EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm reminded that City Controller Laura Chick released an audit in March that included the golf range concession at Rancho Park. She concluded broadly that the audit, and previous audits, of the Recreation and Parks Department "calls into question the Department's success in meeting" its goals for concessionaires of providing good services and maximizing city revenue. The City Council audits committee has yet to hold a hearing on the audit.
I have played golf at city courses for years and noticed time and again how many of the carts are in poor condition, and how by 11:30 on busy weekend days they have run out and guys are standing around waiting for carts to be returned so they can play.
And then I start hearing from guys like Ted Winship who have been involved with the men's clubs at the local courses for years that something is rotten in Recreation and Parks, something worse than just not being competent about managing facilities.
What Ted and his pals have figured out is that there is some kind of insiders' game going on with golf carts just like there is in everything else the city does. The result as always is a loss of revenue for the city treasury and poor services to the public.
The golf cart issue is expected to come to a head Wednesday when the Rec and Parks commissioners sign off on a new contract to continue to waste money and provide poor service, according to Ted.
It appears the commissioners know people are watching because they have put off final action on this deal month after month. Based on past experience, my guess is that the powers that be have been huddling to make sure they have developed a sufficiently plausible alibi to fend off all accusations of mismanagement.
But Ted is no fool. He's a retired real estate broker who lives in Studio City and was president of the Hansen Dam Senior Men's Golf Club for years. He's studied the city's records on golf carts thoroughly and come to the conclusion that the city could have more golf carts, newer golf carts and rake in $1.2 million a year more than it does now if it managed the service itself instead of contracting it out.
If the commissioners will give Ted 10 minutes when they meet at Griffith Park Wednesday, they just might see the wisdom of Winship and come to the same conclusion he does.
His conclusion is that instead of giving away the lucrative concession for golf carts -- 16 bucks a round for tens of thousands of rounds a year -- the city could run the service itself and make more money. His calculation is $1.2 million a year more.
And if the bidding process for new carts was truly open and above board, the deal could get even sweeter.
What really irks Ted is that the whole deal gets no honest scrutiny.
For instance, if the cart business is going to a concessionaire why does the city need to hire a golf cart manager and several mechanics that will add half a million dollars in costs for payroll, benefits and perks.
The answer, of course, is that's how the city works, or rather doesn't work.
I'm no accountant and I can't honestly say Ted Winship is right about all this. But I'm betting he is. He's done his homework and talked to a lot of the people on the Rec and Parks staff who have insights into the finagling that goes on behind the scenes.
Let's hope the commission takes his advice and puts off its decision for another month and actually asks some tough questions about what is going on.
And let's hope City Controller Laura Chick frees up one of her auditors during those 30 days to go over the books at Rec and Parks and ask some tough questions about the whole process.
And since I'm indulging my fantasy of an open and honest government that serves the people, let's hope that the City Council picks up her findings and holds a public hearing to get to the bottom of what's going on in Rec and Parks by calling as witnesses all the people on the inside that Ted has talked to.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the Naitonal Enquirer.
FYI the City put out an RFP for electric carts a year ago. Here's their RFP and bid page.
What I find as bad is the fact that the City's own employees, such as the starters, are often exceptionally helpful, adroit at their jobs, patient, and instructive; meanwhile, it's the private concessionaire managers who are the most insouciant and unhelpful. But I never go to courses on weekends.
An area in which concessions seem below optimal is tennis. The tennis shops should be beautiful; they're very easy to run. The one in Westchester is OK but the concession at Riverside could be better. I don't think any offer stringing services---can't remember, could be wrong, but it seems like something that could and should be more notable and a potential revenue-bagger. Of course, Racket Doctor would "raise a racket" if it were...
Ron - when are you going to write something really relevant and interesting???
As editor of the daily news, you were often critized for being too much of a community activist and being too much of an advocate for the Valley. But it was always all too clear from your attitude that you could barely contain your rage about a lot of issues.
Now is your chance to let loose. Why don't you write about all the crazy shit you undoubtedly heard about but couldn't substantiate because of journalistic standards??? C'mon go crazy!!!
Write about how we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg with all the racist nutcases that are coming out of the woodwork and who have highjacked every single blog that allows anonymous posting (even Daily News).
The Council will probably raise fees for these municipal golf courses, too -- it came up during discussion, that they could cut down allowable groups from 5 to 4, and charge extra for non- residents. The out-of-town charge has been done by Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, San Marino, etc. for a long time; they're often downright snobby and unwelcoming to non-residents, even to middle class "anglos," so quid pro quo seems fair.
It was pointed out, fairly, that our top municipal draws are golf courses like Cheviott, Griffith Park and Studio City -- people drive in even from out of the county, squeezing out local residents.
Santa Monica dog parks won't even let people from across the street on the L A side use them, while Beverly Hills' non-res fees and advance booking times for tennis courts and rec classes for kids are much higher.
Of course, they're all smaller, relatively boutique cities compared to L A where, other than golf courses, our population is a very different demographic. These smaller cities have a much higher tax base and higher average income and education resident, although they have homeless problems in S. M. So if we discourage non- res users too much, we'll just lose revenue and turn our rec facilities into even more Third World enclaves.
But if charging more to people from these cities, increases revenue WHICH IS USED EFFICIENTLY TO INCREASE QUALITY, and gives L A residents a one-two day advantage in booking golf and tennis courses, that's what other cities have been doing forever.
This is certainly better than jacking up trash fees to $36/ month from 11, a whopping $300/ year, PLUS instituting charges for each extra bin of $10.00/ month (what Alarcon was demanding last minute on Monday!). Council also bent over backwards justifying Rosendahl's increasing meter rates to $4/00/hr (along with parking fines) as something that will INCREASE rather than decrease revenue to small shops who depend on them for their shoppers. (Sounds counterintuitive to me, since I'd find it another incentive to go to a mall, or a town with free muni parking -- even BH draws people to its high-end shops with 2 hours free parking lots.)
Aren't you supposed to walk around the course?
So "John" at 9:46, you want Ron to censor the public for writing about the truth, which YOUR political bosses (obviously, you shill for one of the Mexican pols, maybe Huizar or Alarcon? Reyes seems to dull to realize the value of the Net, while Cardenas too macho to care).
Maybe everyone's writing about how this city and county have collapsed because of the unbelievable increase in illegal immigration in the last decade: there's a direct cause/effect correlation which the MSM is determined to ignore, being in the pockets of the liberal Dems who run this city and pander to the pro-illegals.
With half the population Hispanic immigrants, most illegal and/or anchor babies of illegals (who together make up 3/4 the youth population, school population and live births), uneducated, low-income and the least likely to assimilate successfully of any immigrant group in the country -- while using vastly more billions in social services than they put into the system -- there's no way this county will recover unless this sucking noise is addressed.
It's been covered up for years by a booming real estate market, in "the other" L A, and by low-income people taking out loans they never should have, but not it's hit the fan and the people see it and FEEL it and LIVE it; your censorship and days of living off the Piggy Bank of the Middle Class are over. GET USED TO IT.