SDMGA strongly supports the proposal by Park & Rec to retain senior golf discounts.
SDMGA sent a letter to Natural Resources and Cultural Committee Chairperson Frye and its members on February 10, 2010, presenting SDMGA Views on Low Income Waiver Proposal. The letter is given below.
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Dear Chairperson Frye and Members of the NRC:
We are unable to attend the NRC meeting on Wednesday and ask that these comments be considered by the Committee.
San Diego Municipal Golfers' Alliance (SDMGA) strongly supports the proposal by Park & Rec to retain senior golf discounts. They are essential to a large group of individuals being able to afford golf at San Diego Municipal golf courses. The rise in greens fees under the Five Year Business plan has already priced many local golfers off the courses. Eliminating the senior fees woiuld raise fees for seniors by another 42% and price many of us out of Municipal Golf. Seniors are expecially susceptible to fee increases because we tend to play more rounds of golf so that even modest rises in fees add up to a huge increase over the course of a year's play. The primary mission of Municipal Golf Courses is allow ordinary citizens to afford golf; eliminating the senior fees would defeat that central purpose. Golf Operations is an enterprise fund which runs at a surplus. There is no reason to raise fees on seniors.
We strongly oppose the alternative of substituting a low-income fee waiver for the senior fees. That proposal was rejected by the City Counsel in 2006 when it passed the Five-Year Plan. When the proposal to eliminate the senior fees was soundly rejected by the public and the Council and withdrawn by the Mayor, Councilman Young asked that Golf Operations consider a low income fee waiver in addition to the senior fee schedule. He never suggested that senior fee be eliminated in order to fund the low income fee waiver. Thus, the framing of the issue is at odds with the goals of the City Council in raising the issue.
The question of a low income fee waiver needs to be considered with all the data and in the context of all revenue issues. Park & Rec's report states that the the reduced senior fees costs $350,000 in revenue and frames the issue as whether that sum should be spent on seniors or low income folks. If that is the choice, then we agree that the senior fee should be retained. However, it is not clear that both cannot be accomplished in the next Five-Year Plan. With an income stream of some $18 million annually at Golf Operations, why does Park & Rec. suggest that the only revenue source to pay for a low income fee waiver would be eliminating senior rates? For example, the Union Tribune reports that Golf Operations subsidizes the PGA Tour and the Century Club to the tune of at least $200,000 by giving Torrey Pines to the Century Club for 10 days for $200K, ($200K or more below actual costs). See City pays a price to host PGA play, January 27, 2010 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/27/city-pays-a-price-to-host-pga-play/ Actually, the article understates the subsidy for the tournament is understated by $1.5 million! According to the business plan, the buyout cost of Torrey Pines for one-day is $170,000 ($105,000 for the South and $65,000 for the North). Thus, the full cost of buying out the course would be $1.7 million. The Century Club/PGA is thus subsidized by $1.5 million! (the $1.7 million list price minus the $.2 million actual fee)
If the subsidy to the Century Club and the PGA for the Farmers Insurance tournament were eliminated or reduced there would be plenty of money to have both a senior rate and a low income fee waiver and/or to reduce fees to residents substantially and to consider re-instituting a county rate. None of this can be decided on the current proposal. Priorities need to be looked at in the context of the whole fee structure of the next Five Year Plan. It would be premature and imprudent to consider any alteration of the senior fee in favor of the low income fee waiver without a full review of overall fee structure with public hearings and community input, hopefully via the reinstitution of the Golf Advisory Council.
We therefore support the proposal by Park & Rec. to retain the senior fee and ask that any changes to the five year plan be considered in the context of the full Golf Operations mission which we feel should place a higher priority on affordable golf for local residents. Park & Rec. is probably right that such a review is most likely to happen during the formulation of a new five-year plan. In the interim, the NRC should also request a financcial update at a future meeting of the NRC on the status of the Enterprise Fund. Current rates were set at a level to fund the now dormant proposal to build a lavish new clubhouse complex at Torrey Pines and are far in excess of what is necessary to fund current operations and reasonable capital improvements; on the other hand, the recession may have cut into revenues and suggest the yield might be increased by lowering rates. Such a review might also seek an explanation of why the Century Club and the PGA are getting discounts of close to 90% from the published fee schedule, but local golfers are paying the full list price.
Thank you for your consideration. We regret that work conflicts and health issues prevent any of us attending the Committee meeting on Wednesday.
Respectfully yours,
Paul Spiegelman
John Beaver
Joe Burwell
Co-Founders of SDMGA