Santa Cruz County Grand Jury
• 2020-2021
DeLaveaga Golf Course How City Policies and Practices Have Affected the Bottom Line
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 6 findings
F1
The DeLaveaga Golf Course is underutilized and has the opportunity for generating increased revenue for the City of Santa Cruz and the Operator.
Related Recommendations (2)
R1
The City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department should develop additional marketing activities that focus on increasing play going forward. Those should include, but not be limited to, re-focusing relationships with local Chambers of Commerce, service clubs, “Visit Santa Cruz County”, NCGA Associate Golf Clubs, youth and senior groups, local charitable organizations, educational institutions, and religious groups. (F1)
R2
The City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department and the Operator should coordinate evaluation of the pricing model for green fees in order to remain competitive with local golf courses and maximize revenue for the start of 2021. (F1, F5)
F2
The DeLaveaga Golf Course has high city employee labor costs relative to other local, privately owned golf courses. This is partly due to its use of senior maintenance personnel and the pension benefits negotiated between the union employees and the City of Santa Cruz.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
The City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department should develop a staffing profile for planning purposes based on need, cost, and quality of service. This profile should compare DeLaveaga Golf Course’s maintenance staff and cost compared to other local golf courses and be used as a basis for hiring or rotating staff. This should be performed on an ongoing basis. (F2)
F3
Water conservation strategies have been successfully employed at the DeLaveaga Golf Course to the detriment of appearance in some locations. Significant increases in the cost of water have negated positive impacts to the bottom line.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
Inform the public and increase awareness of the DeLaveaga Golf Course’s water usage and cost for the last 10 years by publicizing its calculations and actual numbers beginning as soon as feasible. (F3)
F4
The City of Santa Cruz’s failure to conduct thorough, regular on-site inspections of the DeLaveaga Golf Course’s restaurant/lodge resulted in excessive renovation costs to the City of Santa Cruz. This contributed to more than doubling the original estimates to bring the building up to code.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
The City of Santa Cruz City Manager should perform a lessons learned activity and then update the City’s relevant policies and operating procedures to avoid a future repeat of the DeLaveaga Golf Course’s restaurant/lodge shutdown and renovation no later than second quarter 2021. (F4)
F5
The new draft Operations Plan lacks the necessary robustness to communicate how major golf course operations will be managed at DeLaveaga Golf Course, including but not limited to facility inspections, water use policies, variable pricing policies, charitable policies, operations review, and basic roles, responsibilities, and authority.
Related Recommendations (2)
R2
The City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department and the Operator should coordinate evaluation of the pricing model for green fees in order to remain competitive with local golf courses and maximize revenue for the start of 2021. (F1, F5)
R6
The City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department and the City of Santa Cruz City Manager should add a formal process to the Operation Plan by addressing needed capital improvements, maintenance schedules, facility inspections, water use, variable pricing, charitable policies, operations review, and basic stakeholder roles and responsibilities. Stakeholders include the Santa Cruz City Council, the City’s Parks and Recreation Department, the City’s Parks & Recreation Commission, the Operator, the DeLaveaga Golf Course Superintendent, the City’s Building Department and the City’s Public Works Department. (F5)
F6
The DeLaveaga Golf Course website is not up to date and should include all current information regarding costs to various players and groups such as discounted youth green fees.
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
The City of Santa Cruz’s Parks and Recreation Department should validate that delaveagagolf.com includes youth pricing and current information regarding DeLaveaga’s restaurant and golf course (F6)
Commendations 1
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CM1 Page 11C1. The Grand Jury would like to recognize that the DeLaveaga Golf Course maintenance staff has performed exemplary work in maintaining the course, given its reduction in staff and unfortunate constraints on water use.
No Responses Found 1
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
Alba Recreation and Park District
Special District