Irate golfers from Alameda put down their clubs and confronted a bureaucracy last week. They walked away with a hybrid.

An overwhelming number of golfers from the Chuck Corica Golf Complex filled the city council chambers at the Jan. 2 meeting. On the agenda was a proposal from city staff to lease the golf complex out to a private corporation. Those golfers would have none of this "privatization" at their public course.

Negativity flew around the room for most of the evening, from both sides.

The National Golf Foundation, which first recommended the complex be leased out, gave a PowerPoint presentation to the council, based on the report it issued last September. Ed Getherall and Rich Singer from the NGF explained that their decision had an underlying assumption — NGF did not believe the city would cease taking so much money from the golf complex. Singer pointed out that recently the city took, on average, $191,259 in PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes), $143,961 in ROI (return on investment), $193,115 in surcharges and $399,113 in COA (cost allocation) each year. That is nearly $1 million a year, more than they had ever see a city take from a municipal operation, they said.

Mayor Beverly Johnson quickly shifted the conversation to management of the golf complex. "We need to know detail of management issues at the golf complex," she said. "I believe there were significant management issues, and have been for some time."

Golf Commission chair Jane Sullwold followed NGF. She countered the suggestion that the commission endorsed privatization with an explanation that the commission was not in favor of leasing the course out, unless all other solutions failed.

"We've propped up the city when it was in trouble ... for over 80 years," Sullwold began.

She pointed out that the NGF report also stated that the Chuck Corica Golf Complex remains the busiest facility in the Bay Area, despite losing more than 100,000 rounds a year from its peak years in the 1990s. All golf courses have seen a drop in attendance since Sept. 1, 2001.

The Alameda complex would make money if the city had not taken so much money from the golf complex receipts, she said. Sullwold went on to explain the issues the commission has had with the city's finance director. "We were going to make a profit this last fiscal year," Sullwold said, "when Finance suddenly said we had a $250,000 loss. The finance director gave no explanation, just that this 'couldn't be predicted.'"

Sullwold offered some out-of-the-box thinking from the commission. One idea was to allow limited, appropriate advertising on the course. Another was to leave aside the COA, but suspend the three other charges the city makes to the golf complex for a while, or limit them. Another option is to close the Mif Albright course and lease out the land.

These steps would allow the golf complex to build a banquet facility, something the complex needs to get tournament play. Tournaments have avoided the Corica Complex the last few years because there is no place to have a banquet following play.

A number of Alameda golfers took the podium after Sullwold. All of these golfers were adamant that the golf complex should not fall into private hands, asserting that this was their golf course, a public facility, and they were not about to lose control of it.

The council passed two motions: to develop a community-based master plan for the golf complex, which is expected to take about nine months. The other was to establish a "hybrid" private-public partnership to manage the facility — the details of which would come back to council for further discussion. The council encouraged the golf commission to continue their out-of-the-box thinking, which would be included in the master plan.

In the meantime, staff was authorized to reduce the amount of money the golf complex has been losing.

Johnson expressed her belief that much of that recovered money could come from the reduction of a "bloated bureaucracy" at the complex. "I believe we can look at the management and administration of the golf course and identify savings there," she said.

Golfers grumbled their way out of the meeting, mumbling that they would be back.

Award-winning golf writer Ron Salsig can be reached at