Mayor French: Rye Golf Club Situation is “Serious”

Two months after Rye Golf Club manager Scott Yandrasevich the city council continues its investigation into his actions in that role.

“The situation is very serious,” Mayor Douglas French said at the Dec. 5 city council meeting.

French said that although they would like to provide an update for the public, the council was unable to do so at this time.

Several Rye Golf Club members and commissioners who were sitting in the back of the council chambers left shortly after French’s announcement at the beginning of the meeting.

Yandrasevich’s management was questioned first over the summer and then publically this fall when RGC members learned of seemingly excessive overtime costs and a possible conflict of interested with a local temporary staffing agency. Read more on that here.

Over the last two months, City Manager Scott Pickup has been overseeing the day-to-day operations of the golf club, Pickup told Patch on Tuesday.

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“We are looking to, if this continues, to bring in some additional support,” Pickup said. He said it might be a consultant or someone to be titled an interim RGC manager. Pickup expected to know more on this situation by next week.

The investigation is still “very active,” Pickup said, which was echoed in Mayor French’s announcement at the Wednesday night meeting.

Last week, the city council approved two resolutions that allowed them to appoint Angela Sposato to the Rye Golf Commission.

In October, French announced the council would initiate a “four part strategy” in response to the RGC issues. The first part was placing Yandrasevich on administrative leave. The city is also working on adjusting its conflict of interest policies and drafting a financial disclosure form that certain employees will be required to fill out. Pickup said the draft of the financial disclosure document should be ready for council review in December or January.

A subcommittee to consider the future of RGC has been formed, Pickup said.  The last aspect of the strategy was to conduct an audit of the club, which is being handled by the firm conducting the investigation.

The last time the club was audited was in the city’s 2010 audit, conducted by the city’s auditing firm, O'Connor Davies, Pickup said. “It is premature to comment on that,” he said of a current audit.

Check back with Patch for future developments on this story. 

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