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City council approves golf pass donation policy
by Tim Bondy
Mountain Home News
After years of trying various methods to manage how the Desert Canyon Golf Course season passes and individual rounds of golf are given to charities, a new approach gained approval last month.
During a meeting May 20, the Mountain Home City Council voted in favor of the new policy, which designates the city clerk as the one who approves these passes.
The measure happened after Mayor Tom Rist asked Councilman Jimmy Schipani to find a fix for what has become an unnecessary, red-tape issue for the city, golf course management and charities asking for donated rounds of golf.
Before the city council meeting, Schipani and Desert Canyon Golf Course Pro T.J. Gomez got together to develop a plan that would be acceptable to everyone.
"I sat down with T.J. and some very general guidelines and we put together a policy that we thought was reasonable," said Schipani while explaining how the meeting progressed.
"The number of golf rounds the city gave to charities wasn't out of control as far as the budget was concerned," the mayor added. "It was the time city personnel, the council, and the pro spent in the decision making process."
The city council discussed the newly presented plan and approved the new golf course policy with a minimum of debate.
"We're happy to push the decision making process down to the lowest level (of government)," said Councilman Geoff Schroeder immediately after the May 20 decision.
"The new policy will now limit the total number of golf rounds given to charities to 50 rounds a year," Schipani said regarding the new agreement. "Charities and non-profits will have to submit a request in writing to the city and on a first-come, first-serve basis, individual rounds will be doled out."
The city places a $19.81 value for each golf round given away to charity. The season passes given away to charities are valued at $518.87.
Under the new rules, local charities can request a maximum of two golf rounds a year and out-of-town charities can request only one free round a year. Most requests from charities are done with fund-raising in mind. But the donated rounds aren't always used.
"Only about 50 percent of the rounds we donate to charities each year are actually used according to our records," Rist said.
Golf course season pass giveaways were also reigned in under the new rules. The city now limits charity donations of the passes to just one a year. The Ladies Golf Association will be the recipient of the only pass each year.
"The Ladies Golf Association is a great group and their season pass brings money back to our golf course and back into the community too," Schipani said.
For more information about the new policies and procedures for charity rounds of golf, call city hall at 587-2104.