SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) – Like trying to find a sliced drive that’s gone into the high grass of the rough at twilight, so it is trying to find out how and by whom the City of Sioux Falls’ golf course concession will be decided.
July 28, 2017, the City released a letter on the city website announcing it was accepting requests for proposals for the “least or management of the Sioux Falls Municipal Golf Courses.” RFPs were due Thursday, August 31, 2017, to the City Engineering Office at City Hall. The City provided a 54 page RFP document as well as links to numerous other documents about the City’s three courses—Elmwood, Prairie Green, and Kuehn Park, and other resources.
Section 4 of the RFP outlines the selection criteria that will be determined by an “evaluation team.” While the selection criteria includes six categories worth a total of 100 points. That is followed by an interview with the highest scoring proposers. After the interviews, the highest ranking proposer is asked to enter into a contract. If they can’t or won’t, the evaluation committee moves on to the next highest ranking proposer, until a willing proposer and the City come to an agreement on a contract. The City can also make no award if they cannot come to terms with a proposer.
But who is on this evaluation committee?
No one knows for sure. The City, so far, hasn’t revealed that information.
While most everything else in the process is spelled out with particularity, this issue has been contentious.
KELO.com News has asked the City Parks and Recreation Director, Don Kearny, for a listing of the members of the selection committee. So has City Councilor Theresa Stehly. In a letter to Kearney dated Oct. 9, 2017, Stehly wrote:
“I wanted to state publically, that I am requesting the names of the citizens, park board members, city staff and the City Council members who will be reviewing the proposals, and making the final recommendation to the City Council for approval.”
“As a City Council member, I have NOT been told who is on this RFP committee who will be selecting the “best of the best” form the proposals submitted,” Stehly wrote. “I also feel that the City Council should be able to evaluate the proposals being offered in an executive session before we are asked to vote to approve a contract.”
Both on the air on KELO-AM’s The Greg Belfrage Show and It’s Your Business with Bill Zortman, parts of this drama have played out with representatives of the current and long-term concessionaire, Dakota Golf Management run by Sioux Falls native and PGA golf pro Tom Jansa and GreatLife, owned by local Burger King franchise magnate Tom Walsh—or callers. Three other outside firms also submitted proposals, with two of them—Kemper Sports Management of Chicago and Landscapes Unlimited from Lincoln, Neb.-- interviewed by the unnamed members of the evaluation committee late last month.
The assumption by those in the know in the Sioux Falls golfing community is that the winner will likely be Dakota Golf Management, because of their long tenure. Or it could be the upstart GreatLife, with its industry changing approach of offering golf, fitness, bowling and other activities at a flat monthly fee at a variety of courses and facilities around Sioux Falls and the region.
The knock on Dakota Golf Management is that the number of rounds of golf played at the three city courses over the past six years has declined. These numbers are actually included in Attachment E of the City’s RFP.
2011 saw 116,895 rounds played. 2012, 130,240, +10.2 percent increase. 2013, 105,016, -24 percent decrease. 2014, 93,252, -11.2 percent decrease. 2015, -0.67 percent decrease. 2016, 85,364, -7.84 percent decrease. There was the major ice storm in 2103 that impacted play, with major construction projects on some of the courses in 2015 and 2016.
The City courses had six figure operating incomes in 2011-2013, but then suffered six figure operating losses from 2014-2016.
The knock on GreatLife is that their business model will fill the courses with too many people, particularly novices not adept at playing golf, much to the chagrin of older, more established golfers.
One concerned golfer wrote Stehly on Sept. 26, 2017, worried that her Elmwood Ladies 9-Hole League—which has been in existence since the 1940s, would be a victim of the change in management to GreatLife.
“If Great Life (sic) comes in, the oldest ladies league in Sioux Falls will fold and that is a travesty,” the concerned woman wrote. “The main reason is that most of us are retired and live on a limited budget. As I understand it, Great Life (sic) has Willow Run and the people who live around the course have difficulty getting on that course.”
Finally, she pleads, “What do I do to back Tom (Jansa) and Dakota Golf?”
GreatLife isn’t leaving the selection to chance either, asking its members to contact City Councilors about the process. In an email dated Oct. 2, 2017, one of GreatLife’s manager asked members to get involved.
“HOW CAN YOU HELP?” the email asks. “You may contact the current City Council Member in your section (district) or an at large member, with your opinion of GreatLIFE. If you choose to do so, you may be able to have an affect (sic) on the final decision! Please consider how GreatLIFE has positively impacted your life in regards to value, convenience, and guest satisfaction.”
The email then provided the email addresses of all the City Councilors.
KELO-AM’s Bill Zortman, a businessman and avid golfer as well as a radio show host, notes that it hasn’t been just the three Sioux Falls courses which have seen a decrease in rounds played, but a nationwide problem. He says people just don’t want to have to take four to six hours out of their busy day to play a round of golf.
Still, that excuse rims out of the cup, according to Zortman
“The Jansa’s have worked hard,” Zortman said. “But a concern for the City should be the drop in the number of golf rounds being played on their courses in the last couple of years. At the same time, GreatLife has built a model adding exercise, movies, bowling—and enthusiasm—for younger golfers to pick up the game and stay with it.”
Meanwhile, current champ Dakota Golf Management and upstart GreatLife are battling it out in the links of public opinion and behind the scenes with whomever is making the decision. However, maybe the other two unknown out of town contenders—Kemper Sports Management and Landscapes Unlimited-- are simply going about their business on the back nine, sinking birdies, just waiting for one of the “name” golfers to double bogie and fall off the leader board.
The unnamed members of the committee could be making a selection soon—or not. They City hasn’t announced a date where they will unveil the announcement.