Fact check of Leffler's letter
Regarding Chuck Leffler's letter in the Aug. 17, Weekly Vista:
• The ARK-MO land sale would have yielded a one-time $700,000 gain. The trade-off was to forever lose a potentially more valuable future asset. The Rejuvenation Plan calls for $26 million in costs through 2021. Selling the ARK-MO land would have contributed less than 3 percent of that.
• Chuck suggests changing our annual greens fee program would generate up to $1 million annually. Any rational analyses, using actual figures, shows that conclusion to be absurd.
• The POA transferred police, fire, streets, and trash to the city. Those things had a total budget of about $6 million. However, the POA collected $1.7 million in revenue to offset the trash expense, leaving a net savings of $4.3 million. Chuck either selectively chooses not to include the revenue to get to the net expense, or previous statements he seems to recall neglected to include it.
• Chuck suggests that temporarily closing a golf course on a rotating basis would save at least $1 million a year. This has been studied extensively. Whether closed or open during a given week, golf courses must be mowed and maintained. There is no meaningful cost savings.
• He arbitrarily claims the POA has kept more than $2 million in annual excess overhead and payroll. He offers no analysis or rationale for that statement.
He adds all these things to come up with a large number that is based on a series of imaginary or fabricated items and conclusions.
The numbers and conclusions he quotes look very similar to those Stephen McKee has been publishing and communicating. We have reviewed those extensively and found them to be invalid.
Ron Stratton
POA Vice Chairman
Bella Vista
Editorial on 08/24/2016