who pay $1,000 for a season membership, according to the White Sox.
“Every ticket we’ve asked for, we’ve paid for,” Senko said. “I’ve never looked at it as a problem. I hope that it’s not.”
According to the American Institute of CPAs, independence may be compromised if the auditor “accepts a gift from an attest client, unless the value is clearly insignificant to the recipient.”
Kevin Stevens, director of DePaul’s accounting school, said that in general, an auditor must be independent not only in certain clear factual instances — not owning stock in a client, for example — but also in appearance, which may be subjective.
“It’s almost a sniff test,” he said. “Would a reasonable person in public think this person is still independent?”
Senko said that at games he even performed some audit responsibilities — for instance, a surprise inventory observation. “I almost looked at it as like I was trying to help them out to further facilitate the product of the White Sox,” he said.
Twitter @jaredshopkins