Form Pt 05-34 - Property Tax Claim - Charitable Ownership/use Page 13
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16charitable or that it uses the property at issue exclusively for charitable purposes. Eden,
213 Ill. 2d at 290-91, 821 N.E.2d at 250.
While the documentary evidence supports SPI’s claim that it may have been
organized as an institution of public charity, SPI has not established that it was operated
as an institute of public charity. The third and sixth Methodist Old Peoples Home factors
are relevant here, and they ask, respectively, whether SPI’s funds are derived mainly
from private and public charity, and whether SPI used Vasa Park exclusively for
charitable purposes. Methodist Old Peoples Home, 39 Ill. 2d at 156-57, 233 N.E.2d at
542. Regarding the third factor, SPI offered no credible, regularly kept business records
showing that SPI’s funds are derived mainly from private and public charity. Other than
its organizing documents and the letter from the IRS granting it § 501(c)3 status, SPI
concedes that it kept no other books and records, either financial or otherwise, to
document its operations. Department Ex. 3, p. 2.
SPI’s failure to keep such records is contrary to its own Bylaws, which require its
treasurer to “keep an accurate financial record, … and … present a complete financial
report at each meeting of the Association and Board of Trustees.” Applicant Ex. 2, p. 2
(Art. V.4). Its Bylaws further require SPI’s Board of Trustees to meet every three
months, which means that SPI’s Board should have met at some time between August 21,
2003, when its Articles of Incorporation were filed, and December 31, 2003. Id., pp. 1-2
(Art. IV.3). At that meeting, SPI’s Treasurer was required to have prepared some
“accurate financial record” to present to the Board. Id., p. 2 (Art. V.4). SPI’s admission
thus means that one of three things occurred: (1) SPI did not hold the required Board of
Trustees meeting in 2003; (2) SPI held a Board of Trustees meeting in 2003, but its
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