ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Directors and Executive Officers
The directors and executive officers of the Company, their ages, and positions with the Company as of September 30, 2017 are set forth below.
Name | | Age | | Position with Company |
| | | | |
Ted Sparling | | 54 | | Director, President and Chief Executive Officer |
| | | | |
James K. Toomey | | 52 | | Director and Secretary |
| | | | |
James M. La Manna | | 52 | | Director and Chief Financial Officer |
All directors of the Company hold office until the earlier of the next annual meeting of shareholders and until their successors have been duly elected and qualified, or their death, resignation, or removal. Officers are elected annually by the respective Boards of Directors of the Company to hold office until the earlier of their death, resignation, or removal.
Set forth below is a description of the business experience during the past five years or more and other biographical information of the directors and executive officers of the Company.
Ted Sparling has served as the President, Chief Executive Officer, and a director of the Company since January 2012. Mr. Sparling also served as Chief Executive Officer and Secretary from January 2012 until November 2014, and as the President of the Kesselring Corporation, a Florida corporation, from March 2005 (prior to its acquisition by the Company pursuant to the Share Exchange Agreement, dated May 18, 2007) until October 2007 when the Shares Exchange Agreement was consummated. Mr. Sparling also has served as the President and sole director of Gulf & Bay Constructors, Inc., a building contractor located in west central Florida, since December 2006 and has served in the same capacities for Gulf & Bay Inspections, Inc., a building inspector located in west central Florida, since January 2007. Mr. Sparling has been a state certified building contractor since 1989, and has been a state certified home inspector since 2012.
Mr. Sparling’s prior experiences as the President and CEO of the predecessor company provides important background and institutional knowledge about the Company.
James K. Toomey has served as Secretary of the Company since November 14, 2014. He was appointed to serve as a director of the Company on August 31, 2013. Mr. Toomey also had served as a director of the Company from 2006 to 2008. Mr. Toomey has served on the board of directors of Research Development and Manufacturing, Inc., a privately held engineering and bio-tech firm, since 2016. He previously has served as a director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Coast Financial Holdings, Inc. (“Coast Financial”), a financial institution which was a reporting company under the Exchange Act from its inception in 2003 until its merger with another financial institution in 2007 (the “Coast Merger Transaction”). He also served as a director of Coast Bank of Florida, a Florida state-chartered bank (“Coast Bank”), from its inception in April 2000 through the sale of the bank in December 2007 as part of the Coast Merger Transaction. Upon formation of Coast Financial as a bank holding company in 2003, Coast Bank became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coast Financial. Prior to 2003, Coast Bank was operated as a stand-alone banking institution. Previously, Mr. Toomey served in various positions for Knight-Ridder/Bradenton Herald from August 1990 to September 1997. Since September 1997, Mr. Toomey’s business interests have been focused towards commercial shopping development and investments. He is the co-owner of four real estate investment companies (including, Braden River Industries, Inc., a Florida corporation and real estate holding company, and AMI Holdings, Inc., a commercial real estate holding company), a retail clothing company (Two Sides of Nature), and an ice cream store (Two Scoops). Mr. Toomey also has served as a director and co-manager of Renovo Resource Solutions, Inc. (referred to as Renovo), a metal recycling company, since September 2015. In addition, he founded the Toomey Foundation for the Natural Sciences in 2000, a not-for-profit organization for the preservation and education of archeological, paleontological and geological resources. He also has served as a trustee of the Sarasota Marine Safety Foundation, a not-for-profit entity, since 2019 and has been an officer of the Coast Guard Auxiliary since 2008. Mr. Toomey received his MBA from Crummer Graduate School, Rollins College in 1990 and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Rollins in 1988.
Mr. Toomey’s prior experience as a director and Chairman of the Board of a public company and a member of its audit committee will be beneficial to the Company as it reactivates it reporting obligations under the Exchange Act. He understands the disclosure responsibilities and duties owed to shareholders of public companies and can provide his public company experience to the board of directors.
James M. La Manna, CPA has served as the Chief Financial Officer of the Company since November 14, 2014 and as a director of the Company since September 13, 2013. Mr. La Manna is a certified public accountant and has served as the Chief Executive Officer and sole owner of James M. La Manna, CPA, PA, an accounting firm, since 2007. Mr. La Manna has been a licensed Florida certified accountant since 1998 and prior to opening his own firm, he had most recently served as a supervising auditor for Aidman Piser, an accounting firm, in 2006 and as a supervising audit and tax partner for Christopher Smith Leonard, an accounting firm, from 2003 – 2006.
Mr. La Manna’s experience as a CPA and his qualifications as a potential audit committee financial expert are invaluable skills needed by the Company as it seeks to carry out its business plan.
