33 W 490 Thorncroft Road
P.O. Box 15
Wayne, IL 60184
630-584-5621
December 08, 1999
The Society of St. John
702 Route 434
Shohola, PA 18458
Attention: Father Carlos Urrutigoity
Dear Father Urrutigoity,
I am writing to express my deep concern that under your leadership and direction I feel you have brought the Society of Saint John to the brink of bankruptcy. I am stunned and disappointed by your very unstable and erratic behavior, especially in your responses to some very serious questions.
Had your apparent unconcern for money and for the wisdom of your advisors and supporters been previously known to me, I never would have had any interest whatsoever in getting involved with the Society of St. John, especially to the extent that I have my personal financial situation at risk with you. I am very shocked by your reckless, profligate spending and the fact that you have run up an enormous debt load in only 6 weeks of taking occupancy of the Shohola property. It is hard for me to comprehend that only two days before closing you were desperate to find $40,000 to make the closing costs and had to lean on me at the last minute for that money. Then one week later you went on a spending spree that included a purchase of furniture for $135,000. You have coldly betrayed my trust in you and the Society of St. John—especially my rights as cosigner. Should you not consult with someone, before embarking on such spending junkets? This is totally unacceptable behavior and very surprising to me. I never could have imagined this happening with an order of priests! I sincerely thought the mortgage would certainly keep all of you very humble and focused on being very conservative with money—not to mention watchful and respectful of my personal financial risk.
As far as I can determine from the financial statements, you ran up the debt of $500,000 by mid-November and hired 10 paid employees, of which, two have assistants. How can you have more than one or two paid employees and the rest volunteer? At your stage of development being a very young organization, I would expect you would naturally be in a very mean and lean posture. Wasting money on expensive furniture and employees is not a very sensible use of donors’ money, especially when you are facing a monthly mortgage payment of $15,000, and need to start construction of various buildings to house members and, of course, build a chapel. With all the money wasted so far, a new chapel could have been almost completed.
You also seem to be unconcerned with the fact that you have permitted a lien placed on the property. This is in violation of the mortgage agreement. You borrowed $100,000 from a supporter without any consultation with the board of advisors and you started deconstruction work on the stable without the permission of the Penn Bank as required by the loan documentation. Who knows at this point, if any of your actions threaten your tax exempt status with the IRS? Father Urrutigoity, whom are you accountable to? If you will not listen to the advice of your advisors, whom will you listen to?
I am further disappointed that you tried to hold back accurate financial information from Howard Walsh, who is one of your most key supporters, both financially and otherwise. You also provided limited and incomplete financial information for the meeting in New Jersey that included John Blewett and Ron McArthur and others. Then you did not even show up at this meeting to answer questions, despite the fact that John Blewett flew all the way from California just for this meeting.
In my opinion, you certainly display a very careless attitude towards the norms of society that one must adhere to especially when dealing with people’s trust and their gifts of money and time.
I, for one, can no longer support the Society of St. John under your leadership after seeing the direction it is taking under your guidance. I hope that you urgently find a replacement co-signer for the loan so I can rest easy knowing that your foolishness with money will not end up as my obligation some day.
Sincerely,
Matthew J. Sawyer
cc: John Blewett
Fr. Fullerton
Encl.:copy of 11/99 employee list
copy of 11/99 summary of expenses
Society of St. John Monthly Payroll
| Employee |
Wages |
Job Description |
| Anthony Mioni |
$ 3,500.00 |
Director of Publications, Website development |
| Joseph Mioni |
$ 3,116.00 |
Director of Finances |
| Dan Rice |
$ 2,500.00 |
Groundskeeper / Maintenance |
| Sue Rice |
$ 2,500.00 |
Housekeeper |
| Jackie Lillard |
$ 2,000.00 |
Secretary – Father Fullerton |
| James Price |
$ 2,000.00 |
Project Manager |
| Bill Bachelford |
$ 1,733.00 |
Assistant to Dan Rice |
| Starr Rice |
$ 1,213.00 |
Assistant to Sue Rice |
| Sean Cosgrove |
$ 1,000.00 |
Secretary – Father Urrutigoity |
| Matthew Nat |
$ 1,000.00 |
Bookkeeper |
| Total |
$20,562.00 |
Society of St. John Financial Summary
Week ending: 6-Nov-99
Current funds available: $ 18,300.00
Projected income per week $ 18,500.00
| Vendor |
Total Debt |
Payment Due |
Due Date |
|
| Penn Security Bank |
$ 1,980,000.00 |
$ 14,850.00 |
15-Nov-99 |
|
| Blauvelt Purchase |
$ 200,000.00 |
$ 30,000.00 |
18-Nov-99 |
|
| Penn Furniture |
$ 129,480.00 |
$ 5,000.00 |
30-Nov-99 |
|
| King Lithographers |
$ 101,000.00 |
$ 101,000.00 |
12-Nov-99 |
|
| Nancy Price |
$ 100,000.00 |
|||
| 1988 Odyssey |
$ 17,500.00 |
$ 450.00 |
30-Nov-99 |
|
| 1997 Ford Truck |
$ 15,600.00 |
$ 405.00 |
30-Nov-99 |
|
| Mass Stipends Account |
$ 15,000.00 |
|||
| Fontgombault |
$ 13,200.00 |
$ 13,200.00 |
30-Nov-99 |
|
| Bank One VISA |
$ 9,383.00 |
$ 9,383.00 |
16-Nov-99 |
|
| Advanta Mastercard |
$ 8,200.00 |
$ 8,200.00 |
30-Nov-99 |
|
| Dan and Sue Rice (tractor) |
$ 2,000.00 |
|||
| AT&T Wireless Service |
$ 865.38 |
09-Nov-99 |
||
| Earle Electric Inc |
$ 19,719.11 |
15-Nov-99 |
||
| Payroll |
$ 9,800.00 |
16-Nov-99 |
||
| Lackawaxen Telephone |
$ 715.00 |
16-Nov-99 |
||
| Scranton Printing Co. |
$ 1,575.60 |
18-Nov-99 |
||
| JC Plumbing & Heating |
$ 2,162.50 |
20-Nov-99 |
||
| Health Insurance |
$ 2,200.00 |
30-Nov-99 |
||
| State Farm – Auto Insurance |
$ 250.00 |
30-Nov-99 |
||
| 1997 Odyssey |
$ 350.00 |
30-Nov-99 |
||
| Sony Card Citibank |
$ 2,242.98 |
30-Nov-99 |
||
| Misc under $500 |
$ 1,916.00 |
30-Nov-99 |
||
| Berton Roloson |
$ 7,433.10 |
30-Nov-99 |
||
| Hemmler Canayd, Architects |
$ 24,552.39 |
30-Nov-99 |
||
| Wanderer Printing |
$ 1,689.80 |
01-Dec-99 |
||
| Leslie Kelly architect |
$ 4,000.00 |
|||
| SAIC (Soil Scientist) |
$ 13,500.00 |
|||
| Oblates of Mary |
$ 4,500.00 |
|||
| Intellecom, Inc. |
$ 7,800.00 |
|||
| Saint Gregory’s Academy |
$ 11,786.00 |
|||
| Totals |
$ 2,591,413.00 |
$ 299,545.86 |