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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGolf Board - Minutes - 02/21/2007City of Fort Collins Cultural, Library, and Recreational Services Golf Board Minutes: Regular Meeting of February 21, 2007 Council Liaison to the Board: Councilman Diggs Brown Staff Support to the Board: Jerry P. Brown, Manager of Golf at 221-6350, and Dawn Worth, Administrative Aide at 416-2265 Call Meeting to Order: Board Vice Chairperson Deron Grothe called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. at the City Park Nine Clubhouse. Agenda Review: No changes to the Agenda as printed. Items of Note: ♦ David Johnson and Shane Houska called to say they would be absent from the meeting. Approval of Minutes: On a motion by Larry Buckendorf, seconded by Grant Sherwood, the Board unanimously (7:0) approved the Minutes of the January 17, 2007 Regular Meeting. Citizen Participation: Don Sinnar came to discuss a few concerns that he had. He said that he plays at SouthRidge often and has noticed many muddy areas. Mr. Sinnar said there are areas that carts get stuck in and this appears to be an issue with the sprinkler system. Don also wanted to address the charge for private owned golf carts. He feels that he is being discriminated against by having to pay a fee for using his own golf cart while folks can use their own push carts for free, and he would appreciate us reconsidering that fee. SouthRidge Golf Professional, Dale Smigelsky stated that powered carts create more damage to the course than a push cart. He also said that he isn't aware of any other course that doesn't charge a fee. Don then gave some examples of courses elsewhere that he is aware of that don't charge such a fee. Larry Buckendorf told Mr. Sinnar that he is comparing apples to oranges, and said that he isn't aware of any local courses that don't charge. He said that it's a revenue source that courses depend on. Larry believes it may cause issues with other golfers if individuals with their own carts aren't charged some sort of fee. He also agreed that there are areas on the course that need to be maintained better and staff is aware of this issue. Round Table Discussion with the Golf Professionals Jerry reminded the Board that they suggested having a round table discussion with the Golf Professionals. He previously provided a copy of the submitted questions to the Golf Board Minutes February 21', 2007 Page 2 Board and the Golf Professionals. Jerry then introduced the Golf Professionals and Deron Grothe went through the list of questions. 1. What ideas do you have that would assist the City in exceeding the budgeted revenues for the Golf Division? City Park Nine Golf Professional, David McCleave stated that they see things that work and things that don't. He also said that they come up with new ideas on an ongoing basis. Collindale Golf Professional, Jim Greer informed the Board that he attended the Golf Expo again this year and he passed out hundreds of coupons that we can track when they come back in. He also agreed with David's statement. SouthRidge Golf Professional, Dale Smigelsky stated that the courses lost a lot of play and tournaments due to the loss of high tech jobs in the area. He informed them that SouthRidge has set up 25 leagues. Dale also said that we rarely make any major changes, we just fine tune things to make them better. Deron asked Jim what the coupons were and Jim said that they are a two -for - one coupon for Non -Prime Time only. Deron was wondering if we ask for e-mail addresses and Jim said that we are actively looking into it. Jerry informed the Board that we currently don't have a database for that capability but we are considering buying a package that will help generate play and it will include the capability of e-mailing. Deron said that he has friends that receive a -mails letting them know when openings are available. Jerry stated that he is aware that there are some places in Denver that do that and he feels it could be a good marketing tool. Deron suggested that we strongly consider it. Dale said that he gets e-mail addresses for tournament and league information. Lauren DeRosa asked what our procedure is when we have to turn away players because there isn't any opening. Dale said that he refers them to the other City Courses. Grant Sherwood asked how they felt about our pricing and they all feel we have reasonable prices. Jim stated that he has heard comments from people, especially from those who aren't from the area, about how low our rates are. Dale informed the Board that the City's Economic Advisor (Mike Freeman) came to our staff meeting today and he believes that things are going to turn around for the City and Dale agreed with that. Deron acknowledged Jim's recognition for being ranked 3rd in the State for the best course and Pro Shop and he wanted to know if we use that in our advertising. Jim said that when players call they will ask what the course is like and he tells them that we hold the U.S. Open Qualifier and he can now let them know this as well. Dan Preble asked if the City of Greeley is continuing with their lower prices. David said that they have raised them back up. Jerry reminded the Board that Greeley's Council was also able to subsidize them. 2. What can the Golf Division do to help you, the Golf Professionals, perform your job better? David said that it's nice to have ideas from others. Dale informed the Board that the Golf staff kind of holds their own round table discussions and that Jerry is very responsive to their ideas. He also feels that staff does a good job assessing things. Jim said that he would like the Board to have a better understanding of what we do as a Golf Professional Golf Board Minutes February 21",2007 Page 3 and he suggested that they stop by the pro shop sometime. He also wanted to remind the Board that the Golf Professional's are independent contractors and are not City employees. Jim also said that he spoke to a previous Board Member that had always thought he was a City employee. Jerry informed the Board that the Golf Professionals bring in around 3/4 million dollars together, the SouthRidge restaurant brought in around $300,000 last year and the Collindale restaurant brought in around $700,000. Dale stated that we want to get as many people in the door as we can because it not only helps the City revenue but that's how we make our money. Grant asked if they felt the restaurants were drawing in business for them. Jim said that Manno's Grille at Collindale is doing a great job and they bring in a lot of customers. He feels that the entire staff at Collindale works well together and they help each other out. Dale said that Mackenzie's is redoing the restaurant at SouthRidge so hopefully that will bring in more customers. Jerry informed the Board that we will be holding the March meeting at SouthRidge so they can see the progress. 