This one stings because it’s so blatant: they’re literally using public economic-development funds to groom the next generation of insiders.

 Forge on Boards: How Your Half-Cent Sales Tax Is Now Paying to Stack Nonprofit and Corporate Boards with Hand-Picked Young Professionals

In August 2024, the Greater Topeka Partnership’s young professionals arm — Forge Young Talent — proudly announced “Forge on Boards.” The goal, according to their press release:

“Facilitating connections between young professionals and businesses to encourage impactful board service… connecting them with area businesses and nonprofit organizations looking to benefit from their dynamic input.”

Rhett Flood, Forge’s Executive Director, said young pros have “the energy, creativity, and drive” to bring change. Matt Pivarnik, CEO of the Greater Topeka Partnership, added that it will “shape the future of our community.”

Sounds wholesome. Leadership development. Fresh perspectives. Who could object?

Except it’s being funded, in part, by the same JEDO half-cent sales tax you and I helped pitch back in 2003.

The Money Trail (Public Records)

• Forge sits inside Talent Initiatives at Go Topeka / Greater Topeka Partnership.
• In the 2024 GO Topeka Business Plan & Budget submitted to JEDO, Talent Initiatives was budgeted at $212,630 — part of the multi-million-dollar annual grant from the countywide half-cent economic development sales tax.
• Overall, Go Topeka / Partnership gets the lion’s share of JEDO funds (historically 60-70%+ of their operating budget comes from this taxpayer pot). That’s the same stream that was supposed to make Central Crossing shovel-ready and grow Topeka’s population and tax base.
• Forge has its own sponsorship packages (benefactors pay for gala exposure and access to 2,000+ members), but the core staffing, operations, events, and now “Forge on Boards” matchmaking run on public economic-development dollars.

This isn’t private philanthropy. It’s taxpayer money collected at every cash register in Shawnee County being used to play matchmaker between 18–40-year-olds and local boards.

What Forge on Boards Actually Does

• Collects forms from young professionals who want board seats.
• Collects forms from businesses/nonprofits that want “fresh perspectives.”
• Connects them. Hosts panels. Builds the pipeline.
• Ties into their broader advocacy, Hire Local campaign with Washburn, YP Day at the Capitol, galas, committees (Events, Marketing, Advocacy, IDEAS), and leadership placement.

In other words: a taxpayer-subsidized networking and placement service that helps select young professionals get onto the very boards and organizations that influence policy, spending, and development decisions in Topeka.

Meanwhile, the big-picture results after 25+ years of Forge (originally Fast Forward in 1999) and $125+ million in JEDO/GO Topeka spending:

• Topeka population still flat ~122k–127k.
• Large swaths of the Commerce Park you helped push in that 2003 KDOT letter still vacant or “shovel-ready” in 2026 marketing materials.
• Talent keeps leaving for places with actual job growth and lower costs.

The Rigged Loop, Exhibit #47

This is the same closed system you’ve been calling out:

1. Mayor/county refers big deals and talent issues to the Partnership.
2. Partnership/Go Topeka gets the sales-tax grant to “solve” it.
3. They create programs like Forge → Forge on Boards → Choose Topeka incentives → galas → awards.
4. Insiders and connected young pros get the fast track to influence.
5. Repeat. Rebrand. Request more funding.

You were in the room signing the original letter as a developer. You sold the tax to service clubs so land could be developed and jobs created. Instead, we got a self-perpetuating nonprofit economic-development complex that now spends part of your sales tax teaching young professionals how to sit on the boards that oversee the complex.

This is not economic development. This is commercial real estate, chamber politics, and social club activity dressed up as “talent strategy” — all on the public dime.

The Fix Remains the Same

Pull the $5+ million annual economic-development allocation back in-house at the city and county. Force every deal, every incentive, every “initiative” onto the public record for vote-by-vote approval. If money is left at year-end, spend it on roads and infrastructure — not another Forge gala or board-placement program. Let private sponsors and membership dues fund networking groups. Taxpayers already pay enough for failing results.

I didn’t invent this critique in a campaign speech. The 2003 letter with my signature as “Henry McClure, Developer” is still in my files. The vacant pads at Central Crossing are still there. The rebranded organizations are still cashing the checks.

Forge on Boards is just the latest chapter in a 22-year story of good intentions, taxpayer money, and zero transformation.

Not one more dime.

— Henry McClure