News

The City of Macon is actively exploring its options for Bowden Golf Course. Some members of City Council want the City out of the golf business entirely, while others want to keep the course but hire a private management firm to operate the facility. Below are recent articles from the Macon Telegraph covering this story.

Audit critical of money-losing Bowden Golf Course
By Travis Fain
Aug. 10, 2009
as published in the Macon Telegraph: http://www.macon.com/198/story/805054.html

Following a blistering surprise audit that found a lack of control over cash at the city-owned Bowden Golf Course, some Macon City Council members are pushing again to sell the course and get out of the golf business.

The course’s most recent manager resigned in June, after the city’s internal auditor found such poor record keeping at the course that officials can’t say for sure whether money was stolen from the cash register. Now someone from the Macon Finance Department goes to the course every day to do an independent cash count, and the city is looking at using a new computerized records system, said the mayor’s spokesman, Andrew Blascovich.

Employees are also held to a higher standard, and more information — such as a golfer’s name and the amount they pay — is recorded than in the past, according to a written audit response from the city.

But this is not the first time these problems have cropped up at the golf course, which city taxpayers subsidize annually. And the audit has helped revive an old debate: Should the city of Macon own a golf course at all?

“I am certainly open to the suggestion that we put it out for (sale),” Mayor Robert Reichert said last week.

That will be discussed in the coming weeks, with City Council Appropriations Committee Chairman Mike Cranford pushing to sell the course or lease it to a private manager. But that’s not an option for other council members, who say the course provides poorer city residents with a chance to learn a sport often associated with the rich.

Bowden also is a popular spot for several Macon politicians who play the course regularly. As they often note, many city facilities lose money.

“You’re not going to find anybody to buy a golf course at this stage of the economy,” said Councilman James Timley, a Bowden regular. “Selling the golf course is not the answer.”

Timley questioned whether the city also would consider selling its tennis courts if they were losing money.

The golf course also is a perk for city employees who play golf. The general public pays about $10 to play a round of 18 holes during the week. For city employees, including council members, the cost is $5.50. The cost for a cart for 18 holes is $13 for both city employees and the general public.

Many of the same financial problems identified at the course in 2004 and 2005 were still problems in April, according to an internal audit report on the course. That’s when the city’s internal auditor made surprise visits to several city departments that handle a lot of cash.

“Other conditions in other city sites involving cash-handling practices were not as critical in nature and did not result in significant monetary risk to the city,” auditor Erik Shelton’s report states. “However, the conditions at the golf course may represent material financial risk to the city if steps are not taken immediately to improve controls over cash handling.”

Poor record keeping and a lack of accountability for city employees working the cash register made it impossible to tell “whether all of the revenue received by the golf course was in fact recorded and accurately reported,” the report states.

“Nor could we determine whether an increase or decrease from prior years in golf play existed because the documentation is either inaccurate, incomplete, or both,” Shelton wrote.

The course itself appears to be in good shape. The greens and fairways are a lush color of green. Brandon Key, the groundskeeper responsible for course upkeep, has been promoted to interim course manager and has been on the job for about two weeks.

Key said he’d like to see the city keep the course and that he thinks the record-keeping issues can be fixed. He also said he thinks the course can become profitable.

But that’s not much different from what then-course manager Jim Hall said in October 2005, when the course seemed to be on the upswing. Hall said it would take a year, two at most, and the course would be profitable.

That never happened, and city books show the city has subsidized course operations by more than $628,000 since July 1, 2005. The closest the course came to breaking even was fiscal 2007, one year after Hall’s prediction. It lost about $133,000 that year, according to the city finance office.

“We’re on the right track now,” Key said last week. “And I’m sure that’s the same song and dance they heard last time.”

Bowden’s fate as city golf course delayed
By Travis Fain
Aug. 12, 2009
as published in the Macon Telegraph: http://www.macon.com/local/story/807117.html

The push to sell Bowden Golf Course has been delayed.

Macon City Council members decided to table debate on the matter Tuesday afternoon in the face of about a dozen course supporters who arrived at City Hall to protect the city-owned course. Members said they wanted more time to study the issue, particularly with discussion of a recent — and highly critical — internal city audit of the course slated for later that evening.

After that discussion, it seemed likely Bowden’s fate will be back before a council committee in a couple of weeks. But there was talk of bringing in a private company to manage the course for the city rather than looking at an outright sale.

That model would be similar to the way the Middle Georgia Regional Airport has been managed for nearly two years. The airport’s track record in that time, emerging from the specter of a federally mandated closure under the management of a private company, has pleased city officials.

