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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalled Commission Meeting December 27, 2012 CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER DECEMBER 27, 2012 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 5:00 p.m., December 27, 2012, the Hone. Deke Copenhaver, Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. Lockett, Guilfoyle, Mason, Smith, Aitken, Jackson, Bowles and Brigham, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. Absent: Hons. Hatney and Johnson, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America was recited. Mr. Mayor: In the interest of time I’ll go ahead and call the Special Called Meeting to Order. Commissioner Bowles, I called this at your request. CONSENT AGENDA PUBLIC SERVICES 1. Motion to direct the Department of Recreation, Parks and Facilities to enter into a lease agreement with Virginia Beach Golf Management to operate the Augusta Municipal Golf Course with the contract being brought back to the committee for approval. (Approved by Public Services Committee December 10, 2012) Mr. Bowles: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And, Fred, I had asked for you if you all could present some of the information for us to take a look at on the specifics of the contract for the golf course management. Mr. Russell: Yes, sir (inaudible). Mr. Mayor: Mr. Shanahan. Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir. How is everyone today? Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Lockett? Mr. Lockett: Do we have copies of all that? Mr. Mayor: I believe you emailed those to us earlier as well. Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir. We put it together today so yes, sir. Mr. Lockett: After the meeting I’d like that. Mr. Mayor: Okay. Mr. Shanahan. 1 Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir. Basically we sent out an RFP requesting three options on a possible management of the golf course. The first option was a golf management contract which, is basically the company running the golf course for us at a flat fee. We’ll pay them a certain amount a month and we’ll pay all the bills. The second option was a golf lease contract and basically a company will come and they will pay us to manage the golf course for us. And the third option that was sent out was a golf course purchase agreement where somebody comes and buys the golf course. We received three bids or three proposals on that. Two were for the golf management contract and one of them was for the golf lease contract. We received none for the golf course purchase agreement. When that information was looked at from the three companies it was evaluated and we decided to go with either, to look at Polk Golf or Virginia Beach Golf Management. When we looked at those we interviewed them and had them come in and do presentations. Our decision was if you decide to go with a golf lease contract we’d recommend you allowing us to negotiate with Virginia Golf Management because of the contract they gave us. Basically what would happen with them for the first three years they would pay us $15,000.00. Four years four through ten they would pay us bi-annually $14,942.86 which would be $29,285.72 per year. Also during that time if the revenues exceed $650,000 dollars to $700,000 dollars they would also give us a 5% of the gross revenue as a monthly rent. And if it goes over $700,001 dollars they would give us 7% gross revenue. The city in this contract would be responsible for any capital improvement expenses that exceed $5,000 dollars. There will be no operation costs. There will be a performance bond and there will be no administration or marketing expenses because those will be covered by the company. The leadership there has about a hundred years of combined golf experience and the top managers are all PGA professionals. Polk Golf which would be the golf management contract if you decided to go that way basically they were requesting that a monthly fee of $7,000 dollars per months which is $84,000 dollars per year. And the City of Augusta will be responsible for all expenses and operating costs. Based on this information that received that was given to me I would have to recommend if you wanted to go that way we go with Virginia Beach Golf Management because money would be coming in, they’re professionals and they’ve done it before. That’s basically all we have with that. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Mason. Mr. Mason: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Administrator, Deputy Administrator, while I can appreciate, you know, the information you’re putting out here and I know you’re charged with doing your job and I can appreciate you for doing that. Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir. Mr. Mason: I don’t see any way, shape, or form where this rises to the level of being sitting down here and having a meeting right now about this. I don’t know when you sent it out this morning but it’s like you know we do have other things that we have to do and certainly I have not seen it nor am I going to pretend I’m going to sit here and look at this right now trying to make heads or tails of it. We’ve gone down this road before in terms of hastily made decisions and they didn’t turn out so well. This really just does not rise to the level of being down here at a meeting today, a Special Called Meeting for this purpose. I’ve been on this Commission for five years and I’ve never during that time frame have we utilized this time to 2 meet. It’s generally time for family and those types of things that we normally get an opportunity to do at this particular time. So in your opinion why does this rise to the level of you having to bring this forward at this point? Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor --- Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell. Mr. Russell: --- if I can I’d like to respond to that. This is not a staff recommendation, sir. We were requested to bring this information forward by one of your Commissioners. We’re doing that. This is not our position at this particular point in time. We made the recommendation last week at the meeting and it failed. What you’re getting is what we requested as of 10:00 o’clock today, sir. Mr. Mason: Mr. Mayor, if I could just complete my thoughts. Mr. Mayor: Please do. Mr. Mason: I really don’t have a whole lot to say in reference to this. I don’t want to get into any type of argumentative contests or anything like that. I believe that this is can very well be taken care of with the Commission that we have coming forward. I think we, Mr. Mayor, if we’re going to be statesmen like you talked about in the past this will be a perfect opportunity you know to begin that process. We’re going to have to have discussions. I clearly know that something has to be done with The Patch. There’s no two ways about that. This is not something that needs to be done today. I’ve spoken with Marion, I haven’t had a chance to speak with Donnie but we talked about some things as far as the golf course and how we could move forward and things like that. That type of discussion is ongoing and will continue to be ongoing until we rectify the situation. The only thing that I don’t want to see, Mr. Mayor, is what we’ve done previously because to come back and say I told you so that doesn’t help anybody. It doesn’t help this community it doesn’t help this Commission. And I do believe that we do have people that can sit down at the table have that type of discussion and determine which way that we go forward. I don’t see why the importance of having to have this today. I don’t know about you but I know I’ve got a lot of other things that I could be doing right now and this is just out of character for what we generally do up here on this Commission during this time of year. And you know I just don’t see it being a real reason for us to be here today to make a decision on this. And I hate to make a hasty one at that so that’s all. Mr. Mayor: Okay. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Lockett. Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m not going to repeat what my colleague said but I’m in complete agreement with it. There are other things I’d prefer to be doing today. Last meeting I asked whether or not a cost benefit analysis had been done to ascertain whether or not the deal that you are contemplating today is better than operating in house. Has that been done? Mr. Shanahan: We are actually in the process of doing that based on that. And our plan was hopefully to have something for the next official Commission meeting. 3 Mr. Lockett: Well, I understand you to say you’re in the process. In other words it hasn’t been done. Mr. Shanahan: I have drafts though. I haven’t gone through it --- Mr. Lockett: Am I correct in assuming that it has not been done? Mr. Shanahan: It is not completed at this time --- Mr. Lockett: Okay, now you have three companies I think that you mentioned here that were considered. Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir. Mr. Lockett: Now how do we know that the three companies that were considered were absolutely the best and without the cost benefit analysis how do we know what these three different companies are offering is better than what we can have in house? How can we know that? Mr. Shanahan: Actually all we know is we don’t know that they can be better than us because we haven’t created, in a perfect world this is how we’d run the golf course and this is how much we expect revenues would be. We haven’t done that, we haven’t finished that. Mr. Lockett: Well, this is not a perfect world --- Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir. Mr. Lockett: --- for certain. And I take it your response is we don’t know. So if we don’t know why are we here? Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell. Mr. Russell: Once again you’re not here because of anything the staff had to do with anything. And just so we’re clear with that. I know you understand that but you know what happened a week ago is we presented a recommendation that we go with the lease and you allow us to negotiate a contract. That failed and at that point we haven’t taken any further action. I asked Bill to go ahead and put together some numbers on an operational cost mainly because if we’re going to operate the golf course we need a budget. So that’s why we were proceeding down that line at some point and hopefully at some point we’ll be making a decision on which way we were going to go and we want to be prepared for that. The meeting we’re at today was requested by one of your Commissioners. You’re getting the information that we have available to us. I was notified approximately 10:00 o’clock or so to pull this together to provide whatever information we could and that’s why you got what you got there. So um --- Mr. Lockett: Mr. Mayor, if I may finish I’ll be brief. 4 Mr. Mayor: Excuse me. Commissioner Locket. Mr. Lockett: Mr. Russell, I understand what you are saying and I thoroughly understand and even though I was shooting arrows at Mr. Shanahan I know it wasn’t directed to him. But since I can’t do it with my colleague I’ll have to find somebody to do it with. Thank you for being such a gentleman. Mr. Shanahan: Not a problem, sir. Mr. Russell: We appreciate the opportunity to be your target, sir. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Shanahan, as far as what Mr. Lockett was requesting as far as average cost what if we took it back in the city hands it should have been pretty simple by looking at our past four year budgets average at $200,000 plus. Is that, would that be correct? Mr. Shanahan: And those are the averages from the last four years, yes, sir, you’re correct. What I was trying to do with the information that we got is what would it take to run one? Those average costs were sent out, yes, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay. As far as this Virginia Beach. Is there any way that I know that anything over $5,000 dollars in costs we would be expected to pay for as for the roof replacement, irrigation pumps, A/C? Do we have a cap on that or are we in unknown parable? Mr. Shanahan: We, we’re looking at it. We’ve got some draft numbers. Of course most of my folks that were putting this together are out on vacation over the holidays. It would be well within our capital budget. I believe the building could be anywhere around the last information I had seen would be $40/50,000 dollars. There are nine holes, the greens have nine holes that have to be fixed and there’s some fertilizer and some grass stuff. So it’s well within that capital improvement budget that we discussed last time that we had. Of course based on this if you decided to go with the lease company my recommendation would be that we get this stuff done and maybe get a better contract out of it. I mean that would be your decision of course. Mr. Guilfoyle: Well, as far as the capital improvements needs presented to us --- Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: --- the painting the trimming, interior painting, cleaning the carpet, replacing the ceiling tiles, overhead doors, paint and replace fixtures, chemical application on the tees and fairways. Who come up with this list? 5 Mr. Shanahan: We basically we had a golf pro, we had sand from, that does grass or horticultural. We just had experts that we had available go out there and look at it and do a walk through and spend some time out there. Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay, has this Virginia Beach Golf Management seen the course and what they recommend on being fixed? Mr. Shanahan: They looked at the course and made the recommendation based on what they saw out there that the recommendation should be forwarded. I had no knowledge that they actually itemized things. Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay, and they’re willing to put in $100,000 dollars for any upgrades and improvements. Is that what I heard last week? Mr. Shanahan: For the first year, yes, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: Awesome. All right if we keep it in house we are going to have to purchase all new equipment because the last time a couple of the colleagues went out there, the equipment is not worth having. I don’t only think you could sell it. It would be better just to sell it for scrap. And so we would have to purchase all new equipment for this. Mr. Shanahan: Purchase or lease one or the other, yes, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: Any idea what that would cost? Mr. Shanahan: I have --- (inaudible). Mr. Speaker: To purchase it would be around $180,000. To lease it would be around $3,600 (inaudible). Mr. Guilfoyle: Per month? Mr. Speaker: Yes. Mr. Guilfoyle: And so with this Virginia Beach they will take that on? Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: Cool. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: Grady? Mr. Smith: Last week I was able to tour the course and I went up there and had an individual with me who was with the GSGA which is Georgia State Golf Association. And we talked on the same thing about I said if this was you looking at this to do you know how would you approach it? And he told me he said with what I’ve seen of the equipment and some of the 6 things he said that if you can get them to go this route he said because if you try to do it in house and pay the money like he said it was going to cost for equipment and this and that, you know, then we get back into the same boat we were in when that gentleman went back to Scotland. Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir and even to break even if we did it we’re talking three to five years and that’s a guesstimate that’s not (inaudible). Mr. Smith: I’m going to tell you and I’ve been on the Forest Hills Golf Committee Board up there since 1988. And I’m Chairman of the Augusta State Invitational every year we have. And so I know a little bit about golf, not as much, my handicap will prove that. But I’ll say this. I was a naysayer when that management group they talked to out of Atlanta and it’s a different group but and I was, no we can run it, we can do this, we can do that. Nobody wants to see strangers come in and start telling us how to do things. Anyway I’m going to tell you I had to take off my (unintelligible) and take a bite out of it because they have turned that place around. All you’ve got to do is ride up there and see what can be done by a legitimate management company. I don’t know what happened with the gentleman that went back to Scotland as a whole but you know we’ve got to have a deal that’s fair for both sides or else it’s not going to last long. And we should have some stepping stones where we get to this level so many months we want it here, we want it here and that there should be penalties at each phase. Either you do or you don’t. And so you know that’s the only thing. I’m interested in golf because I play golf. I love golf. Augusta Georgia’s known as the Mecca of golf around here with the friends at Augusta National. And look what they do for this community. So I would say let’s put our best foot forward where we can have people say yeah that’s The Patch up there affectionately known. But you know it’s not a goat path and it’s, you know, it’s not a cow pasture. And most golf courses are first of all known for their greens. That’s, somebody will tell you I don’t want to play that. The greens are rotten but if they got good greens they don’t mind what the, sure they want grass on the fairways but that isn’t everything. So you should get somebody that knows what they’re doing. I’m proof that it can make a difference. So we just, we need to set guidelines and stepping stones. Mr. Mayor: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, you’re being awful quiet down there. Mr. Bowles: I’m waiting on you to look down this way. Bill, who approves the capital improvements? Would that not have to come before the Commission? Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir. Mr. Bowles: So to say that you know we’re giving them everything it’s still going to have to be approved by this Commission. Mr. Shanahan: Yes, sir. Mr. Bowles: Okay, all right, that was the first question. And I would just have to agree you know with my colleague Mr. Guilfoyle saying that a cost benefit analysis you know I think most people would agree that if you’re spending $150,000 to $200,000 dollars a year and somebody’s going to add and pay you on average $20,000 a year that you’re saving $200-220 7 dollars a year because you’re not losing $200,000 a year and you’re getting income. So I think that cost benefit analysis is pretty self explanatory. And, yes, I thought there was a need to rush this because unfortunately in the past there are Commissioners who have voted or abstained from voting to prevent our Mayor from casting tie breaks. And I think it’s a disservice to our Mayor. And that person is coming back on this Commission and I’m not going to see this city become stagnant again because I’ve seen the theatrics play out before and the treatment of certain issues in order to, for people to protect certain things that they think are more important than allowing the Mayor to cast a vote. And so that’s why I brought it back here today. I would’ve done it yesterday, I would’ve done it Monday, I would’ve done it any day. I’m being paid until st December 31. And I’m going to leave office the same way I came into office trying to save the . And I’ll make a motion that we authorize the Mayor to enter into an tax payers money agreement with Virginia Beach Golf Management. Mr. Jackson: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion that’s been properly seconded. Commissioner Mason. Mr. Mason: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I can appreciate Mr. Bowles’ statements. I really don’t have any problem with anything that he stated with the exception that he mentioned a particular Commissioner coming back and the certain way he operates but then that means you would have to make the assumption that there’s going to be others that’s going to be in cahoots with how he operates. And that’s not going to be the case. Not with this Commissioner I can assure you. And so and that’s on the record. More importantly you’ll see my work. But so that is in itself a statement that I would feel that would be unfair perhaps when that person was here before there was a consensus of how that operated. But the fact is, is that we don’t know and so we’re making assumptions and at the end of the day certainly Mr. Bowles has a right to bring it forward. There’s nothing illegal or anything wrong with that. That’s not what I’m saying at all. But I do feel like we need to have sufficient conversations, sufficient discussion, evaluation and assessment of this contract put our own milestones in. Too many times within these contracts we’re being told what should be done versus us telling what ought to be done. After all we are the ones who are going out for the RFP. And I for one am getting pretty fed up with some of these RFP’s in the way that they’re worded and so forth because it puts this government at a distinct disadvantage in our procurement process. And I’m very clear on that. And in moving forward we’re going to have to address that issue, Mr. Administrator, Deputy Administrator, because that puts us in a bad light and then we up here have to make decisions as it relates to that. I can’t support this today. If it goes it just goes. I mean that’s just how it goes. I certainly can’t support it. In fact I’m going to make a substitute motion that we receive this as information so that when the new commission comes on we can have the appropriate discussion, we can evaluate and assess, put the type of contract together or the RFP to gather solicitation that needs to be done so that we can get the best deal up out of this that we possibly can. Let me also go on record as saying this. I’m not sitting here, not this Commissioner. I’m not sitting here advocating that it remains in house. That’s not what Commissioner Mason is saying. I’m saying let’s have the discussion so that we can go the best path forward. And I believe that we’re mature enough to be able to do that and then we’ll come up with an appropriate solution that benefits all. It very well may be Virginia Beach. I don’t have a problem with them. I mean I don’t, I’ve done a little research on them. They seem to be a pretty reputable company. But at 8 the same time my focus is to do what’s best for this government. And so my last thing, Mr. Mayor, I hope I’m not going over too much but my last thing is this in reference to Mr. Bowles’ comment about the loss of valor’s and forth so and what we’re not losing. Part of what you’re saying is true. But part of what you’re saying is the same thing that was said about the people from Scotland and we didn’t see any of that money. And so you know when you say you know we’re doing a disservice well that was a disservice and we haphazardly entered into that. So I just hope if this goes today I hope that it works. And I hope it works right. And so anyways my substitute motion is that we receive it as information and deal with it at the first available opportunity with the new commission. Mr. Mayor: Do we have a second. Mr. Lockett: I’ll second it. May I make a comment? Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir. Commissioner Lockett. Mr. Lockett: I’ve been on this Commission for three years and the first assignment I had was being the Chair of an ADHOC Committee to save the Municipal Golf Course. I feel the same about the Municipal Golf Course as I feel about public transit. I would prefer to have in house but if I can’t get in house well than we can outsource it but let’s just make sure that we are getting the best bang for our buck. And if we’re going to give this company, I don’t know I haven’t seen any specifics other than what I’ve got here over $100,000 dollars a year subsidized water you know I need to see exactly what we’re going to give and what they’re going to give us and I haven’t seen this yet. My colleague mentioned the comment I made about cost benefit analysis. I like to have everything laid out and analyze everything. And after analyzing it if this company is the best you’ve got my vote. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Okay, thank you, sir. Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I guess this would be for the Finance. As far as Brian Henry did we or did we not cut out of the budget last year the allocated funds to operate the golf course --- Mr. Mayor: Mr. Russell? Mr. Guilfoyle: --- from the budget? Mr. Russell: I’m trying to figure out, help me again with the questions, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: What monies did we save out of our general funds last year while Brian Henry operated it? Mr. Mayor: To not have to absorb the operating losses that we? Mr. Guilfoyle: Right. 9 Mr. Russell: Just a second. If you remember correctly he ran it for a few months approximately four. We then took it over and presented a budget off the top of our heads approximately $70,000 dollars. So that’s what we’ve gotten in the last several months of operation if that’s the question you’re asking. Mr. Guilfoyle: All right. And it cost us $50,000 dollars for the past three months to operate this facility. Is that correct? Mr. Russell: Yes, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay. So it would be based about $200,000 dollars a year. As far as the water I think that was already set in the RFP when Brian Henry as well as other people had looked at that, that the water was not the issue at the time because it was a city operated course. Now after the time that First TEE had come up we had not with my vote that we lowered First TEE’s water bill I think to what $150.00 dollars? Mr. Russell: I know we voted to lower the bill. I don’t know what the exact number is, sir. Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay, so though we worry about the water that’s being used at The Patch but not at First TEE. Anyway that’s just a statement there. Mr. Guilfoyle: Anyway, if ya’ll gentlemen want to have a discussion about it I think now’s the time to do it. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Brigham. Mr. Brigham: Mr. Mayor, to the best of my recollection this contract has been in the debate state for the last what four months, five months? I think we’ve been that long without an operator. We went out and got proposals, they were supposed to be to us, we were supposed to get a proposed water rate for all water toward all the golf courses in this area. That’s been going on for a year. We can continue to debate and ask questions and wait for proposals and the cows done come home, the moon will have turned orange and there’s not much need to go on with this discussion. We need to go on and vote. It’s either up or down and therefore I’ll call the question. Mr. Mayor: Okay, thank you, sir. The question has been called for. We have a substitute motion that’s been properly seconded. Ms. Nancy, could you read that back for us just to? The Clerk: It was to receive this item as information and allow it to be dealt with, with the new Commission after the first of the year. Mr. Lockett: Roll call, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor: Roll call vote on the substitute motion. 10 The Clerk: Yes, sir. Mr. Aitken. Mr. Aitken: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Bowles. Mr. Bowles: No. The Clerk: Mr. Brigham. Mr. Brigham: No. The Clerk: Mr. Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Hatney’s out. Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson: No. The Clerk: Mr. Johnson’s out. Mr. Lockett. Mr. Lockett: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Mason. Mr. Mason: Yes. The Clerk: And Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith: Yes. Mr. Bowles, Mr. Brigham and Mr. Jackson vote No. Motion fails 5-3. Mr. Mayor: Okay, Madam Clerk, if for the sake of clarity you could read back the primary motion. The Clerk: The primary motion was to enter into a lease agreement with Virginia Beach Golf Management. Mr. Mayor: Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign of voting. Mr. Lockett: Roll call, Mr. Mayor. 11 Mr. Mayor: Roll call vote, please, ma’am. The Clerk: Yes, sir. Mr. Aitken. Mr. Aitken: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Bowles. Mr. Bowles: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Brigham. Mr. Brigham: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson: Yes. The Clerk: Mr. Lockett. Mr. Lockett: No. The Clerk: Mr. Mason. Mr. Mason: No. The Clerk: Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith: Yes. Mr. Mason and Mr. Lockett vote No. Motion Passes 6-2. Mr. Mayor: With no further business to come before the body we stand adjourned. Thanks, gentlemen, have a very Happy New Year. [MEETING ADJOURNED] Nancy W. Morawski Deputy Clerk of Commission 12 CERTIFICATION: I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Special Called Meeting of The Augusta Richmond County Commission held on December 27, 2012. ______________________________ Clerk of Commission 13