Walters pulls bid to run city golf course

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, Oct. 25, 2001 | 10:54 a.m.

Local golf course developer Billy Walters has withdrawn his application to operate a city golf course in northwest Las Vegas, saying the city's application process was inadequate.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, in his biweekly Town Hall meeting, announced Wednesday that Walters had withdrawn his application.

According to a letter written to the council members and mayor Wednesday, Walters said that he was withdrawing because of problems with the city's "request for proposal," and suggested the council reissue one "that is beyond criticism for content, clarity and structure."

"It is unfortunate that misinformation and lack of information have raised questions over the unanimous award to our company for the operation and management contract with the city of Las Vegas ... " he wrote.

The council on Oct. 3 chose to begin negotiating with Walters, going against a city evaluation panel that had unanimously recommended that the council chose another group, Evergreen Alliance Golf, because it more accurately responded to the city's requests.

The evaluation team compared the 11 responses that were required in the city's request for proposals, and determined that Walters' proposal would have cost $8 million more over 10 years than the Evergreen proposal, based on a number of costs and a management fee.

Critics said Walters was awarded negotiation rights because of his political clout, not because he was the best qualified. In response, Walters released his own numbers that he said showed that his golf course proposal for the Northwest Family Golf Course would have raised significantly more revenue than the Evergreen proposal.

Goodman said this morning that Walters was treated fairly by the city and the City Council, but was maligned constantly by critics. Goodman said he had not had a chance to talk to Walters after receiving his letter, but said it was the city's loss.

"Walters is a very substantial businessman and he needs this operating agreement like a hole in the head," Goodman said. "And I think he probably had enough of the nonsense with the peppering by the media."

Councilman Larry Brown said that although Walters had withdrawn his application, it wasn't necessarily a setback in the ultimate development of the golf course. The design of the golf course has been completed and construction will begin on the project in the next few days, he said.

Mark Vincent, the city's finance director, said negotiations between Walters and the city had not yet begun before Walters decided to withdraw his proposal.

Most likely, Vincent said, the city would not reissue a request for proposals. Vincent said he would contact Evergreen Alliance Golf today to see if the company were still interesting in negotiating with the city to become the operator.