Oak Brook officials are adding several changes to the operation of the village’s Oak Brook Golf Club, in light of an investigation into discrepancies found last fall with inventory at the club’s pro shop.
A physical inventory of the golf pro shop merchandise on Aug. 14, 2023, included a review of the purchase/sales cycle to identify differences between the book inventory quantities and the physical inventory count, Village Manager Greg Summers said.
He said the review revealed systemic issues resulting in substantial inconsistencies in the inventory count dating back at least a decade. The investigation showed more than $214,000 of missing, aged unsaleable, and excess inventory, Summers said.
An investigation by the Oak Brook Police Department concluded recently and didn’t pinpoint any specific people involved in wrongdoing. But Summers said a thorough analysis of the village’s golf point-of-sale system revealed that it’s clear the transaction anomalies are numerous and untraceable.
He said two of the main drivers for this are paper-based gift certificates being issued without logging the payment method or purchaser and generic point-of-sale logins used across multiple golf club personnel.
“Accordingly, looking back at years of transactions, it is indistinguishable who entered various transactions and credits, and who redeemed those credits,” Summers said.
“We can state with certainty that on August 14, 2023, the difference between book inventory and actual hard inventory count revealed an overage of $10,871.64 and a shortage of -$79,776.86, net $-68,905.22,” he said. “But due to the limitations of the software system and lack of accountability for login control, it is not surmisable what particular individual or series of individuals participated in these false transactions.
“Furthermore, it is evident that much of the merchandise inventory was never entered into the point-of-sale system and disappeared without ever being logged. What is indisputable is that these practices carried on for well over a decade under the mismanagement of the former golf club leadership.”
Going forward, the village has added a layer of oversight and accountability with the new Sports Core director, Summers said,
“Art Segura has already been instrumental in putting in place new protocols and procedures that will eliminate shared logins, untraceable paper base gift certificates, and non-residents registering as residents in order to achieve a lower cost of membership,” he said.
In addition, Segura and Assistant Village Manager Joe Mitchell have identified more than $100,000 in new revenue streams to further enhance operations, and the funds will be reinvested into the club to improve member and guest experience further, Summers said.
An additional savings of more than $13,000 is expected by the implementation of a new point-of-sale system that will better integrate the village’s golf systems, while also reducing the annual software expenditure by over $13,000, Summers said.
“The golf club has traditionally been profitable on an operating basis, allowing the village to use those funds to improve the facilities, but that same profitability was also misused to mask abuses of public funds,” he said, “It is essential that each and every dollar earned at the golf club be reinvested in the facility to maximize the village’s asset and further build upon its own success.
“With better management, oversight, and accountability as well as new and improved food service, 2024 promises to be the best and most profitable season ever at the Oak Brook Golf Club.”
Village President Larry Herman said he is optimistic about the future of the Golf Club.
“While change is never easy, I am very optimistic about the improvements coming to the golf course under the leadership of our Sports Core Director Art Segura and Assistant Village Manager Joe Mitchell,” he said. “I expect the golfer experience to be enhanced, while also improving accountability, operational efficiency, and profitability.”
One person who is glad to see these changes coming is former Village Board member Don Adler. Shortly after he was elected in 2013, Adler, who was a trustee liaison to the village’s Sports Core Committee, questioned the financial statements of the Golf Club.
Adler’s background included being a CPA, chairman of the village’s Citizen’s Finance Advisory Committee, and a member of the Village’s Ad Hoc Legal Services Audit Committee.
“I saw some numbers while looking over the Golf Club’s financial statements that didn’t look right with the inventory at that time,” he said. “I asked the board to look into it further, but the board majority wasn’t interested in doing that.
“I’m glad there are changes being made now, but I’m not happy that it took an incident like this for that to happen.”
Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.