A Response

We appreciate the email we received from Julie Jenkins, Office Manager for Parks and Recreation/Legends of Massillon Golf Course.

We wish to respond to a few things in her letter.

We thank you for admitting that "we did go into this without a business plan." That makes the fact that City Council provided $199,000 dollars to buy out the concessions contract from the prior owners that much more appalling. If a business in the private sector attempted to go to a bank and receive funding without a business plan, he would be rightfully thrown out on his ear. The fact that our hard earned tax dollars were thrown into the Club Legends restaurant without you folks even having a business plan is offensive.

"The former owners hearts were not in the business any longer, and didn't care." Fine. They didn't care. Then they should have just left without the citizens having to pony up $199,000 dollars to help them find the door. And why did we have to pay these individuals who so lost interest in their business? Because the concessions contract, approved by our mayor, was so favorable to the owners, that current County Prosecutor, and former Massillon Law Director John Ferrero, would only approve this contract for "form, not content." The contract ran indefinitely and for the city to exit the contract, it had to pay the vendor (owner) the cost for equipment at today's price. For example, if the stove was 15 years old, the city had to pay the owner the cost of a new stove, while receiving a 15 year old stove. Our mayor sure is a shrewd negotiator. We would have been better off if the owners had indeed taken every piece of 15 year old equipment with them. But they weren't going to. We had to reward them with $199,000 dollars of park tax money because they "lost interest."

Now, since the food and beverage concession is in house, why is it that when the Massillon Chamber of Commerce had their annual golf outing and dinner at the Legends Golf Course, why did dinner have to be catered by an outside caterer? One would think the trained chef could have whipped something up for them. Apparently the $199,000 dollar in house kitchen was unable to provide their meals.

"We cover our expenses - except the debt - every year."
Unfortunately, the debt is an expense, one the taxpayers have to foot. Using real world accounting, the debt is part of your costs, and therefore, you are not covering your expenses. In November of 2002, the City finalized a general obligation bond for the golf course, which included the old debt, and the debt for the 9 hole expansion. The total golf course debt stood at $7,281,232.65. The debt will not be paid off until 2032. The interest alone on the debt is $6,123,342.35. The total cost to the citizens of Massillon will be $13,404,575 dollars. The golf course is not worth one quarter that amount on its best day. It is mathematically impossible for the Legends to turn a profit until 2033, when the debt is finally paid off. This year's debt payment is $527,885 dollars.

What makes people so unhappy is that when they passed a .3% income tax to fund parks and recreation, they thought their money would actually be spent on parks and recreation. A month after the city finalized the $7,281,232.65 general obligation bond, the mayor realized he didn't have the money to actually make the payments. He then had his feckless rubber stamps on city council vote to merge the golf course with the parks department under the guise of "streamlining city government." Cicchinelli publicly claimed that this move was "not a big scheme to have the parks department cover the golf course's expenses" (The Repository, December 17, 2002). What we all know, yourself included, is that park tax money was used to pay golf course debt and golf course expenses. So, indeed, this was actually "a big scheme to have the parks department cover the golf course's expenses."

We can all put on a happy face, be upbeat and promote the golf course 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but it will NEVER TURN A PROFIT. It can't. The debt load is too extreme. It is a drain on the city. We have never criticized the employees who work there. We have, however, criticized their bosses. Because of the financial black hole that is the Legends of Massillon, our parks are a mess. Your boss, Kenn Kaminski, in order to give cover to his boss, our Mayor for Life, busily spins the fairy tale that our parks are in poor shape because of "park vandals," and not as a result of a lack of basic maintenance and upkeep, when it is clear to anyone who is not blind, that our parks are being neglected. And yes, our mayor is now examining the possibility of selling a park or two to fill his dwindling coffers, and because we lack the funds to provide adequate upkeep.

When the citizens voted to raise their income tax for parks and recreation, they never thought their money would be hijacked to fund a golf course. Never.

Our hope is that if someone else were mayor, he (or she) would have the integrity to not participate in such scams and schemes. You are indeed correct, the debt isn't going away. And now the solution is to start selling our parks. A poor choice for the people of Massillon.