(Pictured: Cherokee GC)
While Mayor Greg Fischer’s administration is pursuing a process to shift to outside management of the city’s ten municipal courses, the Metro Council is pushing a proposal to raise greens fees by $5 across the board, while also imposing new restrictions on any such transition. The lead sponsor of the proposal said she has 5,000 signatures from golfers who support the fee hike, and isn’t worried that it would cause a reduction in rounds.
The Metro Council of Louisville, Ky. is putting up a fight to preserve city-owned golf courses, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported, in the latest clash between the mayor’s administration and a legislative branch that’s proven unafraid to buck Mayor Greg Fischer.
A strengthened golf course proposal, approved unanimously on October 3 by a committee, seeks to help the city’s 10 public courses break even or net a small profit by hiking greens fees, making an outside management group unnecessary, the Courier-Journal reportred. The proposal would also add to requirements around any such bids from outside operators.
The goal is to keep golf in Louisville “as close to the same as possible” and continue what the city has enjoyed for the last 100 years, said lead sponsor Councilwoman Cindi Fowler.
The new proposal would raise greens fees by $5 across the board, in a move that Fowler estimates will raise at least $1 million, the Courier-Journal reported.
Fowler said she had 5,000 signatures from golfers across Jefferson County signaling they’d be willing to pay that much more in fees to keep courses city-run, and that she didn’t worry that raising fees might lead to reduced play, the Courier-Journal reported.
The new proposal would also require that revenue generated through the golf courses be dedicated solely to golf course expenses, including deferred maintenance needs, the Courier-Journal reported. Any other expenditures from that golf fund would need Metro Council approval.
A presentation from Louisville Parks and Recreation, based on an economic and viability study of the courses, said greens fees would have to increase by $3 at all courses per round “just to stop loss,” the Courier-Journal reported.
It also noted that deferred capital costs needed to “render the courses competitive” total more than $20 million, and that equipment needs are more than $2 million.
With regard to outside management, the proposed ordinance would require that the city’s golf professionals would have the right to submit proposals on individual courses, and codifies that local businesses would get preferences in consideration of any bids, the Courier-Journal reported.
In essence, the changes add to what any interested party would have to do to manage courses — the opposite of what the mayor had sought to do in a solicitation for proposals sent out this fall, which had encouraged respondents to note how they would change city ordinances, the Courier-Journal reported.
The new proposal would also prevent any courses from closing for lack of a contract and would require each course to have a management contract by December 31, 2019 when the existing contracts will run out.
The new proposal stands in sharp contrast to the Fischer administration’s desire to explore outside management options for the courses to save money, the Courier-Journal reported. As C+RB reported in September, the mayor’s team solicited bids in a request for proposals (RFPs) that are due back by October 15th (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/louisville-weighs-dueling-proposals-for-managing-city-owned-golf-courses/).
In a show of strength, exactly one half of the Metro Council signed onto the legislation on October 3rd before it was unanimously approved by the parks committee and sent to the full Metro Council, the Courier-Journal reported. It will now be considered on October 10th and would need just one additional vote of support to clear the chamber.
That doesn’t mean it’s unanimously backed by the council, though, the Courier-Journal reported. Councilman Bill Hollander expressed reservations about how the legislation would “short-circuit” the city’s RFP process.
He views the request for proposals as a way to get ideas from across the country about how best to manage courses, and to cut that process off before bids are due back would be a mistake, Hollander said.
A representative from the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office, Sean Dennis, declined to elaborate on the exact effect the proposal would have on the current RFP, stating he hadn’t reviewed that document, the Courier-Journal reported.
Jean Porter, a spokeswoman for Mayor Fischer, echoed Hollander’s concern, writing in a statement that Fowler’s proposal “may limit responses to the RFP process before it can play out, which could leave us with an unfunded status quo that threatens golf sustainability altogether.”
The mayor’s team has pushed to explore other options for running Louisville golf courses, pointing to recent budget gaps at courses, particularly in the context of the city’s overall pension struggles and budget cuts, the Courier-Journal reported.
Fischer’s office sent out a request for proposals last month seeking golf course operators to “manage, operate and maintain public golf courses.” The administration estimates bidding out operations or closing up to four courses could save more than $500,000 a year, the Courier-Journal reported.
Porter called that step prudent in her statement, given that the courses have collectively been losing increasing amounts of money each of the last three years.
But some council members have said it’s too soon to take such a drastic step toward outside management, without first having discussion about generating more revenue or letting golf pros change the way they run things, the Courier-Journal reported.
“There’s a way to do this that doesn’t involve sending responsibility for golf to an outside entity and [doesn’t accept] a foregone solution that we have to reduce more amenities that citizens in Louisville are accustomed to,” Councilman Kevin Kramer previously told the Courier-Journal.
The union representing Metro Parks employees has also made its displeasure known about the RFP process, the Courier-Journal reported. A grievance filed last month requested that the city “honor the language” in its collective-bargaining agreement by keeping the Metro Parks courses “as Metro Parks properties, operated by Metro Parks employees, as they are currently per contract.”
The city’s RFP for outside management expects proposals that would begin on January 1, 2020 and run through December 31, 2025, the Courier-Journal reported. Another impending deadline that could further complicate the situation is that all contracts with the city courses’ golf professionals, except for one, run out on December 31, 2019.
And the city has to put together its budget for the next fiscal year in time for Fischer to present it to council in April 2020.
A separate ordinance pending in Metro Council, proposed by Hollander, would strip some of the city’s existing restrictions around golf courses, making it more flexible as it explores outside proposals, the Courier-Journal reported.
Responses to a request for information on private-management options received earlier this summer recommended how the city could or should change the golf experience — with some pitches making clear their ideal change would require tweaking city ordinances or changing the function of existing courses, the Courier-Journal reported.
The responses came from current golf course employees interested in taking over some or all city-owned courses, national golf management companies and other groups looking to change golf courses into development “hubs” or park land.
A portion of the information solicitation, which rankled some council members, asked respondents to include what city ordinances might have to be changed, the Courier-Journal reported. Under current rules, any closure, repurposing, sale or leasing of city-owned golf course land must be approved by Metro Council after two public hearings.
Plus, the current rules lay out a series of expectations of private management:
- A Class A PGA member (a golf “pro”) must manage each course.
- Each manager can manage only one course at a time.
- Each manager can’t manage another competing course.
- Staff must manage the clubhouse, concession stand and golf carts.
Councilwoman Fowler was also behind the recently added requirement that gave the Metro Council final say over course closings, which passed last year. That tweak, she previously told the Courier-Journal, could “head things off at the pass,” should the city seek to close less profitable courses.
“Public golf is a service to the community, and it should be funded by the general fund,” Fowler said last year.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.