Golfers Howl Over Talk of Privatizing Courses : Recreation: Many resent being left out of talks that may result in operation of Los Angeles’ links by private firms. Discussions are in early stages, Riordan aides say, and no decisions have been made.

Local golfers are teed off that one of their own--Mayor Richard Riordan--is excluding them from talks about privatizing city courses.

The word on the golf grapevine is that Penmar Golf Course in Venice will be the first to go private and that, course by course, others will follow.

“It’s being done behind our backs,” said Marty Tregnan, president of the Municipal Golf Assn., an umbrella group for 14 golf organizations.

But representatives for Riordan, a casual golfer, contend that the discussions about privatization are in the early stages. No decisions have been made and no golf courses selected, the mayor’s representatives say.

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“We don’t have any proposals or any secret agenda,” said Bill McCarley, Riordan’s chief of staff. “We’re not at the point of being site-specific. Everything is on the table.”

The golf association is opposed to privatizing the public courses. Members of golf clubs at city courses currently have a say in course policies--such as greens fees and when a course will be closed to the public for tournaments--and fear they will lose their influence if private companies move in.

The golfers, who have launched a petition drive against privatization, are not the only ones upset.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter said at a news conference that she is angry that the mayor is conducting meetings concerning a golf course in her district without inviting her or her constituents. After she scheduled the news conference, she was invited to a meeting but declined to attend.

“There has been a lot of conversation on the subject of privatization in government,” Galanter said. “But when that talk takes place in meetings among city officials, the people of our city deserve to know what is happening and how it will affect their lives.”

Golf course employees and union representatives are also concerned.

“The wonderful thing about our public courses is that they are open to the public at relatively low cost,” said Julie Butcher, a spokeswoman for Local 347 of the Service Employees International Union. “Why would you contract out a profitable service? From an economic standpoint, I don’t get it.”

The city’s 13 courses are already largely private. The golf carts, restaurants, pro shops and driving ranges are all handled by outside companies that hold contracts with the city.

Still, the city employs 132 full-time workers and about 240 part-time workers to maintain and supervise the courses. Talk of privatizing those areas, as well, began before Riordan came to office July 1.

Concerned that the city was not making as much money as it could from its golf courses, the City Council in May voted to request bids for the maintenance or operation of one golf course as a pilot project. Galanter supported that effort.

The city’s Department of Recreation and Parks, which oversees the courses, returned with a plan to contract out the maintenance of Penmar, a nine-hole course in Venice, to a private firm.

“We want to begin this venture very small, learning from our experiences,” said Rick Sessinghaus, the department’s budget director. “We want to start with one facility. If it proves to be successful, who knows?”

But Riordan wants the department to come up with a grander privatization scheme.

Golf courses are one of the few moneymaking city operations, although parks officials say they are not sure exactly how much profit is generated. City greens fees--about $15 for 18 holes--are considered low compared to other local courses.

Parks officials are analyzing the privatization schemes used in Los Angeles County, Long Beach and other jurisdictions across the country to assess whether private operation works.

The county has privatized 17 of its 20 courses since 1982 and officials say the arrangement has generated more money for the county and facilitated capital improvements at the courses. The Board of Supervisors still sets greens fees and has arranged its leases so that the county has not relinquished all control to outside vendors.

But golfers such as Craig Kessler, spokesman for the 22,000-member Southern California Public Links Golf Assn., complain that in the county they are locked out of discussions concerning course policies.