Taxpayers might be on the hook for more than $869,000 owed to NPR by the Columbus City Schools' public radio station, WCBE, and a nonprofit organization is offering to effectively buy control of the station from the district in return for paying off that debt, according to district documents obtained by The Dispatch.

The station's financial audits for the past two fiscal years don't mention the obligation, which was unknown to the district's administration until last week, when WCBE general manager Dan Mushalko revealed the debt to his immediate supervisor, communication director Scott Varner, district Treasurer Stan Bahorek said Monday.

It appears that the district could be responsible for the payment even though the station is designed to be self-sustaining through fund drives. It has hired an attorney specializing in federal radio law, and the district's internal auditor is reviewing how the station incurred the debt, Bahorek said.

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"That's part of what the internal audit is looking into," Bahorek said. "There's a lot of things that have to happen to make something an obligation of the district."

Mushalko has been suspended with pay, and his access to WCBE removed. A message left for Mushalko was not returned Monday evening.

Following an emergency meeting of district administrators held last Wednesday, the day after Varner was informed of the debt, Bahorek wrote the Board of Education a memo informing it of a "series of outstanding and seriously past due invoices" involving WCBE and laid out what the district knew:

• The total "confirmed" amount owed NPR for its national news programing is $869,462.70, more than 76 percent of WCBE's total revenue for fiscal year 2017.

• The overdue invoices date back to 2015.

• Before informing the district of the shortfall, Mushalko had discussed the situation with a private non-profit group, WCBE Ohio Inc., precipitating a letter offering to pay off the debt in return for control of the station. The letter was dated last Tuesday — the same day Mushalko informed Varner of the problem.

"We have not and will not respond to this letter pending the outcome of the investigation," Bahorek said in his memo to the school board.

Varner received the letter last Tuesday from Don McTigue, a Columbus attorney specializing in election law, saying he represented non-profit corporation WCBE Ohio Inc., which was incorporated by McTigue in 2013. The letter offers to reimburse the district the full cost of the obligation to NPR, stating it was more than $800,000.

"Reimbursement would be made within 90 days," McTigue said. "… In exchange, the district would enter into a long-term agreement with WCBE Ohio" to manage the station.

McTigue did not return a telephone call from late Monday afternoon.

Internal Auditor Carolyn Smith said she has assigned a team of auditors to the investigation, "with a particular focus on the large outstanding balance to NPR," and why the station's financial audits didn't record the obligation.

"There was no amount of this size showing up as a payable" in the station's financial audits, Smith said. "All of that is something that we will definitely look into, the facts and the circumstances."

The audit was contracted out to the accounting firm Hemphill Wright and Associates, of Independence in Cuyahoga County, which did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

bbush@dispatch.com

@ReporterBush