Parks officials want to take over golf cart rentals

Squeezed by a continuing budget crisis, Los Angeles officials scaled back city services over the past year, reducing library hours, laying off child-care workers and taking steps to turn over several public parking garages to private companies.

Yet there’s one area where the city suddenly appears determined to branch out, even in a grim economy: golf carts.

After trying for seven years to award a new contract for a golf cart concession at the city’s seven 18-hole courses, officials with the Department of Recreation and Parks have decided they are capable of renting out the electric vehicles themselves.

The proposal came as a surprise, even for a city whose bidding processes are known for being politically charged and glacial in pace. Parks officials have recommended that the five-member Recreation and Parks Commission vote Wednesday to terminate a contract with a company that has performed the work for at least 35 years and drop plans — two years in the making — to award the concession to Encino-based Ready Golf.

“I would recommend that someone put a bullet in their head before they try to get a contract with the city,” Ready Golf President Michael Bernback said after learning of the new proposal. “Nothing moves forward. Nothing gets accomplished.”

The parks commission first went out to bid for a golf cart contract in 2003 but repeatedly found itself incapable of picking a winner. On its third try, the panel, whose members are appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, recommended Ready Golf after consulting with Southern California municipal golf officials.

The proposed contract was bottled up in Villaraigosa’s office for more than a year as the mayor’s top lawyer fielded complaints from labor leaders who wanted city workers to do the job. When it finally came up for a vote, the City Council rejected the deal and recommended that the incumbent concessionaire, J.H. Kishi Co., receive a five-year contract.

Council members were lobbied heavily by both sides. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and one of his top advisers, Michael Yamaki, were among those who spoke on behalf of Kishi.

Kevin Regan, assistant general manager for Recreation and Parks, refused to discuss the golf cart proposal, saying reporters should draw their own conclusions from agency memos. A spokesman for Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents golf course workers, also refused to comment.

The proposal follows layoffs of hundreds of city employees and a warning from the city’s top budget official that public employees should no longer deliver services that are outside the city’s core mission. Councilman Dennis Zine, who is on the council’s budget committee, had similar worries about the proposal.

“There are a number of questions,” he said. “Is this a core service of the city?”

Under the plan, Kishi would continue to have a month-to-month contract as the cart rental operation is transferred to the Recreation and Parks Department. Although Kishi has strong support from members of the council, the company has come under scrutiny from City Controller Wendy Greuel, who issued an audit last month that found the company had underreported its golf cart rental proceeds, depriving the city of at least $16,000 in revenue.

Greuel warned that more money may have gone underreported. Parks officials took over collections for the operation in March and found that, even though rounds of golf had dropped by 6%, cart revenue went up 11%.

Yamaki, the sheriff’s assistant who has spoken on Kishi’s behalf, said the missing money was a tiny fraction of Kishi’s gross income over three years. He called the proposed contract with Ready Golf a “sweetheart deal” because it would have allowed Ready Golf to keep a larger share of the money than Kishi would receive.

“It’s wrong that they’re trying to dump all over the Kishi Co. when for all these years, nobody had a problem,” he added.

Kishi’s longtime owner, Margaret Shimizu, died last month without seeing the issue resolved. Yamaki, who is Shimizu’s nephew, said the city does not realize the risks involved in renting out and maintaining the carts.

“If the city wants to take it over, I’m sure they’re not going to be happy,” he said.

david.zahniser@latimes.com