SDMGA letter to City Mayor Jerry Sanders questioning a statement by his office that claims Golf Operations Audit data supports resident fee increases.
The San Diego Municipal Golfer's Alliance (SDMGA) has put together a letter questioning the claim by Mayor Jerry Sanders' office that City Golf Operations had been audited and that proposed fee raises were justified. The SDMGA asks that the Mayor's Office either retract this questionable statement or release any audit data which they claim supports the proposed fee raises.
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Dear Mayor Sanders:
It was reported on KNSD-TV last night that an unidentified “spokesperson for the mayor” stated that City Golf Operations had been audited and that proposed fee raises were justified. San Diego Municipal Golfers Alliance (SDMGA) asks that you either retract this false and misleading statement or release any audit data which you claim supports the proposed fee raises.
As members of a record crowd of 160 citizens who attended the Golf Advisory Committee hearing on Tuesday, February 21, we were surprised to hear that there was audit data supporting the Golf Operations proposed Five-Year Business Plan. No such data appear in the Plan and no such claim was made in the Plan. As Jay Martin, an expert in government strategic planning, testified at the GAC meeting, the Proposed Plan “is fundamentally flawed and, in its present form, cannot provide an adequate foundation for the Golf Advisory Council or the City Council to make an informed decision to move forward with the proposed fee structure.” More fundamentally, as was brought out by numerous speakers, the Proposed Plan violates the law creating Torrey Pines as a public park which requires that that the parkland be used to create the best possible golf experience at the lowest possible cost to residents. The Proposed Plan violates this requirement in two ways: (1) by failing to charge non-residents market rates and (2) by raising greens fees for local residents to pay for a clubhouse at Torrey Pines that is not designed for the benefit of residents and is not wanted by local residents. SDMGA has a petition signed by over 700 San Diegans who oppose the clubhouse. As accurately reported in the Voice of San Diego, none of the 160 citizens at the GAC meeting supported the new clubhouse:
“One query by Del Mar Heights resident Lola Feitelberg during the meeting's public comment portion was particularly telling.
‘Who wants the clubhouse?’ she said
If there were crickets in the room, you probably could have heard them.
Everyone else was silent.”
See http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=euLTJbMUKvH&b=312470&ct=1992321
The point is that no auditor conversant with the Plan and basic principles of accounting could have endorsed the undocumented, illegal and unpopular Plan to make local residents pay for a clubhouse we do not want.
Perhaps your spokesperson meant that expenditures by Golf Operations had been audited and that such an audit would provide support for the Proposed Plan missing from the document itself. If so, such audit data should be released. Representatives of the public have been pouring over the Revised Plan which contains no audited data. One hundred sixty (160) citizens, 11 members of the Golf Advisory Committee and countless City and Council staffers spent four and one-half hours discussing the Plan and had no such data. After four and one-half hours of considering the Proposed Plan, the GAC voted 8 to 3 to reject the unsupported and ill advised plan. The only GAC members who voted for the plan were representatives of special interest organizations who stood to profit from the adoption of the plan at the expense of ordinary citizens. If you or your spokesperson has audited data that would supply support for the Plan, you owed it to us to supply the data before the meeting. If what is said is true, it is not only improper and poor management by the city, it is an insult to all of us who labored in the process designated by the City Council that the Mayor’s Office claims to have undisclosed data which supports the Proposed Plan.
You stated repeatedly in your campaign and after you assumed office that you favored transparency in City Operations. You formed an ethics committee to assure the citizens of San Diego that there would be no more shenanigans from city officials. The performance of your office in the discussions about City Golf Operations falls disappointingly short of that promise. Either your office is making uniformed, false assertions or you have pertinent data that is not being released to the public. Neither option meets the standards you have set for yourself.
Perhaps this is just a case of misspeaking by a staffer on weekend duty. If so, a retraction is appropriate. SDMGA is concerned that other statements by you and your office concerning Golf Issues are seriously misinformed. SDMGA would be happy to share with your office our knowledge and information concerning the Proposed Plan. Your staff can go to our website at http://www.sdmga.org/ and obtain useful background on the matter. In particular, if your staff clicks on the “News” button and then clicks on the “SDMGA Position Statement to GAC” link, all will become better informed on the deficiencies of the proposed plan. If your staff then clicks on the “SDMGA letter to City Attorney Mike Aguirre regarding municipal golfer's issues”, they will find both a summary of the principles which caused GAC to reject the Plan and 18 unanswered questions which need to be addressed in an honest and thorough evaluation of Golf Operations.
We urge you to personally review this material and to meet with representatives of SDMGA so that your public statements and your position on golf issues become better informed. We hope that your first actions on golf issues will not be to side with special interest profiteers and against the people of San Diego.
Respectfully yours,
San Diego Municipal Golfer’s Alliance (SDMGA)
By Paul Spiegelman, Co-founder (Also Adjunct Professor of Law and Director of Litigation and Dispute Resolution Skills Training, Thomas Jefferson School of Law)
John Beaver, Co-founder (also trustee of the La Jolla Town Council)
Joe Burwell, Co-founder (also private citizen)