Mick Homan’s Audit Committee Resignation Letter

Mick Homan, a well regarded Incline resident with four decades in the public accounting and controllership profession, resigned from the IVGID Audit Committee.  His resignation letter, now in the public record,  explains why he resigned in great detail, and is MUST READING for IV/CB residents.  The letter is reproduced below.

Board of Trustees

Incline Village General Improvement District

893 Southwood Boulevard

Incline Village, NV 89451

Re:       Letter of Resignation – Mick Homan

            Audit Committee

This letter serves as my notice of resignation from the Audit Committee of the Incline Village General Improvement District (“IVGID” or “District”).  It is regrettable that I have been forced to make this decision.  I joined the Audit Committee out of a deep desire to help IVGID and the Board of Trustees (“Board”) move forward with key priorities, to improve its overall accounting and finance capabilities and its compliance/ethical culture.  However, I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that I cannot serve this Board when the present Board leadership demonstrates what I consider to be a complete disregard for ethical behavior.   I simply cannot allow my professional reputation, which was built over the past four (4) decades in the public accounting and controllership profession, to be sullied by the actions of members of the Board.

During my tenure on the Audit Committee, there have been several ethical issues with Trustees I have spoken up about.  While individually, those past issues have been troubling, they have not risen to a critical level to warrant severing my ties with the Board.  Some of those issues were as follows:

• • I have been vocal with members of the Board (Trustees Schmitz and Tulloch) and corrected the public record after they created and pushed false and misleading numbers this past year during the Board’s discussion on golf operations and rate setting. Despite being presented with the facts, neither of these Trustees has recanted their narrative in public.  In my world, that is every bit as egregious as intentionally manipulating the underlying financial reporting of the District.
  • I have pressed the Board more recently on the questionable ethics around the development of the “Frequently Asked Questions”, which I believe to be very politically motivated and devoid of hard facts. I feel very strongly that utilizing District resources and communication tools to defend the actions of individual Board members who are subject to a recall petition and potential recall election is a direct violation of Nevada’s ethics statutes.
  • On two (2) separate occasions, I have had one Board member (Trustee Schmitz) twist my words in an attempt to call into question my knowledge, ethics, and integrity.
  • Trustee Schmitz has also attempted to limit my ability to hold staff and trustees accountable for the dissemination of accurate information by making it more difficult for me to access underlying data. Trustee Schmitz told staff that they should not provide me with any information unless I file a public records request.  This was in response to the data I compiled to correct the false golf financial narrative. It is completely unacceptable for any organization to limit information to its Audit Committee members, who are, after all, charged with helping to insure financial oversite.

While each of the above issues has been troubling, they pale in comparison to what played out during the Board meeting on August 9, 2023—more specifically, the process and ultimate Board decision to appoint Cliff Dobler to the Committee on Capital Investment.  This item has two (2) underlying issues that I simply cannot abide by or be associated with.  First is the blatant conflict of interest and influence peddling that played out.  There is simply no accepted business or other organizational circumstances under which Chairman Dent should not have abstained from the vote to appoint Mr. Dobler.  Despite what a state bureaucrat may or may not have told Chair Dent, the existence of a material personal loan from Mr. Dobler is, in fact, a material conflict of interest.  Mr. Dent himself recently committed to Incline Village / Crystal Bay residents that he would abstain from any Board votes having to do with Mr. Dobler because of the existence of that loan (See Topic G.2. of the July 12, 2023, Board package). Second, Chair Dent, along with Trustees Schmitz and Tulloch, exacerbated this ethical violation by actively protecting Mr. Dobler, by protesting and ultimately shutting down a completely valid and very relevant line of questions posed to Mr. Dobler by Trustee Noble.  To make matters worse, those trustees seemed to completely ignore the lie told by Mr. Dobler on the public record during his interview that he never had his recreational privileges suspended, but that he “merely decided not to access them for 3 months.”   I have seen three (3) separate letters to Mr. Dobler proving that he was in fact suspended.  The only viable conclusion I can draw from these actions is that those three trustees (Dent, Schmitz, and Tulloch) shattered the mere appearance of a conflict of interest.  They actively engaged in actions to protect a financial benefactor, demonstrating that the conflict of interest has played out in favorable treatment for Mr. Dobler.  Further, in my opinion they have shown complete disrespect for the IVGID staff and residents of Incline Village / Crystal Bay by appointing Mr. Dobler to the Capital Investment Committee, despite Mr. Dobler’s repetitive, abusive, demeaning, and misogynistic behavior towards IVGID staff.  I simply cannot, in good conscience, serve a Board that so openly violated ethical standards in appointing Mr. Dobler or that turned its back and figuratively raised a middle finger to its employees, who should be viewed as IVGID’s most important assets.

Also factoring into my decision to resign, though admittedly to a lesser extent, are recent public comments by IVGID’s Audit Committee Chair and a related social media post broadcasting those same comments.  To first provide context, the role of the Audit Committee is to help the Board oversee the integrity of the financial reporting, along with the underlying controls and the broader ethical and compliance framework for the entity it serves.  In doing so, the Audit Committee must remain neutral and unbiased.  When potential issues are identified, the Audit Committee’s primary responsibility is to understand the issues and work with the Board to ensure corrective action is taken.  Its actions must be fact driven.  Above all, the Audit Committee acts as a fiduciary.  Comments made by the Audit Committee’s Chair, Chris Nolet during the Board’s August 9, 2023, meeting and subsequently published in a local social media outlet, contained speculation and inuendo that were inflammatory, defamatory, and potentially libelous.  Mr. Nolet’s comments inflamed a narrative pushed by members of the community, while doing nothing to fully understand and correct the underlying issues.  Mr. Nolet has every right to give his opinions in public comments like any other resident of Incline Village / Crystal Bay.  However, doing so under the banner of the Audit Committee Chair is unacceptable.  Such comments by Mr. Nolet have the effect of politicizing the Audit Committee and violating his fiduciary responsibility to the District.

In summary, I view the role of the Audit Committee and my role as a member of that Committee to uphold not only the accuracy and integrity of the financial reporting of the District, but also to oversee the broader governance and compliance/ethics framework and the District’s adherence to that framework.  I am simply not able to provide that oversight when multiple members of the Board are unwilling to live by those standards and so openly violate them.  Further, I am not willing to let my professional reputation be damaged by continuing to serve a Board that, in my opinion, is not carrying out its basic fiduciary responsibilities in an ethical manner for the residents of Incline Village / Crystal Bay.  Thus, I am regrettably forced to resign from the Audit Committee.  At the same time, I would like to thank IVGID staff, both current and former, for all the work and time they invested in preparing me to take on the role and the assistance they provided me with during my tenure.  Should the Board evolve in the future to one that operates in a manner consistent with my moral and ethical compass, I would be happy to serve again.

Regards,

Michael (Mick) Homan

Incline Village

Note from the Invest in Incline Advocacy Network:  the loss of Mick Homan from the Audit Committee represents yet another loss of knowledge and talent from the IVGID team, and is one more wakeup call to the residents and property owners of IV/CB that they must consider signing the Trustee Recall Petition and then voting to recall Trustees Schmitz and Dent.