California Avocado Commission: Pucked Up, Stuffed and Hung Over
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Oh it just gets better over at the California Avocado Commission, where a recent audit by California Department of Food and Agriculture auditors revealed AIG-like expenditures like facials, massages and "uniforms" purchased from Ann Taylor, all on money that comes from mandatory fees paid by avocado growers.
A further look at the squishy financial records shows:
$123,227 the commission spent on season’s tickets for the Anaheim Ducks NHL hockey games and Los Angeles Angels baseball games between 2005 and 2008.
Auditors found the bills for tickets–and in the Ducks’ case, playoff tickets–were tucked away in a commission ledger called "merchandising, retail performance programs."…
The Ducks were a hot and hard to get ticket in Southland in 2006-2007, when the team won hockey’s Stanley Cup Championship and it made the playoffs again last year.
Forty percent of the Ducks tickets went to commission employees. Former commission president Mark Affleck–who spent $17,000 of commission funds on permanent improvements listed on the commission books as "home office expenses"–
still plays ice hockey competitively
according to his biography on Saddleback Church’s site, where Affleck has been a member since 1991. Affleck left his $300,000 a year job with the California Avocado Commission in March 2008 to
Along with employees scoring hockey tickets, 15% of the Angels baseball tickets went to commission employees. The Angels play in Anaheim California, close to the Irvine-based commission’s offices. Tragically and wastefully, 21% of the Angels tickets during the 2005-2008 seasons went unused, and there were no notes about what avocado industry business was discussed at any of sports events games or with whom it was discussed.
Sort of amusing (unless you’re one of the avocado farmers who’s paying the California Avocado Commission 2.6% of your sales): The food and booze costs at the a convention–
On Friday night: $1,200 in alcohol and $3,900 in meals for 25 attendees
On Saturday: $800 in alcohol and $9,000 in meals
On Sunday: $1,085 for breakfasts
Hot and hard to get is my favorite kind of ticket!
Quack.