Family Relationships
There are no family relationships between any of directors or executive officers of the Company.
Involvement in Certain Legal Proceedings
During the past ten years, none of our directors, persons nominated to become directors, executive officers, promoters, or control persons have been involved in any of the legal proceedings listed in Item 401(f) of Regulation S-K.
Arrangements for Selection of Directors
There are no current arrangements or understandings between an executive officer, director, or nominee, and any other person pursuant to which he was or is to be elected or selected as a director or as an executive officer of the Company.
Directorships
None of the Company’s directors or nominees to become directors currently is a director of, or during the past 5 years has held any directorship in, any other company with a class of securities registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Exchange Act or subject to the requirements of Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act.
Code of Conduct and Ethics
Although prior to the filing of its Form 15 with the Commission on September 16, 2011, the Company had previously disclosed in its filings with the Commission that it had adopted a Code of Ethics and Business Conduct for Officers, Directors and Employees, our current management is not familiar with any such Code of Ethics and, to ensure that there are no inadvertent violations thereof, the board of directors has rescinded any and all such existing codes. Although the Company has initially determined to prepare and approve a new Code of Ethics, this was delayed and will be addressed in the future when the Company has additional resources to commit to such endeavors. Accordingly, the Company does not currently have a Code of Ethics.
Certain Corporate Governance Matters
The Board of Directors has established a standing Compensation Committee, but has not established or reinstated any audit or other committees of the board. With the exception of our Compensation Committee, the functions of audit, nominating committees, and any committees forming similar functions are instead being undertaken by our full board of directors and, as a result, the entire board of directors is responsible for the full oversight of the non-compensation affairs of the Company, including the assessment and oversight of the Company’s financial risk exposure.
Compensation Committee. The Compensation Committee is comprised solely of Mr. Toomey, and it did not hold any meetings during fiscal year ended September 30, 2017. The Compensation Committee does not have a charter. However, principal responsibilities of this committee are to review and make recommendations to the Board of Directors concerning the compensation of officers of the Company, to provide input and make recommendations to the Board on individuals elected to be executive officers of the Company, to review and make recommendations with respect to the Company’s existing and proposed compensation and bonus plans, and to serve as the committee responsible for administering the Company’s existing compensation and benefits plans. In addition, this committee also is responsible for evaluating and recommending compensation to be paid to our directors, including retainers, fees, benefits and perquisites. The sole member of this Committee is not independent within the meaning of the listing standards of the Nasdaq Rule 5605(a)(2)(A).
Shareholder Nominees of Directors. Currently, we do not have a policy regarding the consideration of any director candidates that may be recommended by our shareholders, including the minimum qualifications for director candidates, nor has our sole director established a process for identifying and evaluating director nominees. Furthermore, given our size and lack of operations, we do not have a diversity policy as it relates to the make-up and composition of our directors who serve on the board. We also have not adopted a policy regarding the handling of any potential recommendation of director candidates by our shareholders, including the procedures to be followed. To date, no shareholders have recommended any persons to be nominated for election to our board of directors. Given our relative size and lack of directors and officers insurance coverage, we do not anticipate that any of our shareholders will make such a recommendation in the near future. While there have been no nominations of additional directors proposed, in the event such a proposal is made, all current members of our Board would participate in the consideration of director nominees.
Compliance with Section 16 of the Exchange Act
The completion of our Reactivation Actions in the 2015 fiscal year resulted in the reactivation of the Company’s reporting obligations solely under Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act which had been suspended since 2011. Accordingly, the Company’s securities are not registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act and, as a result, the reporting obligations of Section 16 of the Exchange Act do not apply to the Company.
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES
The firm of Accell Audit & Compliance P.A., an independent registered public accounting firm (referred to as Accell), was engaged in 2020 to audit the Company’s financial statements for each of the fiscal years ended September 30, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Accordingly, Accell has audited the Company’s financial statements for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2017 and 2016 set forth in this Form 10-K.
Our independent auditor, Accell Audit & Compliance, P.A. billed an aggregate of $17,500 in 2020, $17,500 in 2021, and has unbilled of approximately $7,500 related to audit fees for audits of the financial statements of the Company for years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. There were no audit related fees, tax fees, or other fees.
As part of its responsibility for oversight of the independent registered public accountants, the board of directors has established a policy to pre-approve all audit and permissible non-audit services provided by the independent auditor. In accordance with this policy, each type of audit, audit related, tax and other permitted service to be provided by the independent auditors is specifically described and each service. The fees are budgeted and the board of directors requires the independent auditor and management to report actual fees versus the budget periodically throughout the year by category of service.