Tachi reconsider purchase of Lemoore Golf Course; Council appears poised to approve Special Assessment measure

Councilmembers voted 4-0 Tuesday night, with councilmember Eddie Neal absent, to approve the new contract for Rhoads, who will continue running the course while on the city’s payroll until a long-term pact is agreed upon later this year.

Tuesday’s actions come on the heels of a somewhat surprising announcement that the Tachi Tribal Council has decided not to pursue a purchase of the 70-year-old golf course. As late as Friday there were indications the Tachi were still interested in buying the course.

Lemoore Parks and Recreation Director Joe Simonson told councilmembers that he received an email Monday indicating the local Tachi were not interested any more. “Yesterday … at about 3 p.m., I received an email from Jim Snead, CFO (chief financial officer) of Tachi-Palace Casino, and it stated ‘Our tribal council seems to have cooled to the idea of acquiring the golf course. They do not want to pursue a purchase at this time.’”

A little over a week ago, it appeared the Tachi were still interested in purchasing the course for $5 million, which included $2 million at the close of escrow, $2 million in five years and $1 million in 10 years.

The sudden reversal seems to have created a new-found focus on the part of the city to proceed with a special assessment and finally come to an agreement with Rhoads.

According to Simonson, a preliminary study was done by the city’s engineering firm Quad Knopf and Finance Director Cheryl Silva that stated that such an assessment would be $3,600,677 over a 13-year period and will coincide with the payoff of all the golf course debt. Simonson made it clear that proceeds from an assessment would not go directly to paying the debt, but rather pay for much of the operations and maintenance costs, which in turn could free up revenues to pay off the debt.

City officials may also consider attaching the cost of a new swimming pool to the assessment, creating sort of an incentive for property owners to pass the special assessment. The only public pool in Lemoore is at the high school and is used heavily by the school’s sports teams and local groups.

The cost of an assessment would be about $60,000 and that does not include the information campaign that needs to go along with the measure to provide important information to the public. It would cost another $5,500 just to get the measure on the ballot in November.

A Benefit Assessment requires a simple majority of the ballots collected by mail and is similar to a Lighting and Landscaping Maintenance District (LLMD).

The cost of 7,066 private properties would be approximately $39.20 per year or $3.27 per month for the 13-year period. However, a special assessment requires that the city have a “special benefit” to the assessed property owner, for example a reduction in green fees or another kind of benefit.