Golf courses skirt hazard
County able to keep all 3 open after losing contractor
Facing a time crunch of an ending contract, the Shawnee County Commission took action Thursday to keep Lake Shawnee Golf Course and two other golf courses open and operating past the end of the month.
The management contract for the golf courses terminates on Jan. 31, Shawnee County Parks and Recreation director Tim Laurent told commissioners. The company, Lake Shawnee Golf Management LLC, has managed all three golf course clubhouses, but “has chosen not to continue; they’ve given us their 60 day notice.”
He asked that the county hire the company’s current golf course workers to do the same jobs as government employees.
“From our standpoint, this was the most seamless and efficient way to move forward,” Laurent said.
Had the commission not approved the plan on Thursday — which they did unanimously — Laurent said the county would have risked closing the golf courses at the end of the month. In addition to Lake Shawnee Golf Course, the county’s Parks and Recreation department also has Cypress Ridge Golf Course and Forbes Golf Course.
Laurent is confident the transition will go smoothly enough that golfers shouldn’t notice a change in the quality of their experience.
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“From a golf operations standpoint, when they walk in and they’re greeted at the door and their tee times and everything else, I think it’s going to be pretty consistent to what we have now,” Laurent said.
Shawnee County won’t do a new RFP for a contractor
While he ultimately voted for the plan, Commissioner Aaron Mays initially expressed hesitancy to proceeding immediately and without putting out a request for proposals to find a new contractor.
“My concern though is if we don’t start this process,” Laurent said of hiring on the golf staff, “then we’re not going to have anybody on when that contract expires. We’re not going to have employees to run those three courses.”
In addition to the short timeframe, Laurent was skeptical that an RFP could find a good contractor.
“Who knows what we would get now, but in the last go round they only had I believe two companies that were willing to do this arrangement, where they just took care of the clubhouse management,” he said. “Most of the companies that do this, if you look around at other golf courses that contract it out, it’s for the whole thing.”
Laurent said he believes Parks and Rec does a “phenomenal job” of maintaining and running the golf courses at a high level — and for cheaper than contractors would.
“I don’t want to give that up,” he said.
Here’s how much will the county pay the government employees
Laurent said there is sufficient funding to cover the seven full-time positions and four permanent parttime positions.
The county had been paying the company roughly $330,000 a year, and the company was keeping all the food and beverage revenues as well as from the ranges. Laurent said the company profited about $470,000 last year. Now, the county will keep those revenues while not having to pay that contract.
Laurent said the county estimates that it will now be adding about $970,000 into a government fund while the positions will cost about $954,000.
“I just want to make sure everybody understands while we’re adding these positions to the county, we’re paying for them out of user fees,” he said. “So there’ll be no additional impact to the taxpayer.”
There will be one full-time golf operations general manager, with a starting compensation of about $73,000, including benefits. Compensation for the two full-time head professionals starts at about $70,000. The three full-time assistant professionals have compensation starting at about $62,000. The one full-time clubhouse manager job’s starting pay is about $51,000.
Two part-time outside services managers have a starting pay of about $44,000, while two more parttime outside services managers at a lower pay rate, starting at about $34,000.
Additionally, there will be four intermittent position types to cover about 30,500 staff hours, totaling about $348,000 a year. That estimate is likely higher than what it will ultimately cost, Laurent said.
“We know what we’re getting with this staff ... these people are going to hit the ground running,” Laurent said.
Commissioner Kevin Cook said he has heard good things about the staff — a sentiment also expressed by some public speakers — and doesn’t want to lose them.
“In today’s job market, there are more jobs available than there are people to fill them,” Cook said. “I would hate for us to lose somebody because they’re uncertain as to what we as a commission are doing, is there going to be a job there in a month.”
Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd .