Business Plan? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Business Plan!

In March of this year, Massillon City Council members Larry Slagle, David Hersher, David McCune and Ron Mang voted to spend $199,000 of our parks tax dollars to buy Club Legends, the restaurant at the Legends of Massillon Golf Course. It was a tie vote, but Council President Glenn Gamber broke the tie in favor of buying the restaurant. Parks Director Kenn Kaminski was all for this purchase. According to Kaminski, the city was "receiving a turn-key operation" (The Independent, March 9, 2010), and Kaminski believed the city would "rake in between $50,000 & $100,000 annually" (The Independent, March 16, 2010). The city was raking in something, but we doubt it was $100,000.

Rookie councilman Gary Anderson would not support the purchase because the city "did not have a business plan to show how the restaurant would operate" (The Independent, March 16, 2010). What did Anderson know? He was a rookie. He just got on council. He didn't have the years of experience in government that Glenn Gamber and Ron Mang have. He didn't have the financial and banking background that David Hersher has. He didn't have the sharp legal mind that attorney Larry Slagle has. What did he know? He merely had common sense. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck, regardless of what Massillon's Mayor for Life tells you.

The city had no business plan then, and the city has no business plan now. Less than two weeks ago, the Massillon Chamber of Commerce had their annual golf outing at the Legends. Included with golf was dinner at Club Legends. We are confident that Club Legends, roughly three months after being bought by the city, provided Massillon's business community with a scrumptious meal, and all the amenities, after all, this was a "turn-key" operation. Nope.

According to Massillon Review sources, dinner was catered in by a local caterer. Couldn't Club Legends provide the meals in house? The city bought a restaurant it can't operate. It has no business plan, and the city council brain trust that approved this deal never asked for one.