Updates
on two of Yorba Linda's most utilized city-owned facilities are
worthy of attention: the Black Gold Golf Club for a new
incentive-oriented management contract and the public library for a
notable increase in the circulation of e-books and other digital
materials.
The
new golf course pact with KemperSports, approved on a 5-0 City
Council vote, extends the firm's 15-year management of Black Gold
another five years, into 2020, but with a lower base fee than past
years plus two levels of fees calculated on a percentage of revenues.
The
firm's fixed fee drops from $250,000 to $150,000 yearly, with the
greater of a consumer price index or 2 percent annual increase,
supplemented by 7 percent of revenues from $4.6 million to $6 million
and 9 percent of revenues above $6 million.
Black
Gold annual income, now about $5.6 million, isn't expected to exceed
$6 million until 2020. The percentage portion of the fee is projected
to range from $76,000 in 2016 to near $99,000 in 2020 and is capped
at $250,000 per year.
Savings
over current fees are estimated at $24,000 for 2016, dropping to
under $4,000 in 2019, and could reach $52,000 over five years.
“However,
if revenues exceed projections, the fees to KemperSports could be
higher. Conversely, if revenues do not meet expectations, the fees
would be reduced accordingly,” the city's parks and recreation
superintendent, Mike Kudron, reported to council members.
The
fee for handling Community Center catering remains at 4 percent of
revenue (no fixed fee), which is not added to the income thresholds
that mandate increased golf course fees.
The
Yorba Linda library's noteworthy report to the California State
Library, part of a national collection of data coordinated by the
Institute for Museum and Library Science, was presented to the
council recently by Library Director Carrie Lixey.
“Not
surprisingly, the rise in our digital culture has created a paradigm
shift in how the comm-unity uses the library. Despite the decrease
in the circulation of print materials . . . circulation continues to
increase because e-book and digital check-outs continue to grow,”
Lixey noted.
Circulation
declines include 0.5 percent in children's materials, 2.7 percent in
adult materials, 7.1 percent in young adult materials and 8
percent for magazines in the most recently completed fiscal year over
the prior year.
But
a 54 percent increase in the circulation of electronic materials kept
total circulation in the plus column, up 2.9 percent, or 917,134
items for 2013-14 over 891,041 for 2012-13.
Similarly,
the library's print book collection dropped 5.5 percent, from 135,576
to 128,133, while the number of electronic books jumped close to 162
percent, from 20,181 to 52,854.
Patrons
with library cards increased nearly 30 percent to 6,858, but library
visits declined 1 percent to 334,942, an average of about 1,100 per
day. Web site visits increased 11.4 per-cent to 213,565.