Columnist Dean Juipe: City let its golfers down again

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

Like a prostitute who has been through the ritual so many times she's incapable of blushing with embarrassment, the Las Vegas City Council put on its game face and sold another piece of its credibility this week.

Between that body and the Clark County Commissioners and our supposedly financially teetering state government, the public perception of widespread corruption and influence peddling within Las Vegas and Nevada never seems to end. It's similar to the dial on your gas meter in the backyard, ever increasing.

If perception is, indeed, nine-tenths of reality, these governmental agencies could use a mirror and a beauty consultant. They need to be told that their electorate is aghast.

In this latest unseemly episode, the City Council added to its reputation as an easy mark for anyone proposing an affordable golf course for locals while secretly planning anything but. And once again the lucky developer was Billy Walters.

In case you missed it, Monday the council accepted a lump-sum payment of $824,000 in exchange for the 160 acres where Walters is building his Royal Links course. The way the deal was originally structured, Walters was to have leased the land from the city with minimum yearly payments of $100,000 for 43 years.

Do the math and the revised deal looks sweet for Walters, no matter what the land he's using is appraised at or how future inflation affects the numbers.

Also as part of the initial deal, Royal Links would be required to set aside 50 percent of its tee times for locals, with a $53 greens fee. But the new deal supersedes the old one and now Royal Links will be charging locals whatever it pleases; Walters commented that locals shouldn't expect any favorable treatment and that Royal Links' rate for nonresidents will range to $225.

For local golfers, this sounds like Angel Park and Desert Pines all over again. Those courses -- the latter operated by Walters as well -- promised affordable rates yet never really delivered.

Angel Park's rates skyrocketed almost immediately, while Desert Pines (currently $53 for locals, plus $20 for an identification card) isn't the most expensive course in town yet it's not what it was supposed to be. When plans for the course were being "sold" to a community that was sacrificing some interesting -- if poorly kept -- wetlands and nature preserve, Desert Pines was presented as a good neighbor that would come in handy for golf-starved North Las Vegas in particular.

What a laugh that turned out to be.

Of course none of this would be offensive if government entities weren't involved. If Walters or anyone else wants to privately build a golf course and charge $500 to play it, that's nothing more than the free-enterprise system at work. But when the city or county swaps land or sells it at undervalued rates or crafts a long-range deal that looks good on paper but is then shredded when the course is on the verge of opening, there's something smelly about it.

The easy solution for these governmental agencies is to get out of the golf-course business and avoid these "sweetheart" implications.

As it is, it appears as if they've botched every golf/land deal that has come their way. With the exception of how they've treated Walters, they're not doing their constituents any favors.

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