Friday, May 30, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.
Boulder City Manager John Sullard's job appears safe for at least six months.
The City Council will give Sullard a formal job evaluation almost a week after Tuesday's election. His contract prohibits the council from firing him until six months after an election.
Mayor Bob Ferraro said Thursday that when he called for Sullard to resign on Tuesday he didn't think there would be enough time to fire the city manager even if three other council members agreed with the mayor. The contract also states that firing Sullard would require at least four council members' votes. The mayor is a voting member of the five-member council.
"There was no hope of doing anything before an election," Ferraro said. "When I called for his resignation, I wanted him to resign ... It was a long shot and I knew that."
Ferraro accused Sullard of the dissemination of misleading information about the financial health of city's new golf course.
The mayor's re-election campaign included the claims that the city-owned Boulder Creek Golf Club was doing well financially. But after a report presented Tuesday showed course operations cost about $480,000 more than revenues during its first four months open, Ferraro blamed Sullard for the discrepancy.
But some have said Ferraro's actions were a desperate attempt by the mayor to win votes in what is expected to be tight race for mayor against golf course critic Bill Smith.
Smith, a former councilman who outpolled Ferraro in the April 8 primary by 134 votes, said perhaps Ferraro was trying to create an excuse for using misinformation in his campaign. Smith has long said the $22 million golf course, which opened Jan. 4, is losing money and will continue to do so.
Councilman Douglas Scheppmann is one of the people who said Ferraro's actions seemed like a desperate attempt to win votes.
"It was the last meeting before the election. He had to make a grandiose statement that he was as surprised as anyone," he said.
The mayor's office and two council seats are at stake in Tuesday's election. As of Thursday evening, 2,335 voters had already cast their ballots during the early voting period.
But Ferraro says the election had nothing to do with his call for Sullard's resignation.
Instead, Ferraro said the timing was driven by the presentation of the report on the golf course, which he said he still thinks will eventually turn a profit and draw tourists to Boulder City.
"There's no doubt the timing was inappropriate, but I sat there and agonized over it and thought: Should I let this go on or say something," Ferraro said. "The longer this thing festered without any real attention the worse it is."
The mayor said the golf course shortfall was the latest in a series of problems he has had with Sullard, although he declined to say what any of the other problems were.
The "last straw," Ferraro said, was a city newsletter sent to all residents earlier this month that reported some financial information on Boulder Creek.
The information in the newsletter came from financial projections completed and made public in the summer of 2002 when the city was entering into the contract with Triad Golf Management to operate the course. Those projections showed the course turning an operating profit of $60,000 for its first six months, a scenario now seen as very unlikely since the course would have to make up the $480,000 lost by the end of June. Ferraro said the newsletter gave him and others the impression that the numbers were up to date.
Ferraro said he was also given a memo from City Finance Director Bob Kenney to Sullard that overstated golf course revenues by about $50,000 for the first three months it was open.
But Sullard said that until the report given Tuesday was made public, the only financial numbers he believed were appropriate were the projections done before the course was constructed.
The only additional information he received were estimates from Triad, which he kept from the public because they were preliminary figures that needed to be checked, Sullard said.
After the Tuesday meeting, Ferraro and other city officials said there was a possibility the council would meet to review Sullard's job performance before Election Day.
But no formal request for a closed-door personnel session was made until Thursday, by Scheppmann and Councilwoman Andrea Anderson, Olsen said. Since law requires five days' notice, the first possible day to hold the meeting was Wednesday, the day after the election.
Instead, the council is scheduled to meet behind closed-doors June 9 to evaulate Sullard.
Sullard has been city manager since July 1997 and is paid $123,110 a year. He said he has no plans to resign and and welcomes the chance to meet with the council to review his job performance.
"I don't ever turn down the chance for a review," Sullard said.
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