Not even sure why the council even votes on this stuff;
Because its current golf course management contract expires on December 31, 2017, the City of Sioux Falls completed a competitive request for proposal process to select a golf course management company. The news conference will announce the company with which the City will negotiate a contract and why this process was important to undertake on behalf of the City and the golfing community.
If you are voting on a contract, shouldn’t you be shown at least the TOPÂ 2 RFP choices and make an up or down decision from that? How can the council VOTE on ONE contract offering? What makes it even worse is that the RFP committee that picks the ONE choice is secret, and picks there choice in SECRET. Even with the press conference tomorrow, some councilors still don’t know who was chosen.
UPDATE II: Boy, these things change quickly, I am hearing now that DGM & GreatLife have neither been chosen for the golf contract. Not sure who it is, but I hear there were 5 companies that responded to the RFP.
To be quite honest, I’m more concerned about the secrecy than anything. I think there is too many damn golf courses the way it is, and with all the private ones popping up over the past decade, maybe the city should sell the courses and get out of the golfing business. Or better yet give them to the country clubs so we can finally build an east/west route from Kiwanis to Louise in the center of the city. It still amazes me we allow a few rich people in town to dictate the traffic chokehold we have on the west central part of our city. I would have used imminent domain 20 years ago to bulldoze them. But that would take courage and leadership.
It doesn’t appear that Dakota Golf will be awarded the contract since Tom Jansa was not invited to the announcement.
http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/city/2017/10/17/city-announce-golf-management-company-wednesday/771435001/
I completely agree with you on the closed doors decision and at least getting an up or down vote. This isn’t exactly a matter of state security. The worst thing is you ruin someones opportunity to stand up in front of the cameras and give a speech. Perception often becomes reality and when you do shady things…..
Regarding your last comments, the rumor is that a past administration really dropped the ball in relations with the country clubs and them moving. And once again a rumor, but the country clubs got themselves listed as habitat of some species of bird therefore making it even harder to just use eminent domain.
I especially love how people are for using eminent domain to acquire the country clubs but you would have to either purchase or use eminent domain on at least one side of 26th street to make it more than 2-3 lanes. It’s OK when you use it against Lawyers and Doctors, but what will people say when you start taking peoples homes away.
Well, the doctors and lawyers don’t LIVE at the CC, they just play golf there, so there is a difference. I have heard Munson dropped the ball on that one.
Yeah, MHCC has a Audobon Designation I think. I have argued we could make that part into a park and still put a road through.
Yeah, I did hear that DGM didn’t get the selection. As I told someone at the Planning Academy when someone asked how the city is planned out long term, I said to him, “Whoever has the most money plans the city.”
Whose brother-in-law owns Dakota Golf Management? It’s got to be paternalism or an insider compensation favor. What’s Huether gonna do when he no longer gets royalty checks?
boy your on a role with the hearsay lately…..
first posted weeks ago about huge layoffs that didnt happen
then the mayor was gonna be president of USD
and now this….
fake news folks! fake news!
Once the decision is announced, just follow the money. I believe the out of town groups were involved in different ways with the Elmwood course redesign and/or the Elmwood hotel development.
It’s a sad state of affairs. DGM deserved one more renewal for having to work through all of the golf course construction and shutdowns that impacted their bottom line over the past several years.
What happened to update I ?
What a surprise, another secret decision being made. I watched the live broadcast of the announcement and it sure felt to me like this was some sort of planned transition from Dakota Golf to Landscapes Management. I heard things like “intend to retain all personnel” and “work with existing management”. Landscapes noted, that they included in their RFP, their intent to retain all Dakota Golf employees, due to their existing relationship (Landscapes built Prairie Green and did the recent Elmwood renovations) with Dakota Golf. To me it, this just feels like some sort of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours type of deal.
I was impressed with Theresa Stehly speaking up and saying she wanted the council to have access to all 5 proposals so they could compare the recommended company’s proposal to what the other proposals offered.
guest, the layoffs did happen, just not of the scale I thought. I think more people will be laid off in the coming weeks, but as I said at the time, I wasn’t sure the scale of it.
The USD president wasn’t a rumor or prediction from me, just something someone said to me in passing, as I noted.
MMM, I could care less if it was DGM or GL that got the contract, I just think it is unfortunate we are using an out of state company to run the courses, but hey, we allow SMG to funnel millions out of our community every day, so whats the difference.
@My_Mistake_Mike – I’d be interested to know and understand the reasoning why DGM deserved another renewal? I was a long time DGM golfer before GreatLife started & I switched, and the value proposition and overall experience at DGM courses wasn’t any better in all the years before the Elmwood project started.
Theresa told it like it is. Her response? Crickets chirping, or, even more appropriately, move along, nothing to see here.
Just one more case of a lot of Sioux Falls dollars leaving the state. Just like the lyft deal. It all starts to add up after a while.
Guest, the layoffs are happening quietly at the major employer l3wis was referring to.
Theresa Stehly wasted no time with her response – http://www.argusleader.com/story/opinion/readers/2017/10/18/letter-secrecy-golf-course-selection-concern/106768020/
I’ll be shocked if the 5 proposals are provided to all city council members to review prior to the vote happening. They just have to take the expert committee’s word for it.
Did anyone happen to catch the names of the 2 private citizen’s who were members of the committee? I’d be interested to know what their backgrounds are and how they were selected.
I was hoping that Great Life would get it, so that I could automatically earn enough credits for a free Whopper meal after ten ticket stamps with my Parks Department “Go Card”…. Oh well, I guess I will go to McDonalds now (So much for exercising) …..
The crickets chirping I was referring to was the non response by the Landscapes Unlimited rep after Theresa dressed this whole charade down. If you have not seen this…watch.
https://www.facebook.com/argusleader/videos/10155578189012900/