| Fixed expenses for Jan-June 2016 | |
| Golf Maintenance | |
| Payroll/benefits | $243,702 |
| R&M | $105,020 |
| Chemicals | $104,632 |
| Operating Exp | $82,772 |
| Utilities | $534,163 |
| Equip Lease | $125,784 |
| Total | $1,196,073 |
| Golf (other than Maintenance) | |
| Payroll/Benefits | $133,188 |
| Operating Expenses | $50,574 |
| Cart Lease | $49,500 |
| Total | $233,262 |
| General and Administrative | |
| Payroll/Benefits | $62,292 |
| Operating Expenses | $104,636 |
| Management Fees | $72,000 |
| Total | $238,928 |
With Nike deciding this month to get out of the golf business, there is little wonder that the Town of Oro Valley’s golf enterprise is failing. Yet, the majority on the Town Council is determined to stay the course.
On Wednesday, Oro Valley Town Councilman Mike Zinkin released numbers which show the “bottom line” for the golf enterprise. Mayor Satish Hiremath, Vice-Mayor Lou Waters, and Councilmembers Mary Snider, and Joe Hornat have resisted providing the public with the numbers prior to the upcoming election.
The numbers could prove to be damaging to the majority, who had supported the purchase of the golf courses.
The numbers could also be damaging to challenger candidates: Steve Solomon, Bill Rodman, and Rhonda Pina, who support the failing policies. The trio is running against Council watchdogs Zinkin, Brendan Burns, and William Gardner.
“It should be clear to a reasonable person that the golf investment is not, and will not, be anything but a financial drain to the Town for the foreseeable future,” wrote Zinkin in an email to constituents. “There are options available which will alleviate this drain on Town resources. One option to accomplish this would be to lease the courses. This would allow the Town to spend the $2 million/yr in sales tax revenues to renovate the Community Center into a fixture the People desire and something of which the Town can be proud.”
According to Zinkin, the report he finally obtained gives numbers for the entire fiscal year: the Town modified the golf enterprise in December.
Zinkin advised residents, “In December, the Town closed the courses on Mondays, reduced the full time equivalent staffing dedicated to maintain the courses from 44 to 17 employees, and entered into new equipment and cart leases (to save money, the Town reduced the number of leased carts from 177 to 100).
Zinkin notes:
The sum total of all golf expenses for the 6 month period is : $1,668,263. This divided by 6 equals $278,044 per month.
The Town has fixed revenues from dues paid by golf memberships. As of January 31, 2015 the Town received $90,146 a month from those memberships. The membership has been somewhat unchanged to this date.
Deduct the monthly revenues from the monthly costs and the total loss is $189,044 per month. This is the amount of revenue the Town must collect from outside play and tournaments in order to break even on golf. This equates to 4,726 rounds at an average of $40.00/round.
The first 6 months of the fiscal year (July-Dec 2015), the Town averaged 3,858 rounds (it is not clear if this included member rounds) at $33.49/round (this is when the courses were open 7 days a week). Also, in April 2016, the Town had 1029 rounds of outside play and in May 2016, the Town had under 1000 rounds of outside play. To be fair, the Town’s expenses were somewhat reduced as only one course was open, however, the Town still has to water and maintain the closed courses without any revenue being generated due to their closure.