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# Where’s the money?
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/wheres-the-money/
- Published: 2002-12-16T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T01:06:18.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Community, Ocean Park, #archive-import

*Neighborhood group board remains tight-lipped on its finances*

The finances of a neighborhood group are still unclear despite the resignations of several board members and a legal case against it demanding that its records be produced.

Ocean Park Community Organization’s chairman, Rick Laudati, hasn’t fulfilled requests from members for the past three years of financial records. The lack of action has raised questions throughout the community.

A suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by OPCO member Tom Fuller in September remains unanswered. Laudati, as well as other board members, decline comment on where OPCO’s money is.

Suspicious OPCO members are unsure if there has been any malfeasance. But as time goes on without action, their curiosity has grown.

“It’s the strangest thing... the longer they delay and refuse to cooperate the more suspicious it becomes,” said Gary Clouse, an attorney representing Fuller. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. It's just a matter of time.”

One board member, Susan Love Loughmiller, isn’t talking. She has lashed out against the Daily Press, threatening a lawsuit over the paper’s reporting of the issue. Loughmiller, who was recently appointed after three board members quit last month, e-mailed the newspaper her warning.

She attended an OPCO board meeting last Thursday and declined comment on the pending complaint. She has said in the past its over inaccuracies.

Laudati has refused to publicly talk about the finances, saying the Daily Press hasn’t given the board a fair opportunity to comment. He hasn’t said why he won’t abide by increasingly strident requests for financial records from his organization’s members, despite several requests from the Daily Press.

OPCO missed its deadline to respond in court to Fuller’s complaint, complicating its legal landscape. OPCO had 30 days to respond to the Sept. 17 complaint. It hasn’t done so, putting OPCO in technical default.

“Default means they are not allowed to participate in the proceedings,” Clouse said.

Fuller attended the OPCO meeting Thursday to introduce himself to the four new board members who were appointed this month after others quit over the secrecy issue. He plans to proceed with the complaint that formally asks that the 2000 and 2001 financial records be released. He also requested the 2002 documents be given to him on a monthly basis.

Laudati has given Fuller a copy of an Internal Revenue Service’s letter stating that the organization has tax exempt status.

“The good news is that they are getting their act together,” Fuller said.

OPCO was formed in 1978 as a community organization for the Ocean Park neighborhood as a nonprofit corporation. Under California law, it’s required to provide its membership with financial records, according to the complaint.

One of OPCO’s functions is to review development projects and recommend to the Planning Commission and City Council that they be approved or denied. Some board members who have resigned said they fear a lack of protection from legal liability should the organization’s legality be questioned.

Board members Audrea Golding Bitler, Ted Winterer and Elan Glasser attempted to work out a resolution with the board to get the finances released. But they resigned in November out of frustration that no progress had been made.

Mario Fonda-Bonardi told the Daily Press earlier this month that OPCO has been slow to respond to Fuller’s request, first made in August 2001, because the organization hasn’t had an accountant in many years. He said it takes time to get paperwork together because its board members have time constraints.

Earlier this year, Bob Loftus, Joe Pipersky and Bill Sunblad resigned over the financial questions.

When Fuller got involved in OPCO in early 2001, he asked to review the accounting books and finances, 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 compared to the small amount of membership fees collected.

It’s unclear how much money OPCO has collected from its members, how many members there are and what the dues structure is. Some estimates put the organization’s membership between 200 and 500.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 16, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/121602.pdf?ref=smdp.com)