Members say organization operating too secretively
One of Santa Monica’s largest and old-est neighborhood associations is under attack by former board members who want to know where its money is.
A former board member of the Ocean Park Community Organization has filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court demanding its financial records. Tom Fuller, along with a few other people, have been asking for the organization’s financial records for more than a year. They claim chairman Rick Laudati has ignored their requests.
The complaint, filed last month, seeks an order that Laudati provide financial statements to OPCO’s membership.
When Fuller got involved in OPCO in early 2001, he asked to review the accounting books and all financial records, as well as a list of the organization’s current membership.
In his written request to Laudati in June 2001, Fuller said he was concerned about an apparent discrepancy between the number of reported members and the small amount of membership fees collected.
By the end of 2001, Fuller and other board members wanted the documents to review before the organization’s annual congress in February, when all of its members gather to elect board members and discuss issues. They also requested that Laudati provide monthly financial statements.
None of their requests were granted. On Aug. 8, 2002 — more than a year after Fuller requested the documents — Laudati formally denied Fuller’s inquiries via e-mail.
“Because it’s so secretive and it’s not open, one has to wonder what the hell is going on,” Fuller said. “I’ve been very patient. I asked for months as a member and as a board member.
“The community has a right to know where their dues are going,” he added. “It’s a neighborhood group, and it should be open even more so.”
Laudati didn’t return messages left over the weekend. It’s unknown how many members OPCO has. Some people estimate membership, which is voluntary, between 200 and 500.
Other board members have resigned this year because they feel the organization is operated too secretively.
“I sat on the board and I can’t tell you how many members we have or how much money we have,” said Joe Pipersky, who resigned from the OPCO board in August. “The reason I left OPCO is because it doesn’t keep proper records of accounting and, consequently, there is no protection of liability for the citizen who wants to give back to his community.”
OPCO, which was formed in 1978 as a community organization for the Ocean Park neighborhood, is a nonprofit corporation. Under California law, OPCO is required to provide its membership with financial records, according to the complaint.
“Financial statements are by law open documents,” Fuller said. “I’m just exercising my rights to get the records.”
Records are not accessible to OPCO’s membership because Laudati, who operates the organization out of his home, controls them, OPCO members say.
“We’ve asked him on several occasions to share the minutes from previous meetings,” said OPCO member Lance Schmidt. “It’s highly suspect when someone doesn’t show bank statements and deposits... It appears very suspicious.”
Schmidt, along with other members, think OPCO has lost its mission of being a grassroots neighborhood group and has become politicized in recent years.
“It’s not a community organization,” Schmidt said. “It’s been hijacked.”
Former board members point to a recent historic shack known as Santa Monica’s last shotgun house that was saved from demolition earlier this year as one example of how secretive the organization operates. OPCO, along with the city and other community organizations, raised thousands of dollars to move the house from Ocean Park to a temporary location at the airport.
But many OPCO members had no idea that OPCO had raised money for the endeavor.
“The board never said, ‘Let’s buy a house,’” Pipersky said. “Then I read (in the newspaper) we are having fundraisers. When the organization buys a house without its board of directors, something is wrong.”
Schmidt said it’s difficult to know when the board meets because agendas are often posted the day of the meeting on OPCO’s Web site, which is updated by Laudati at his home.
“They are voting on issues that no one knows about,” he said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 14, 2002. Read the original PDF.