Monday, Sept. 8, 2003 | 9:42 a.m.
Boulder City Councilman Roger Tobler hopes to clear away the dark cloud over the city's Boulder Creek Golf Club with an independent audit of the course's finances and by having city staff explain the details of the golf course's budget and the contract with the course management company.
The City Council is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on a proposal to hire the law firm Lionel, Sawyer and Collins to represent the city on legal matters related to the golf course and to audit the course's finances, Tobler said.
During the Sept. 23 council meeting, Tobler intends to have the city staff explain: the contract between the city and Triad Golf Management, which runs Boulder Creek; the specifics behind the debt for the course, such as how much was borrowed from where and the schedule for repayment; the course's budget; audits of the course's finances; and the city's plan to cut costs at Boulder Creek.
"Obviously this is going to bring out some problems with the golf course," Tobler said. "But unless we bring all this to light, the suspicion will still be there.
Tobler said residents are asking him where all the money borrowed to build and open the course has gone, and what the problems are at the course.
"The more information we can put out there the better. There is mistrust out there. We've got to remove the negative cloud out there by forcing everything out in the open," Tobler said.
He said the city must work to regain the trust and confidence of residents.
"We can't do that without the audits and taking this step," Tobler said.
Mayor Bob Ferraro said the presentations Tobler is planning for Sept. 23 may be redundant for some, but he thinks they are a good idea.
"There is enough confusion among some people to warrant it," Ferraro said.
Triad President Scott Jones, who is also general manager at Boulder Creek, said he supports whatever measures city leaders propose.
"The whole intention is to get this in a positive light," Jones said. "It would just be a good closure to this whole thing."
The Boulder Creek Golf Club has been a controversial venture for the city from the outset and was the most contentious issue in a tight mayoral race earlier this year.
The city borrowed about $22 million, some from its own utility fund, to build the course, where play started around the first of the year.
Preliminary projections, which were reiterated by some city officials through almost the first four months the course was open, indicated the course would bring in slightly more money than was spent to run the course during its first six months open. However, about a week before the June 3 city election the council was presented with figures that showed the course had run an operating deficit of about $480,000 during the first four months it was open.
According to city figures released last month, Boulder Creek ran up an operating deficit of about $950,000 during its first six months. When including the cost of other expenses such as depreciation, pre-opening expenses and accrued interest. Boulder Creek has cost about $2.5 million more than it has brought in.
Then on Aug. 26, the council approved a new budget for Boulder Creek, which cut $1 million from the course's $4 million budget for the current fiscal year. Almost half of the budget cuts came from discovering an accounting error and not any reduction in spending. Other budget savings included cuts to proposed spending on fertilizer and chemicals, city officials said.
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