City council denies use of fund to replace roofs

The city of Rowlett is standing its ground and will follow its contract with American Golf to manage the Waterview Golf Course exactly as written. That was the message conveyed by the council during its regular work session on Tuesday, April 3.

Money was allocated by the city to replace two existing sands traps with new ones in a different location. American Golf, who oversees the golf course, asked the city if it could use the funds to pay the deductible to have the roof replaced on its buildings at the golf course.

“We have asked American Golf to make some changes to the golf course that the golf advisory committee was wanting,” said Brad Marshall, golf advisory board member. “We wanted to make some changes that golfers would notice.”

In exchange for allowing the use of the money to fund the new roof, American Golf would add the additional two sand traps and continue to maintain the existing two as well.

“American Golf made a recommendation that instead of eliminating two existing sand traps they requested the money be spent on the roof instead. At that point we had to bring it back to council for your consideration,” Funderburk said.

The Golf Advisory Board recommended the funding of the roof as proposed by American Golf.

Marshall said the Golf Advisory Board made the recommendation since the city would be spending the money one way or another and with the changes proposed by American Golf they believed the course would be better since the additional sand traps would be left in.

“We contemplated this and we didn’t see any downside. Basically we are going to get the two sand traps we wanted. We get to keep the two sand traps they were going to pull out originally, which is something we can utilize later on to negotiate something we want to do later on,” Marshall said. “We are spending the same amount of money.”

The city council was in agreement with the city staff that they had a problem with allowing the funds to be utilized for anything other than what it was intended for.

“I will tell you that while we did not make a recommendation as [city] staff, our recommendation would be to deny. We believe this sets a dangerous precedent. We have a contract with American Golf that that very clearly explains what their responsibilities are and they in our opinion need to be maintained like any other vendor in the community,” said Lynda Humble, city manager.

“I agree with that completely. We spent a long time in court with American Golf dealing with that contract where we let some things slide and it got to be a big ugly mess. We can’t get back into that mode,” said Doug Phillips, mayor pro tem.

They reached a consensus that the contract the city has with American Golf requires them to fund the cost of maintaining the course and its facilities would be followed as written.

“The expectation is that they use their money to maintain the facilities,” Humble said.

“I think this is one where we need to stay with the letter of the contract. I think this is a slippery slope,” said Donna Davis, city councilwoman.

The city council agreed the city would fund the swapping out of sand traps in an effort to make the course more appealing, especially to repeat golfers but American Golf will be responsible for funding the roof replacements.

“I have no problem with the bunkers but I have no interest in spending money for something they need to fund,” Phillips said.

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