For the past few years, the Jersey Village City Council has made a point of talking about how much more “transparent” they were being than in the past. The current Mayor does not let an opportunity get by without mentioning that point. However, on a closer look, it appears they are saying they are making information available via the city website for anyone to see. They also post the meeting documents prior to a city council meeting most of the time for review. Those documents may be as many as 600+ pages that are included and approved during the meeting with only the agenda item number stated. Those attending the meeting have a hard time understanding what is being discussed and approved. However, they can say later that it was all disclosed and discussed during public meetings. “wink, wink”
Now on the issue of transparency involving the “real” financial status for the golf course, below are documents that were provided as part of the Jersey Village reporting for the golf course operation. The first document GC-fund-balance-11-30-2021 is the Fund Balance Report as of 11/30/2021 and it shows 11 – GOLF COURSE FUND with a balance of $-4,808,398.47.
The second document GC-fund-balance-12-31-2021 is the Fund Balance Report as of 12/31/2031 and it shows 11 – GOLF COURSE FUND with a balance of $-4,597,126.92.
The third document GC-fund-summary-12-31-2021 is Fund Summary For Fiscal 2021-2022 Period Ending 12/31/2021 and it shows 11 – GOLF COURSE FUND …. original total budget = 0.00 current total budget = 0.00 MTD activity = 71,128.88 YTD activity = 62,191.83 budget remaining = -62,191.83.
The Mayor and City Council Members continue to say that the golf course operations are doing great and that it will only get better with each series of improvements made to the golf course and clubhouse. The Fund Balance Report as of 12/31/2021 appears to show that the Golf Course Operations has a negative balance of $4,597,126.92 implying that the city general fund has provided that much more to that operation than it has received from that operation.
At this point, our research has not identified any reporting that provides a clear picture of the total cost of the golf course operations that includes the purchase of the golf course, financing over the past 20+ years, all expenses for repairs and improvements over those 20+ years, and the total operating expenses during those 20+ years. The Transparency that many taxpayers want to see is what has been the yearly Income/Expense for the operation over those 20+ years by year. With that transparency, the taxpayers/voters can then determine for themselves any trends and that will help them understand how spending another $10+ million on improvements on the golf course might affect their future property taxes.
