Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Golf course at center of recall election

The political turmoil that has divided Boulder City comes to a head during the next seven days as voters go to the polls for a recall election targeting the mayor and a councilman who support a controversial city-owned golf course.

The recall features a rerun of the June mayoral contest -- with the same candidates and primary issue dividing them -- plus a bid by retired businessman Arn McLean to replace Councilman Mike Pacini. Early voting is Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Election Day is next Tuesday.

Last June Mayor Bob Ferraro beat former City Councilman Bill Smith by 18 votes in a race that centered on whether the city should have built the $22 million Boulder Creek Golf Club, the city's second course.

The issue and the race have never receded from city politics. The golf course is more than $2 million in the red, and opponents are critical of the way the city handled the issue.

While not technically running as a ticket, Smith and McLean have the same message: City leaders bungled the handling of the course and put city finances at jeopardy.

"Boulder Creek is the only reason for the recall," said Smith, who was on the council from 1997 to 2001. "When I left the council the city was in great financial shape.

Councilman Roger Tobler, elected in June, also said that if not for Boulder Creek, there wouldn't be a recall.

But Tobler, added: "You can't blame the recall on two individuals."

Recall proponents have used the golf course issue as a political litmus test, and some are still sore about the last election and the way in which the course's problems came out.

Smith spent the campaign leading up to the June election warning that the golf course was losing money and would need a subsidy. Ferraro spent most of the campaign touting the benefits of the new course, which opened in January 2003. He reiterated pre-opening financial projections that predicted the course would turn a profit in its first six months.

A city newsletter sent during the campaign touched on campaign issues and included a page about the golf course projections.

Then, one week before the June vote and during the final days of early voting, an independent auditor told the council that Boulder Creek had lost about $480,000 in its first four months.

Ferraro said the losses were a surprise, and blamed then-City Manager John Sullard for letting "misleading" information about the financial health of the course persist throughout the spring. Sullard, who left the city at the end of January, said he didn't have reliable financial figures from Boulder Creek until the auditor's report.

But while Ferraro acknowledges the course went through some tough times, he remains a supporter of Boulder Creek, and feels that within three to five years it will be as profitable as once predicted.

Trying to get control of the situation, the City Council pushed Sullard out and ended a $650,000-a-year contract with the company operating the golf course. City officials think the golf course's operating deficit can be cut.

"I see a major turnaround coming," said Ferraro, 69, who has been a member of the Boulder City Council since 1976.

Pacini, who was first elected to the council at 29 in 1997, said that while the golf course will probably continue to need a city subsidy for the next few years, he's still hopeful it will be a success.

Smith has called those projections "overly optimistic."

And the town apparently is split along those lines.

Boulder City barber Frank Freer wouldn't say who he supports because he didn't want to offend half of his customers.

The recall, and the debate over the golf course, have "really split this town," Freer said. "It'll be a really close vote. Everybody's got an opinion on it, and people are so worked up about it."

Glenda Dunn, who has a Ferraro campaign sign hanging in front of her downtown antique and gift shop, Back In Thyme, said the recall made her sick.

"At first I considered not making my preference known ... but I want to make sure people get out and vote," Dunn said. "I don't know much about that golf course, but I know it seemed like a good idea."

Dunn said Ferraro has always been a strong supporter of city businesses, and she's strongly against the recall.

"The recall really has a negative impact on the way we feel about ourselves as a community," she said.

John McKeown, 84, voted for Pacini and Ferraro in past elections, but says because of Boulder Creek he won't vote for them this time.

"The biggest mistake they made was building that new golf course," he said. "The difference is the golf course. That is the whole kit and caboodle. If it wasn't there you wouldn't have this problem or this recall."

Ferraro and Pacini say the recall might be about more than the golf course for Smith and his supporters.

"It's about Bill Smith being upset he wasn't elected in the last election," Ferraro said.

Smith disagrees.

"The only reason I'm running is because of the recall," said Smith who was on the council when the golf course was approved but missed the meeting at which the council voted to approve it. "I didn't orchestrate the recall and for people to say it's sour grapes on my part is just wrong."

Smith does wonder whether he would be mayor today if the news of the losses had come a few weeks earlier, and not in the final days of early voting.

He said the newsletter cost him votes and he questioned the timing of the bad news -- a majority of voters cast their ballots during early voting.

"There's no question that (newsletter) turned at least 10 people around," Smith said. "I heard people say they were glad they got the newsletter because now they knew what was going on."

Smith hopes that the revelations of Boulder Creek's financial situation -- city officials say the course will have cost the city $3 million by June 30 -- plus the additional time voters have had to digest that information, will prompt voters to replace Ferraro and Pacini.

Smith, 78, and McLean, 65, are certainly running as a team, sharing a campaign headquarters -- a rented RV parked along Nevada Highway -- and a message.

Already, the council has approved $1.2 million in cuts to the budget, and future belt-tightening may come. A tentative budget discussed Monday by the council called for no tax increases, but also included no raises for city employees.

Also, the city's general fund reserves were $4.7 million nine months ago, are now down to $2.3 million.

"If the people are paying any attention they would have to be concerned that some on the existing council will not solve the problem or will cause more problems again," Smith said.

While Smith was the one who spoke the loudest the earliest about the financial problems at Boulder Creek, they say McLean will bring a strong business background to the council.

McLean retired to Boulder City eight years ago at the end of a 40-year career in business, that included 32 years with Johnson & Johnson where he rose to be president of a medical and surgical supply division of the company in Canada. McLean became a U.S. citizen in 2000, and this is his first run for public office.

"He (Pacini) clearly doesn't have a background in managing large organizations," McLean said. "I think my business background will help the city."

Pacini, 36 works as a clerk at Vons and runs a disc jockey business. He says his background appeals to voters too.

"I was elected because the voters want a blue-collar guy, a working man, a family man," Pacini said.

Pacini also said that in his seven years on the council he has been able to attack problems and improve the city.

He and Ferraro list the Veterans Memorial Park as a major recent improvement to the city they helped bring about.

Pacini is also pushing the sale of 1,500 acres on the Henderson side of Railroad Pass in what is called Dutchman's Pass. That sale could bring as much as $300 million and would solve the city's financial problems, Pacini said.

Smith and McLean say that while the land sale might be a good idea, it would probably take years, and the decision would ultimately rest with the voters. Boulder City's charter requires that voters approve any sale of more than one acre of city land.

They want a new look at the budget, and they said closing the golf course might be an option if the course continues to need a city subsidy.

McLean said that in the end, if the city needs to find more money there really are only three options: sell land, cut expenses or raise taxes.

Smith said "regardless of who's elected, there are going to be some tough decisions in the next six months."

The council is already in process of getting a land sale on the November ballot.

Ferraro said that planned sale of land around Boulder Creek would go far to eliminate much of the money borrowed to build the course.

Regardless of what happens, the candidates said the recall is not good for the city.

"But probably the reason we're in this situation is because people think its necessary," Smith said. "And we feel there's a serious, serious problem."

Ferraro said he's hopeful that once the recall ends, the city won't be so divided anymore.

But others didn't share that optimism.

Freer, a barber in Boulder City for 23 years, said: "This is one of the more controversial issues. But this'll get handled and then they'll go on to something else."

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