3. With respect to pace of play, what should be the expectation and what can the three courses do as a whole to keep the pace of play to an acceptable level? Deron asked if they felt there were any issues in regards to pace of play. Jim said that we have had some complaints in regards to this issue but nothing major. David stated that there are some issues at City Park Nine because we get a lot of beginners and non -avid golfers. He said that we do our best to address this issue without discouraging the golfer. Eric McCrery asked if they train their rangers and David said we do. Eric said that a ranger approached him at Collindale when his group was trying to stay back so they weren't playing into the group in front of them. He suggested that they have some kind of protocol. Dan stated that he feels some rangers are too nice. Lauren feels that golfers will react depending on the way you approach them and we need to show good customer service. Eric feels the rangers should just be trained up front. Dale explained that it's difficult to address this but we handle it the best we can. He said that we don't want to run golfers off or to have them tell others that they were treated badly at one of the courses. Dale also said that the rangers mainly monitor the course and that he addresses the difficult issues himself. He said that we are working on this issue with the leagues. Eric asked what they do when someone shows up late. Dale and Jim said that we put them on the waiting list. Dale said that it wouldn't be fair to make others play later because someone was late. Jerry said that we have written policies on pace of play. 4. What do they feel particularly proud about during the past year? Dale said he is proud that the Golf Fund made its budget last year. Jerry said we are proud of Jim Greer for the awards that he won last year. Jim stated that Collindale was part of the Open Fairways Program and we are proud of our employees because of the way they treat their costumers. Eric then complemented all of the Golf staff. David said that he feels we are doing a good job helping to introduce new players to the game. Jim also said that he is proud to say all of the staff at Collindale works well together and that is one of the reason his job is enjoyable. Golf Board Minutes February 21 ", 2007 Page 4 5. Do they have any unmet goals and how can we (the Board) help them to meet them? Dale said that we continue with the same goals and we fine tune things. Eric asked if they had any promotional deals. Jim said that Manno's has a lunch and bucket of balls special and that Manno's does advertising as well. Generally speaking, this does not appear to be an issue at this time. 6. Are there any current policy/procedures that may get in the way of maximizing revenues? Jerry said this is a touchy subject because as a municipality we are unable to do certain things that a private course can do. Jim said that he feels we need to do something different on Thursday Ladies Day with the Collindale 9-hole Women's Golf Association, as we have lots of open tee times those days. He thinks that starting them after the Women's 18-hole Golf Association might address the issue. There was general concurrence. 7. What new ideas/strategies do they have for 2007? Jerry informed the Board that we are trying to increase play at Collindale. The professionals all agreed that we try to come up with new ideas to increase revenue and we correct things where there is an issue. Dan asked if there would be snow mold once the snow has melted. Jim said that we aren't too worried about it. He said that the maintenance staff would have liked to get another application of snow mold chemical on prior to all of the snow. Jerry said that staff has chemicals ready for application if needed. Grant asked how far we are behind on revenues due to the snow, and Jerry said that we will be around $76,000 behind through February 28th based on last year's budget. Jay Kammerzell asked if we were plowing the driving ranges. Jim said no and that we will be opening the driving range tomorrow and SouthRidge has already opened theirs. Other Business Jerry informed the Board that we will be holding the 2007 "Fort Collins Fore Kids" event on June 5th and that he would like to have at least three Board members present. Correspondence/Financial and Statistical Reports Jerry said that he provided the Board with a copy of the updated 2006 Revenues and the 2007 Expenditure Budget. Larry asked about the reorganization of the City. Director of Cultural, Library, and Recreational Services, Marty Heffernan explained that the City Manager will have less direct reports and that he will now be reporting to Deputy City Manager, Diane Jones. He said that Forestry and Horticulture as well as Golf will now be Golf Board Minutes February 21",2007 Page 5 reporting to the new Director of Parks. Marty also informed the Board that Libraries is currently still part of the City. When the Library District is set in place then they will be funded by the tax that was approved by the voters and this will help the General Fund. He stated that he appreciates the work the Golf staff provides. Jerry informed the Board that he is also in charge of reporting on Legislative Issues to the other managers in our area and has recently been asked to be in charge of coordinating the BFO process for our area. Grant asked if there was any concern that funds may be taken from Golf to help with the budget issue. Marty said that the Golf Fund isn't large enough and he doesn't feel that will be an issue. He said that with the Library District forming it will help the General Fund. Marty also wanted to inform the Board that we are in the process of updating the Parks and Recreation Policy Plan. Adjournment: On a motion by Eric McCrery, seconded by Lauren DeRosa, the Board unanimously voted (7:0) to adjourn at 8:45 p.m. Meeting Attendance Board Members Larry Buckendorf Lauren DeRosa Deron Grothe Jay Kammerzell Eric McCrery Dan Preble Grant Sherwood Respectfully submitted, LYV Dawn Worth Administrative Aide Staff Jerry P. Brown Jim Greer Marty Heffernan David McCleave Dale Smigelsky Dawn Worth Guests Diggs Brown Cy Letzelter John Shelton Don Sinnar