This rendering shows a concept for the pool area of the future Redmond recreation center.  

Someone impersonated a vendor used by the Redmond Area Park and Recreation District in November and stole approximately $495,000 intended for the recreation center currently under construction on Redmond’s east side. The fraudster compromised the vendor’s email system and diverted a legitimate payment from the park district to the vendor into their account, according to the park district.

The park district worked with banks and was able to stop the entire payment from going through, thereby regaining one-third of the total payment. Officials say they are not able to release any information about the vendor impersonator because the investigation is still ongoing, but the perpetrator still has $336,999 of the park district’s money.

The fraud will not impact the center’s construction timeline or its financing, said park district officials.

The new $49 million recreation center is still set to open in early 2026. The 56,000-square-foot building will have two pools, an open fitness area, a gymnasium and fitness classrooms. The pools have been dug out and construction is well underway.

The center’s construction was paid for by a 2022 bond, but a levy to fund operations failed twice among Redmond area voters. The park district is still exploring funding options, which may include the possibility of closing the Cascade Swim Center, which will at the least have reduced hours in the future.

Who is working to recover the funding?

Katie Hammer, executive director of the park district, said the FBI, which is investigating the fraud, had no new updates as of Monday. The park district is also working with the Redmond Police Department, which is keeping the case open.

“We’re still working through (the Special Districts Association of Oregon) and the insurance agent to recover the rest of the funds,” said Hammer during the park district’s meeting Tuesday.

The park district will be making changes in light of the fraud, and its electronic and financial systems remain secure, Hammer said.

“We are changing our financial procedures and we’re going to double check any requests from vendors that we receive to change payment method, payment location. We will be following up verbally with that vendor to verify it’s a legitimate request and not just a written request,” Hammer told The Bulletin on Tuesday.

The breach was not due to any problems with the park district’s systems, Hammer said, and no customer or community member data was compromised.

“We are taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again, we do take it very seriously and the project is still moving forward, it’s on schedule, and this shouldn’t impact the construction,” said Hammer.

The Redmond police department had no comment, saying the investigation is still open.

Commitment to a strong team

The park district’s board members said they were committed to working together and putting the park district first.

“Even though this incident has us all with heavy hearts, we need to just move forward and do our best for the district,” said board member and vice chair Kevin Scoggin.

The board of directors also voted to put a letter of reprimand into Hammer’s personnel file at its Tuesday meeting due to the incident. Details were unavailable.

“Just seeing what has happened at different school boards and park and rec boards around this area, you know, we got a strong team here. We are gonna come under fire, we should, we’re dealing with a lot of people’s money. We have big decisions to make,” said board member and chair Matthew Gilman. “I really appreciate everybody taking this seriously, we have a very professional group here…We’ve got a lot more coming our way.”

What’s next for Redmond’s new rec center without an operations fund?