Little New Information Presented at OGC Town Hall

Over 400 Oakmont residents filled the Berger Center on June 5th for another in a series of town hall meetings on the matter of the OVA providing financial assistance to the Oakmont Golf Club.  The presentation was introduced by BOD President Steve Spanier but was for the most part conducted by board members of the OGC.

OGC members Smith, Robinson and Warfel with OVA board member Tom Kendrick

Attendees were told that more than 70 questions and suggestions had been submitted by members of the community, which had then been culled down to 16 topics to be addressed by OGC board members.  OGC President Barbara Robinson, Secretary Rick Warfel and Membership Committee Chair Gary Smith took turns reading the queries and answering them. The questions selected and then answered were for the most part a rehash of the presentation of topics at the February 26th town hall at the ERC and very little new information was presented.

Again heard were detailed descriptions of marketing efforts undertaken by the OGC, costs of maintaining drainage and waterways on the golf courses, open space and fire breaks provided by the golf courses, effects on property values, and how financial contributions by OVA could be structured.

The overriding theme again was that financial assistance to the OGC by OVA was not a matter of a handout but of an obligation for services provided to the community and the importance of  preservation of the property as a “central if not vital feature of the community.”

Missing from the discussion was any detailed information about the OGC’s financial situation to support a request for financial participation from OVA. The public was informed in an email from Spanier to OVA members the day before the meeting that this was not open to discussion:  “Providing detailed OGC financial information to all OVA residents is simply not ever going to happen.”

As at the February 26th presentation, Robinson again denied that the OGC was seeking a “bailout” by OVA.  In fact, she stated that the idea that OGC was asking for a bailout was “badly mistaken or certainly misunderstood” and even “defamatory.”  She said that discussions with OVA were first initiated in March of 2017 and that “the premise was not, and never has been, that the OGC is in desperate need of financial aid to stave off disaster.”

OGC’s Smith added that the club was not failing but did have some serious challenges.  “2017 by itself was a disaster from an operating standpoint,” he said. Between heavy rains early in the year and the October fire the resulting business interruption greatly affected revenue.  They also discovered a serious set of flawed accounting issues that led to ill-advised expenditures.

The OGC has been granted a Small Business Administration disaster relief loan from which they have drawn less than half of the funds available.

In answer to a submitted question about whether the financial assistance would be perpetual, Robinson stated, “We do feel there is a minimum commitment of five years needed to assure the partnership is viable.”

How would support from the OVA be structured?  “The OGC has provided to the OVA board a summary of areas of potential collaboration,” said Robinson, but added “these areas of collaboration are issues for negotiation between the boards that should not and will not be conducted in a public forum.”

Many suggestions for sale of the courses (or portions of them), closing one of the courses, or repurposing portions of the courses were addressed by the OGC board. The East Course was called a “rare jewel”, being one of the few executive (i.e. shorter in length, consisting of only par 3 and short par 4 holes) golf courses in Northern California.  Sale or repurpose of the East Course would be “absolutely the last resort.” Sale of one or both courses to a developer was also raised and OGC said it had “conducted exploratory investigation into this option.” However, it was acknowledged that opposition to such a plan would be overwhelming.

Along these lines, the issue of zoning was raised.  Most of the residential land in Oakmont falls into the “low density residential” category, single family homes at a density of 2-8 units per gross acre.  The two golf courses, consisting of 225 acres, are classified as “parks and recreation” and are zoned as “special purpose park and facility.” Other nearby properties with this zoning are the East and West Recreation Centers, the Saddle Club and Annadel State Park.

Can the property be rezoned?   Any rezoning would require approval from the City of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County and the residents of Oakmont.

Desired upgrades to the Quail Inn were briefly discussed, including a new kitchen and dining area, furnishings and fixtures. Yet, absent community support the OGC said they were not in a position to undertake such physical renovation improvements in any kind of reasonable time frame.  “It just can’t come out of the operating margin as we know it today,” said Smith.

In the second portion of the presentation the OGC board members addressed suggestions that were selected from those submitted by residents, in many cases labeling them “non-starters.”  These included repurposing nine holes of the East Course to walking trails, OVA buying or leasing land from OGC, voluntary v. mandatory contributions, two tiers of dues for those on the golf course and those not, sustaining memberships or pledges, $50 assessments to on-course properties for landscape maintenance, and hiring a new management company.

Other suggestions were received positively, such as OVA renting space and meeting rooms from OGC as well as OVA receiving the empty lot adjacent to Hwy 12 and Oak Leaf Drive in exchange for dues contributions.  The lot has been discussed as a possible dog park location or to be used for an emergency vehicle exit to Hwy 12 from Oakmont. According to Robinson, some of these items are already under discussion between the boards.

More than 20 people lined up at two microphones to participate in the discussion during the Open Forum section of the meeting and were nearly evenly divided in support and opposition to the proposal. A few expressed their disappointment that they did not receive the information they had expected from this meeting. One long-time resident of more than 40 years said she had heard all the arguments pro and con on five occasions since living in Oakmont.  “The golf courses are still there and nobody has built houses on them.” She also spoke for those in Oakmont, like herself, living on their Social Security for whom a further dues increase in support of a private business would be a hardship.