By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(May 3, 2018) Some community comment will be allowed during the upcoming forensic audit, although the majority of Ocean Pines Board members on Saturday opposed forming a committee to assist with the process.

Director Slobodan Trendic said General Manager John Bailey, Finance Director Steve Phillips and three board members had an initial meeting with Baltimore auditing firm Gross, Mendelsohn & Associates on April 20. Phillips will apparently carry information from the firm back to the board.

“The next step is to put in place what we would call an audit team and also to develop an audit plan,” Trendic said.

He suggested forming an “independent audit committee” of community members, an idea not shared by his colleagues.

“The concept is sound, however I really want to look at Gross, Mendelsohn to guide us with that,” Association President Doug Parks said. “Personally, I think having us take direction from them is really the way to go.

“We’re paying for these folks to give their expertise,” he continued. “While we may have everything well intended, I think it’s more important to take a step back [and] let the audit firm come back to us with their recommendations and their needs. I personally don’t want to presuppose I know what they’re going to need, or direct them in any way, shape or form.

“The more arm’s length we are from the process, the better,” Parks said. “We should take a listening perspective and not an active participation, unless specifically asked by them.”

Director Pat Supik agreed.

“Gross, Mendelsohn … have, I think it was 25 [of] 30 years of experience doing this,” she said. “They should guide this process, absolutely … I don’t think we’ve got any expert in the community, on the board, anywhere that has the experience that the Gross, Mendelsohn team brings to us.

“This is what they do – this is all these gentlemen do,” Supik continued. “We have the experts, I say we just go with them right now, with Steve as the point on the process. I don’t see any need for any kind of community audit team. I have no idea what that could bring.”

Trendic said the benefit of a committee was, “we have people in the community that are intimately familiar with what’s been going on,” including former Finance Director John Viola and other community members with corporate and legal backgrounds.

“These two or three people could bring up some very strong, independent support, assistance and objectivity to the process,” he said. “I feel we should share this with the auditors.”

Supik responded the auditors agreed to accept information from community members, “which they have never done before.”

“We were going to send out an announcement, but we wanted to have this discussion first,” Parks said. “They’re going to allow for community input directly to them. There will be a letter [and] we’ll have the address and location in case you have anything that you feel is worthwhile – although, they did very much warn that we don’t want hearsay, scuttlebutt and opinion.”

Parks added the focus of the audit would not just be on the food and beverage operations, as was previously thought.

“After our initial meeting they basically dispelled that myth,” he said. “They said, ‘we’re going to start at a starting point where it makes sense and we are in no way limiting our investigation to just that.’”