Title
Bid/Proposal Process for the Operation and/or Maintenance of Ironwood Golf Course (B)
This item involves a request for the City Commission to authorize the City Manager to initiate a bid/proposal process for operation and/or maintenance of Ironwood Golf Course.
Explanation
The City purchased Ironwood Golf Course in 1992 for $1.2 million and approximately $1 million was bonded for improvements. The City will complete payment of this original debt in the current fiscal year (FY12). In 2008, due to the City's ongoing fiscal challenges, a team of City employees began a project to identify and evaluate options for the future of Ironwood Golf Course that ranged from selling the property to converting the property to a passive park to investing in critical capital improvements while retaining the golf course.
The City hired National Golf Foundation Consulting Services (NGF) to work with the City's team to evaluate Ironwood Golf Course and its operations providing options and recommendations. Ultimately NGF's report was provided to the City Commission and the Commission decided to retain Ironwood as a City operated golf course and to complete capital improvements essential to the ongoing viability of the golf course. To this end, the City invested approximately $1.3 million to improve long running drainage issues, rebuild the greens and complete other improvements.
The Commission also made the long-term decision to transition Ironwood Golf Course from an enterprise fund to the general fund over a 10 year period to allow time to pay-off the accumulated deficit ($300,000 annually over 10 years through FY19). As of FY 20, the accumulated deficit will have been paid off and Ironwood will be part of the general fund no longer subject to indirect costs and treated similar to other Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs operations. Based on the policy decisions already made by the City Commission, City staff believes a key gauge of the current perform...
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