Council Decides Against Renewing Van Nuys Golf Course Lease

For 34 years, the same private operator has run the city-owned Van Nuys Golf Course, a stretch of green at the end of an airport runway.

But the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to let the lease expire Dec. 31, and to ask city recreation officials to study whether they could do a better job of running the 52-acre golf course or if the city should seek competitive bids.

It’s not that Van Nuys Golf Course Partners was doing a bad job, said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the area. The operator has a “very, very good track record” of serving the community, she said, and had agreed to install a $400,000 irrigation system to use reclaimed water if the city had agreed to extend the lease another four years.

“Maybe we could get a better deal,” Chick said.

Chick added that she wanted to “hear from our own city family, who are experts in operating golf courses, to see if this is the way to go.”

The move was supported by the union representing the city’s recreation workers. Julie Butcher, the union’s general manager, said a city-run golf course could make more than the $475,000 the private operator generates for the city each year, while also offering better youth programs.

Some council members objected to rubber-stamping a lease that had not been competitively bid--a heated topic the lawmakers had just raked over in a debate over extending a lease at the Greek Theatre in Los Feliz.

“We ought to do what we should do after all this time, and that is to put it out to bid rather than give these lifetime leases,” Councilwoman Rita Walters said.

The council’s 8-3 vote rejected the position of the Board of Airport Commissioners, which had advised extending the lease. The property, a buffer zone next to Van Nuys Airport, is owned by the Los Angeles World Airports Department.

But the decision will not immediately alter management at the golf course, a popular facility that features a 9-hole executive green and an 18-hole, par-three course. In January, the lease will revert to a month-to-month contract until the city decides whether to take over the facility or solicit competitive bids to operate it.

In the meantime, the council asked airport and recreation officials to report back in 60 days with a recommendation on the golf course.

Richard Sessinghaus, an assistant general manager for the Recreation and Parks Department, said the department welcomes the chance to study taking over the facility. The department already runs four golf courses in the San Fernando Valley and nine more in other parts of the city.

But Sheldon Sloan, the attorney representing Van Nuys Golf Course Partners, countered that he does not believe the city could install the new irrigation system as cheaply or quickly as the private operator could.

“It’s a legitimate trade-off deal,” Sloan said after the vote. “My best guess is that when Recreation and Parks looks at it, they’re going to say, ‘Let ‘em have it, we can’t do it fast enough.’ ”

Paul Tanner, the golf course’s manager, said the facility offers the lowest fees in the Valley and serves a variety of youth groups, including the West Valley YMCA and New Directions for Youth, a community service organization based in Van Nuys.

More than 1,200 people signed a petition posted at the golf course supporting extension of the lease. But others said young duffers would be better served by a publicly run course.

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Michael Brown, who used to run a junior golf program at Van Nuys, said the golf course is not doing enough for young people.

“They do not have a proven track record,” said Brown, now a golf director at two city-run courses. He said he closed his youth program at Van Nuys Golf Course after the operator there tried to restrict the children’s course privileges.

“A city golf course is a safe haven for kids from 3 to 6 o’clock after school,” Brown said. “Parents don’t worry about where those kids are. They’re on the golf course.”