**The following is a TRN Media editorial by Al Harris**

GREEN RIVER — The latest chapter of the book “How to put on Flaming Gorge Days” is a real doozy.

Two years ago following the embezzlement of the Flaming Gorge Days funds, the City was left holding the bag, an empty bag by the way, for putting on the annual summer event. For the first time, the City spent, in very rough numbers, a hundred thousand dollars and hired an event planner out of Denver to assist in putting on the celebration. Last year they hired the same firm but the company bailed several weeks before the event. Apparently they’d had enough. The City was left organizing the event.

Councilwoman Sherry Bushman said she would run it for this coming year. On August 7th of this year, Bushman filed a new corporation with the Secretary of State. Interestingly, she calls her new company City of Green River Flaming Gorge Days, Inc. She filed as a non-profit. Now it should be noted that non-profit does not mean the company makes no money, but it means the company pays no taxes. It should also be noted that filing with the State as a non-profit does not make it a non-profit. That is a determination of the IRS, and there are several different kinds of non-profits. It’s also interesting that the filing says the purpose of the company, among other things, is to provide infrastructure for the City of Green River. I don’t know if she intends to fix some city streets or if that’s just window dressing to get a favorable tax-exempt ruling from the feds.

At the last City Council meeting, Bushman dropped a bombshell at the end of the meeting when she read from a press release she was about to circulate. She said she was dissolving the non-profit status, which was confusing at best, until it became apparent it was her company she was dissolving. She went on to blame the City and to say the future of Flaming Gorge Days was uncertain. It seems her business model required government funding. Now when a city council member is seeking money for her private company from the same city council of which she is a member… well, the conflict of interest flag starts waving like it’s in a Wyoming gale force wind.

The City has written a check in the past to hire someone to assist with putting on the event. But never has the City written a check to a private company that has taken over responsibility for the event. Having been burned last year, it seems the City was being a good steward of tax payers’ dollars. There’s no indication that Bushman has any business experience. It’s unclear if she has ever owned a business, ever managed a business, or had experience staging an event of this magnitude.

At the last council meeting she blind-sided her fellow council members, blamed the City for not getting funded, and threw the council under the bus. The meeting tonight has all the makings of “Must See TV”. And like a James Patterson novel, I can’t wait for the next chapter.