I’d like to weigh in on the boondoggle known as the Town of Oro Valley Golf Courses (aka El Conquistador Golf Club) and the options offered by the National Golf Foundation Consultants who were hired by the Town Council to help them figure a way out of the mess they made.What have we learned from the $50,000 Consultant’s Report?
All the options suggested by the consultants will cost millions of dollars to implement. In other words, let’s throw good money after bad.
Public golf is losing money nationwide but our Community Center Golf Courses are losing more than the national average.
They believe that our losses will be reduced by 10.5% if all of their projections come true.
The projections
A 4% increase in golf fees (even though these have been trending downwards)
A 17% increase in Member Golf Fees (even though membership is declining)
A 4.6% increase in Food & Beverage (even though F&B has never met the budget even once)
A 10% Reduction in Food & Beverage Cost
Why should we believe those projections?
Not one of the projections (revenue or costs) from Day One relative to the El Conquistador purchase have come anywhere near close to being accurate. Not a single one…Membership – Capital Improvements – Costs – Revenue. Not a single one!
When the Majority-4 on the 2014 Town Council (Hiremath-Hornat-Snider-Waters) “sold us” the El Conquistador purchase, their projections were that we would “break even” by Fiscal Year 3 (FY 2017-18) and that it would turn a profit beginning in Year 5. However, the FY 2017-18 budget continues to project a net loss of $1.8 million. This is breaking even?
What’s more, Mayor Hiremath recently backtracked on his original 5-year plan, claiming that it was always a 6-year plan to begin making a profit. (Public records reveal otherwise.) Now, the Golf Consultant’s report states that even with the proposed millions of dollars in changes, they still can’t guarantee that we will turn a profit for another 5 years after the implementation of the changes!
It’s a matter of trust
How can we trust the same fools, and their three new cohorts, to properly handle the development of Naranja Park? If they can’t make good decisions on a $1 million purchase, why should we trust them with a $17 million dollar purchase?
Don’t let them fool you into believing that the property tax will expire in 20 years. Have you ever seen a tax expire? I predict that when the $17 million bond is paid off (at a cost of $28 million with interest), that the Town Council will then state that they need to renew the property tax because the now 20-year old facility is in need of updating and refurbishing.
I urge you to vote NO on the Naranja Park Bond/Secondary Property Tax. Do not trust them with any more of our tax dollars.
