OVA to Become a Partner of OGC?

It has been 10 months since the Kenwood Press reported on a town hall meeting, held November 12, 2017 at the East Recreation Center.

The assembly was a joint effort by the Oakmont Golf Club and the OVA. The ostensible reason for the occasion was to explain to the residents of the village that the OGC found itself strapped for cash.

According to the article, Robinson – president of the OGC – stated that the golf courses might need “just a little bit [of help] every month,” calling for a monthly dues increase of $10 per resident. Additionally,  Barbara Robinson indicated that the aim was to reach an agreement with the OVA by 2019.

Elaborated upon no further was the fact that the yearly subsidy would amount to approximately $600,000. The cavalier request and the significant sum was enough to set in motion a movement that had its origin in the initiation of a group of opponents, calling itself the Oakmont Alliance.

The Alliance saw their task in questioning rigorously the need of the sizable donation from OVA residents to the OGC, a club that had shrunk from 800 members down to 300, leading in part to the reduction of golf rounds from 120,000 per year to 60,000.

When the OGC realized that $600,000 was not going to be paid, the demand for subsidy was reduced from $10 to $5, or approximately $300,000 per year. However, added was the prerequisite that the subsidy should extend over 5 years to the amount of $1.4mm. “…. a minimum commitment of five years needed to assure the partnership is viable,” according to Robinson.

“… there are several ideas being explored involving transactions, partnerships, or services that could result in OVA business dealings with OGC in the near future…”

With opposition, increasing, the OGC issued conflicting statements. On one hand they were breaking even, on the other it was disclosed that a $3.4 bank loan repayment was looming, and that no resources were available for the optimum upkeep of the golf courses and upgrades to the Quail Inn.

While the opponents made their case known on Nextdoor and the Oakmont Observer – a new online publication – OGC promoted their views in the pages of the Oakmont News, a corporate OVA newsletter that does not print contradictory view points. (An opposition article, published in the Kenwood Press by Julie Cade and Bruce Bon, could likely lead to a rebuttal in the same paper.)

The standoff between OGC and the opposition intensified during spring into summer. The concern was that the BOD would vote on the monthly $5 per person subsidy, if not for five or three years, then most assuredly for the next 12 months. During the long weeks of vigorous debate, there was official silence – no comments were forthcoming from either OCG or OVA, whose representatives had been meeting since 2016.

Then, at last, Vice President Tom Kendrick – board liaison to the OGC – addressed the burning issue. In an August 8th email to the Oakmont News, he released the following information:

“OVA will not be contemplating a commitment involving an amount of money per OVA member per month to support OGC for any period of time, and certainly not for 5 years. “There have been some discussions, no commitments have been made,” he said.

He said OGC is working to develop a 5-year plan with their management company.  They are also planning to reach out to the OVA community for direct support through an offering of modest-cost individual non-golfing memberships.

Going forward, there are several ideas being explored involving transactions, partnerships, or services that could result in OVA business dealings with OGC in the near future, but at this point none of these are far along enough for BOD consideration.”

From John Williston – proprietary OGC member who started to raise the warning flags a decade earlier – we learned that a subcommittee of the Long Range Planning Committee had been tasked with the development of a comprehensive plan. (Williston is the chair of the group) They will – as promised by John – “officially” engage a group of individuals, volunteers with business, legal, and financial experience and golf professionals to explore OGC’s future as a viable business entity. 

While the immediate threat of a board decision in favor of allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Golf Club is diminished, not all opponents appear willing to give up their months long struggle to ensure that the OGC be self-sufficient in the years to come. And so the saga continues, awaiting a report by the LRPC sometime in the future. What will Oakmont look like in 10 to 20 years, a question that the 2018/2019 committee also plans to address and which is intimately tied to the fate of the golf courses.