Despite deep divisions and pointed accusations among members of the Johnstown Town Council, the town will continue to work with the YMCA of Northern Colorado in the operation of its recreation center.
The town has grappled for months with irregularities in financial reports from the YMCA. The town engaged accounting firm Eide Bailly LLP to conduct a forensic audit based upon the 2019 contract between the YMCA and town. When the audit came back showing issues, the council in December decided to give the YMCA a chance to work through the irregularities.
On Monday, the council met in special session with the YMCA to pose questions and attempt to reconcile differences between how town staff saw the audit report and how the YMCA saw it. In short, Town Manager Matt LeCerf said staff believes that the YMCA owes the town about $106,000, and the YMCA believes the town owes the YMCA $105,524.
At the outset, after public comment showing both support and opposition to the YMCA’s management, Chris Coker, YMCA of Northern Colorado’s CEO, admitted that his organization struggled with producing accurate financial reports during the period of the audit. However, after staffing changes, better training of staff, and new software implementation, he was confident that information provided since the middle of 2025 were correct and that the major issues had been resolved.
Among the issues were accounting of staff time when staff members worked between YMCA locations under the NoCo umbrella, use of Johnstown equipment at other locations, and detailed expense paper trails.
Coker and his chief financial officer, Marc Levinson, objected to several of the audit’s findings, saying that they supplied all the information that the auditor requested, but the auditor didn’t seek clarification of the information and drew conclusions that were not accurate. Coker also said that the prior accounting system, which included placing receipts in archived boxes, was not conducive to finding backup information that might have caused the auditor to draw a different conclusion.
“We flew blind on finances for several months when software didn’t work,” Coker said. “The audit shows that the YMCA did not take part in malfeasance.”
He also wrote in a communication included in the council packet that “It is also important to note that the town enjoys the use of shared YMCA equipment such as maintenance materials, vans, day camp carnival supplies, and labor from other branches during projects, etc. The Y has never charged any rental fees for these supplies or labor. Lastly, the town benefits from shared grants that the YMCA writes exclusively for the JTY or that includes the JTY; the amount of this is more than $840,000.”
While the 2019 contract requires the YMCA to pay for the $35,000 audit if significant discrepancies are uncovered, Coker and Levinson said that they don’t feel obligated to pay for the audit because of errors that they found in the auditor’s work, errors that could have been headed off with conversation with the auditor.
Some council members took aim at the YMCA in their questions, and others acknowledged that errors had occurred that would have been headed off with more discussion. Council member Dianne Morris, who ultimately moved to retain the YMCA services, took issue with “the same three to six folks posting wildly” about the YMCA. She also accused Mayor Michael Duncan of hiding information from the rest of the council for two and a half months.
Duncan, an opponent of the YMCA’s management, did not respond to Morris’ accusation. He did, however, pose numerous yes or no questions to Coker that Morris later described as “gotcha moments that don’t serve our community.”
Duncan said Monday’s meeting was about trust, and the YMCA hadn’t earned the community’s trust.
Likewise, council members Nick Bashford and Dee Anne Menzies found fault with the recreation center’s management and maintenance of the building. Bashford said that the audit’s concerns haven’t been addressed. Menzies said that “the audit didn’t invent missing documents; they weren’t provided. This is about accountability of public funds. The current system of tracking, reporting and oversight is not sufficient to protect public funds,” she said.
The remainder of the council, however, acknowledged that the YMCA had made efforts to correct financial deficiencies and that it was time to move forward.
Morris’ motion, which passed 4-3, directed the town to continue contracting with the YMCA, to negotiate contract changes and to reach an agreement on who owes what.
