OKLAHOMA CITY – As summer break begins at the Summit Place neighborhood pool, residents hope long neglected repairs can finally happen.
“It allows us to have money to fix all this infrastructure that’s went without any repair for, you know, 10 years or more,” said current board member Dennis Stamper.
Stamper said his neighborhood at N.W. 122nd and Rockwell had slowly seen their funds drain because the former treasurer was stealing it.
“He wrote $160,000 of documented checks to himself and deposited them in his personal account,” Stamper said.
That former treasurer, Ralph Mann, is now facing 8 felony counts of embezzlement.
He had the job for 14 years.
Board members showed us checks that were written by Mann to Mann and endorsed by Mann – one for more than $17,000.
Other board members started catching on and filed the police report last July.
“We want to see jail time. The entire community wants to see jail time,” Stamper said.
Stamper said they don’t necessarily expect to see the money ever paid back, even though Mann still lives in the neighborhood.
“Waving at people as he drives around, which is really making people angry. Had a lot of complaints about that, but there’s nothing we can do,” Stamper said.
The board has taken steps, though, to ensure this doesn’t happen again, requiring two signatures on all association checks.
“Two signatures would have stopped this from ever happening,” Stamper said. “Chances are somebody’s watching somebody else, and there’s no, doesn’t leave the opportunity.”
Stamper said they also plan to hire out some of their accounting work.
And, they hope Mann is held accountable for his actions.
“You shouldn’t be able to steal that much money over that many years and be that arrogant towards everybody,” Stamper said.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, Mann had not been booked into the Oklahoma County jail.
An arrest warrant has been issued for him with a $100,000 bond.
