Editorial: Recall is a sand trap

Friday, April 2, 2004 | 9:44 a.m.

Boulder City residents have good reason to be upset about the financial drain the Boulder Creek Golf Club has been to that small town's treasury. The city's general fund reserves, $4.7 million just nine months ago, have fallen to $2.3 million because of losses incurred by the city-owned golf course. Unhappiness with the performance of the golf course is the sole reason for the recall election that will be held on Tuesday, when Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro will face former City Councilman Bill Smith and City Councilman Mike Pacini will square off against retired businessman Arn McLean.

Pacini easily won re-election three years ago, while Ferraro, in the regular election held last June, beat Smith by just 18 votes. During that campaign, Smith claimed there were financial problems with the golf course that Ferraro supported. After early voting was well under way, an independent auditor found that the golf course had lost more than $480,000 in its first four months. Smith believes if early voters could have recast their ballots, he might have won.

In January, only seven months after the mayor's victory, opponents of the golf course started a recall drive against Ferraro and Pacini, collecting enough signatures to force an election and place both Smith and McLean on the ballot. Pacini drew an opponent because he has supported the golf course from the beginning. In this campaign, Ferraro has continued to stand behind the golf course, saying he's hopeful the situation will improve. Smith is running on a platform that consists of pointing out the golf course's woes. Smith and McLean have suggested a variety of options to solve the city's financial problems -- another look at the budget and possibly closing the golf course -- but they haven't settled on a solution. So the voter is put in a position of trusting Ferraro's judgment that the golf course will turn around or trusting Smith to find the right an swer, although he doesn't have it now. That puts the voters in a tough spot. In our view, if voters elect Smith and McLean,! they will have punished Ferraro and Pacini, but retribution is all they will have gained.