Council to vote on takeover of golf course

Dan Kulin

Thursday, March 4, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

The sometimes rocky relationship between Boulder City and a private firm that has run the city's Boulder Creek Golf Club since it opened may be coming to an end.

The City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on an agreement that would end Triad Golf Management's contracts with the city years ahead of schedule, and put the city in charge of running the financially troubled golf course.

Terms of the proposed agreement were not released Wednesday, but Councilwoman Andrea Anderson said the city would pay less than $650,000 to Triad for the early exit. Triad is about 18 months into a contract under which the city pays the group $650,000 a year, plus bonuses based on profits, to run the course.

The possible termination of the contract is the latest in a string of developments linked to the poor financial performance of the golf course. Former City Manager John Sullard was pushed out of his job by the council, which said Sullard should have been more aware of financial problems at the course early on. Also, the leaders of the successful effort to force an April recall election of Mayor Bob Ferraro and Councilman Mike Pacini have pointed to the problems at Boulder Creek as evidence the two should be ousted.

City officials said Triad, led by group President Scott Jones, hasn't delivered on its projections of quick profits at the course, and instead ran up operating losses of about $2.2 million during the 12 months since the course opened in January 2003.

"They've lost all credibility," Ferraro said about Triad. "Nothing that they've said ever came to fruition."

Anderson said the pre-opening projections from Triad "misrepresented what they could earn."

"The contract is way out of line for what they earned," she said.

Jones said he did not mislead city officials, but he would not elaborate, saying that at this time he wants to keep the news about the golf course positive.

Jones said that if the agreement is approved Tuesday, Triad would leave the course within a few weeks. he wouldn't say exactly what the proposed cost of the buyout is, but confirmed it is less than $650,000.

Ferraro said he hadn't seen the final version of the agreement so he wasn't sure what the proposed buyout price is.

Council members Roger Tobler and Karla Burton, who were involved in negotiating the buyout, both refused to divulge the specifics of the agreement. They said they didn't want to do or say anything that might jeopardize the agreement.

"It's going to cost us to get out of the contract, but it will cost much more to stay in," Tobler said. "This puts us in control of the golf course and removes a big expense."

Ending the contract should save the city money in the long run because the city will no longer be paying the $650,000 a year to Triad, council members said.

"This will get us a whole lot closer to breaking even," Anderson said. Anderson wouldn't say exactly what the buyout price is, but she said that anything less than $650,000 would be a good deal, adding that the proposed agreement is a "good deal."

The mayor and council members said city staff, primarily those who run the city's municipal course, would take over the day-to-day operations of the course until the council decides whether to hire a new management firm to run Boulder Creek.

Bill Smith, who lost to Ferraro by 18 votes in the June election and will likely face off against Ferraro in the April recall election, said that while he believes Triad was part of the problem getting rid of the group will not fix anything there.

"Maybe it will save some $200,000 to $300,000 a year. ... And everybody agrees they made a lousy agreement," Smith said referring to the original contract with Triad. "But the problem is there aren't enough golfers there and it continues to lose money."