Our Voice: Despite challenges, there’s no quit in Pasco

Downtown Pasco has a host of challenges.

And efforts to redevelop the faded glory of the downtown have stalled and stopped over the years for various reasons.

The most recent blow came with the discovery that the Downtown Pasco Development Authority’s now former Executive Director Michael Goins had embezzled at least $90,000 over two years.

It was a crushing blow to an organization that had largely hung its future on Goins and his perceived ability to make the dream of a reenergized downtown a possibility. Finally.

With that plan now dashed, it would be easy for folks to just give up on downtown Pasco.

But they won’t. Glimmers of greatness have sprouted with the long-running farmers market, the Specialty Kitchen and the new Food Truck Friday series. The Cinco de Mayo event and the renewed Fiery Foods Fest round out their key activities.

Even as the state continues to investigate Goins’ fraud to determine just how much money he stole from the nonprofit, the volunteer board of the DPDA is marching forward.

Goins, who admitted when he was arrested in December to taking the organization’s money for his personal use, at least spared the group a lengthy criminal trial by pleading guilty and now awaits sentencing pending the state audit.

The resilient downtown group is already looking for its next leader. The job description has been reworked and this time the successful candidate will have to pass background and credit checks as well as a drug test.

Had those been done when Goins was hired, he most likely wouldn’t have gotten the job. He had been fired by a previous employer for embezzlement, abandoned his wife and young children in New Jersey and been reported missing when he created his new persona in Pasco.

But we don’t want to rub salt in the wound of an organization that is determined to make the best of downtown Pasco, no matter how many hurdles it has to face. We’ll call it a lesson learned.

We have no doubt the new director will be thoroughly vetted before being hired and that checks and balances have been put in place for more oversight of financials by the board.

The job is posted and the deadline is a quick one. The group hopes to debut its new leader to the community at the Cinco de Mayo parade on May 7.

The board held a recent retreat and hiring a new leader was its top priority. We’re impressed that just three months after Goins’ deception was discovered the DPDA is picking itself up and looking to the future.

The overall goal of the organization to “uplift the community” has never been more clear. The board is showing great leadership by facing adversity and overcoming it rather than being mired in self-pity or embarrassment.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, we see a bright future for downtown Pasco. Now is the time to find the leader to take it there.

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Our Voice: Despite challenges, there’s no quit in Pasco."