Part 3: The Man with Two Ledgers

When the Gallatin IDB finally checked that “initial return” box on its first 990 in late 2021 to legitimize itself for Meta, a new name appeared on the paperwork: Preston Stark.

Stark wasn’t an elected city councilman. He was installed as the IDB’s Board Administrative Manager, the gatekeeper of the records, the agendas, and the tax-abatement paperwork.

But as it turns out, 2020 was a busy year for Stark’s ledger-keeping.

At the exact same time he took the reins of the IDB’s brand-new federal tax trail, Stark’s name quietly appeared on the board roster of a local, grassroots non-profit: The Gallatin Shalom Zone. His title? Treasurer. His subtitle on their directory? “City of Gallatin”, a direct contradiction to the city’s loud legal insistence that the IDB has “no government standing.”

And there’s a smaller thing sitting underneath that one.

The Gallatin IDB’s federal returns are prepared by John P Young PC, a one-man firm on Canfield Place in Hendersonville. So are the Gallatin Shalom Zone’s. Same firm, same preparer number, same suite.

So the board that hands out the money and the nonprofit that receives it share an accountant, and they share a board member, and that board member is the one signing the paying side’s federal return under penalty of perjury.

None of which is against any rule. Hendersonville is not a big place and one accountant can have a lot of local clients. It just means there was nobody in the room who wasn’t already in the room.

Suddenly, the non-profit’s financial books caught fire.

• 2019: The Shalom Zone brought in a modest $87,799 in gifts and grants.
• 2021: As Meta cleared its final local hurdles, the non-profit’s revenue tripled to $347,344.
• 2023: The ledger exploded to $1,190,673 in a single year.

The person managing the public distribution process for the city’s corporate recruitment was now the exact same person balancing the private receiving books for the area’s premier “social welfare” shield.