Black Gold costs need answers from candidates
A second key issue Yorba Linda’s six City Council candidates need to address in much more detail is the financial status of the city-owned Black Gold Golf Course, which has seen another year of declining revenues and cash infusions from the city treasury.
Last week, I expressed the hope this year’s council contenders would provide more than sound-bite comments on 13 sites the current council has identified for potential rezoning to 10, 20 and 30 units per acre, for up to 1,087 units of low-cost, multi-family housing.
Even though council members said that the sites would not necessarily be developed to the full densities identified, the state said the city’s strategy “assumes development will occur on these parcels at the proposed maximum densities.”
This week, I’ll focus on continuing financial shortfalls at Black Gold. Obviously, the issue is challenging, but serious candidates should be offering workable solutions, not generic promises to “explore” the matter and vague pledges of “cost alternatives.”
Black Gold’s total revenue for the 2009-10 fiscal year, based on yet-to-be audited figures, dropped 3.6 percent from the prior 12-month period, from $5,512,494 to $5,314,506. And the latter number was 6.8 percent below anticipated revenues of $5,674,522.
June, the final month of the fiscal year, was particularly bleak, with income down 10 percent from the previous June and 17.6 percent below anticipated income. However, May was especially strong, up 20.1 percent from 2009 and 6.4 percent from estimates.
Black Gold was supposed to pour about $1 million per year into the city’s general fund even before the construction bonds were paid back—that’s what residents were told by a slew of golf course consultants when plans were approved in the 1990s.
But so far, the city has loaned Black Gold $4.7 million since 2000. And beginning in the 2007-08 fiscal year, interest on the loans has been waived, amounting to $226,943 in lost payments for the period through June 2009.
In addition, the city will be spending $1.2 million to replace rye grass with Kikuyu grass during a five-year period and $140,000 for adding Bermuda grass around tee boxes (with $300,000 in water and other savings anticipated).
The first-year rye-to-Kikuyu transition cost of $224,145 was to come from general fund reserves, and the next four years of costs, ranging from $155,325 to $184,280 each year, included in the city’s operating budgets.
Black Gold subsidies contribute to the council pleading poverty on smaller-budget items, such as July 4 fireworks and October Fiesta Day parade, two of the city’s best-attended events. (This year the fireworks survived on a 3-2 vote, but the parade is off for a second year.)
One solution is to wait for a better economy. But what if the current status is a “new normal,” as some predict? The candidates need to step up with some actual answers.
Last week, I expressed the hope this year’s council contenders would provide more than sound-bite comments on 13 sites the current council has identified for potential rezoning to 10, 20 and 30 units per acre, for up to 1,087 units of low-cost, multi-family housing.
Even though council members said that the sites would not necessarily be developed to the full densities identified, the state said the city’s strategy “assumes development will occur on these parcels at the proposed maximum densities.”
This week, I’ll focus on continuing financial shortfalls at Black Gold. Obviously, the issue is challenging, but serious candidates should be offering workable solutions, not generic promises to “explore” the matter and vague pledges of “cost alternatives.”
Black Gold’s total revenue for the 2009-10 fiscal year, based on yet-to-be audited figures, dropped 3.6 percent from the prior 12-month period, from $5,512,494 to $5,314,506. And the latter number was 6.8 percent below anticipated revenues of $5,674,522.
June, the final month of the fiscal year, was particularly bleak, with income down 10 percent from the previous June and 17.6 percent below anticipated income. However, May was especially strong, up 20.1 percent from 2009 and 6.4 percent from estimates.
Black Gold was supposed to pour about $1 million per year into the city’s general fund even before the construction bonds were paid back—that’s what residents were told by a slew of golf course consultants when plans were approved in the 1990s.
But so far, the city has loaned Black Gold $4.7 million since 2000. And beginning in the 2007-08 fiscal year, interest on the loans has been waived, amounting to $226,943 in lost payments for the period through June 2009.
In addition, the city will be spending $1.2 million to replace rye grass with Kikuyu grass during a five-year period and $140,000 for adding Bermuda grass around tee boxes (with $300,000 in water and other savings anticipated).
The first-year rye-to-Kikuyu transition cost of $224,145 was to come from general fund reserves, and the next four years of costs, ranging from $155,325 to $184,280 each year, included in the city’s operating budgets.
Black Gold subsidies contribute to the council pleading poverty on smaller-budget items, such as July 4 fireworks and October Fiesta Day parade, two of the city’s best-attended events. (This year the fireworks survived on a 3-2 vote, but the parade is off for a second year.)
One solution is to wait for a better economy. But what if the current status is a “new normal,” as some predict? The candidates need to step up with some actual answers.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 PM
<< Home