Charter of Parish Reconfiguration Fund Oversight Committee
Mission
The committee will conduct an independent
review of the financial aspects of the reconfiguration including the transfer
of liquid assets and liquidation of the liabilities of closed parishes, the
establishment of a Parish Reconfiguration Fund which will receive the proceeds
generated from the sale of closed parish property, and the use of those proceeds.
The committee will assess and make recommendations regarding the integrity
of the process used to handle and dispose these assets and liabilities, the
financial reporting of this information to Catholics in the archdiocese, and
operational improvements. It will also assess the extent to which the disposition
of proceeds conforms to the commitment to use the Parish Reconfiguration Fund
only to help parishes with past, present, and future obligations and programs.
See additional detail in the “Purpose” section below. The committee will be
advisory in nature; decision-making authority for the financial aspects of
the reconfiguration process will rest with archdiocesan personnel.
Membership
The committee will have seven members.
It will consist of a chair, a member of the Archdiocesan Finance Council and
one member selected from each region of the archdiocese.
Appointment
The vicar general working with the chancellor
shall name the chair and the Finance Council representative. The five regional
members will be appointed by the vicar general, each selected from a list of
three nominees submitted by a pastor selected from each region, with advice
about the composition of the committee from the chancellor and the chair of
the Oversight Committee. At least two of the pastors recommending nominees
will be from suppressed parishes. Members (and their immediate family members)
appointed to the committee will not be employees of the diocese or have significant
paid business dealings with the diocese either directly or through firms that
employ them.
Meetings and Term
The committee will meet monthly and each
of the seven members will be appointed for the full three-year life of the
committee. The chancellor and a member of the clergy appointed by the vicar
general will attend these meetings so as to provide information to the committee
and to receive direct feedback from the committee. They will not be voting
members. The committee will be entitled to meet in “executive session” without
archdiocesan employees present; the results of these sessions will be reported
to the vicar general. The committee will develop its own internal procedures
on such matters as quorum, voting, executive session, etc.
Purpose
To fulfill its mission of reviewing the
integrity of the financial reporting of the reconfiguration process and to
provide recommendations to the archdiocese for operational improvements, the
committee will review transactions contemplated by the archdiocese, such as
the following:
- The closing and cash transfers of all
unrestricted suppressed parish bank accounts.
- The process of dealing with
all suppressed parish restricted accounts.
- Expenses related to the closing
process.
- Property management methods and expenses.
- The sale of all parish personal
property, sacred and non-sacred.
- The valuation and sale of all real property.
- Severance payments.
- The repayment of debts of a suppressed
parish.
- Payments for past pension service (active
and suppressed parishes), lay and clergy.
- Restore the equity, totaling $28,226,028,
to the revolving loan fund, the clergy medical and hospital trust, the hospital
chaplaincy, the parish school tax fund, the group life insurance fund, the
lay pension plan, the health benefit trust, the long term disability trust,
the insurance fund and the transition assistance trust that were incurred
as a result of Jubilee Year debt forgiveness.
- Establishment of a sinking fund
to cover the retirement of an operating line of credit that will total
roughly $32 million
and that results from the decline in annual appeal revenue since 2001.
- Funding
of ongoing support services for parishes.
- Direct operating aid to parishes.
- Direct construction aid to parishes.
Access to Information
To enable the committee to conduct its
reviews and make its recommendations, the chancellor will provide the committee
with full access to information regarding the financial transactions of parish
reconfiguration. The chancellor will also provide the committee his proposed
monthly report and other appropriate materials in advance of its meetings.
He will also instruct all central administrative offices to provide him with
copies of all written complaints received regarding the financial process and
transactions involved in the reconfiguration. The chancellor will share all
such complaints with the committee. The committee will be entitled, on a reasonable
basis, to retain experts to assist it in evaluating information.
Reporting
The committee will issue reports only when
at least one more than half of its members are present and the report is approved
by a majority of those present. The committee will report to the vicar general,
who will attend meetings, no less frequently than quarterly and, through its
Finance Council member to the Finance Council at each of its meetings. The
committee will also report at least once each year to the Archdiocesan Pastoral
Council and the Presbyteral Council. The vicar general will report significant
items to the archbishop. When necessary, the committee will have access to
the archbishop. The committee will periodically report its findings to the
general public monthly though The Pilot. The committee’s comments would be
published along with the chancellor’s monthly reconfiguration report. In terms
of its reports, the committee will follow a standard of making public disclosure
that insures that appropriately confidential information is so maintained.
The committee will also develop procedures for responding to inquiries from
the media.
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