Since that arrangement would allow the mayor and council to still make major decisions at Bowden, such as the cost of play, the plan may draw in council members dead-set against a sale.

Councilwoman Elaine Lucas, for example, said she wants the course to stay in city hands but that she’d explore a private management deal.

Bowden’s problems have festered for years. The course loses money each year. And earlier this year, a surprise audit showed poor cash controls at the course. Among other problems, the same employee was working the cash register, counting the money at the end of the day and filling out revenue reports. The audit also turned up excessive “no sales” and “voids” on cash register receipts, meaning someone went into the register for an unknown reason.

“There were days when someone went in the drawer 24 times. For what reason?” said Erika Shelton, the city’s internal auditor.

“It just lends itself to the possibility of loss, the possibility of misappropriation,” Shelton said. “We don’t know if every transaction was recorded. We don’t know.”

Administration officials said they’ve taken steps to shore up procedures at the course, implementing every one of Shelton’s recommendations except the purchase of new security equipment, which Parks and Recreation Department Director Mike Anthony said would be costly.

Though there has been some support on the council for selling the course in recent years, those who see Bowden as a greater value to the community have won out. Councilman Lonnie Miley said the course has untapped potential and needs to be better marketed.

“There may have been some mismanagement,” Miley said. “But you don’t burn down the school house because the principal is inadequate.”

Bowden Golf Course stays in city’s hands for now
By Travis Fain
Aug. 26, 2009:
as published in the Macon Telegraph: http://www.macon.com/local/story/821992.html

The Macon City Council will give Mayor Robert Reichert’s administration about three months to turn around the situation at the city-owned Bowden Golf Course before considering a move to sell or privatize the operation.

The reprieve comes after a damning internal audit found a lack of financial controls at Bowden. That helped renew a push to sell the course or bring in a private contractor to oversee day-to-day operations. Such a measure has come up before but has been beaten back by council members and others who feel Bowden fills an important niche in east Macon and the city as a whole as a relatively low-cost public course.

Chief Administrative Officer Thomas Thomas was asked Tuesday to report to the council’s Public Properties Committee on the course’s progress in early December. Then council members who were pushing for a change will reconsider the situation.

The course routinely runs in the red, and the most recent audit found inconsistent record keeping at the cash register.

The administration has made some changes at the course and is working on others, mayoral spokesman Andrew Blascovich said.

“There is public interest in having Bowden as a (city-owned) golf course,” Blascovich said. “So we are going to make an effort.”

Macon council members upset golf course report off course
By Travis Fain
Dec. 09, 2009
as published in the Macon Telegraph: http://www.macon.com/local/story/946170.html

An administration report on the city-owned Bowden Golf Course wasn’t ready as scheduled Tuesday evening, drawing ire from Macon City Council members who expected it.

Council members have complained about a lack of communication from Mayor Robert Reichert’s office in the past, and this latest problem highlighted an ongoing concern.
Golf
Grant Blankenship/The Telegraph - Heidi Park, 14, a golfer at First Presbyterian Day School, and her father Hung Soo Park hit some balls together on the driving range of Bowden Golf Course in Macon in August.

It could also delay some of the mayor’s initiatives until the report is given. Council Public Properties Committee Chairman Erick Erickson said his committee won’t move on any of the administration’s proposals until a full Bowden report is given.

“I’m still frustrated,” Erickson told Reichert’s council liaison, Keith Moffett, on Tuesday. “And it’s kind of sad when somebody who’s with you more often than not is this frustrated.”

Moffett apologized and took the blame for what seemed to amount to a forgotten deadline. He called it “a gross oversight.”

The report was requested in August, shortly after a highly critical internal audit found a lack of cash controls and other problems at the city golf course. A push to sell the course or to contract with a private group for management was put forward, then put on hold to give Reichert’s administration time to study the issue. A report on that effort was due to Erickson’s committee Tuesday but wasn’t ready. Erickson said he expects it by the next committee meeting, scheduled for Jan. 12. Until it’s ready, the committee won’t pass any of the mayor’s other initiatives, Erickson said.

If the report is ready in January, as Moffett said it would be, this may not affect city business at all. But there is at least one significant matter pending before Erickson’s committee: Reichert wants council approval for a land swap deal that will allow the city to expand Rosa Parks Square across from City Hall.

That item was before the committee Tuesday but was delayed after Erickson said there were still details to be worked out.