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Putnam National's Operations Continue to be Examined by Legislature
Findings inconclusive: Committee keeps options open
by Margaret Sternberg
Most of the lengthy November 27, 2006 meeting of the Putnam County Legislature's Audit & Administration Committee was devoted to examining in minute detail some of the operations of the Putnam National Golf Club and its private operator, Putnam Golf, Inc.
During a series of repetitive questions that focused on different maintenance fees charged by the County, the profitability of the Club, as well as several accounting questions connected to the charging of the maintenance fees, Chairman Tony Hay and Legislator Dan Birmingham closely queried Commissioner of Finance William Carlin, who patiently answered all questions to the seeming satisfaction of the two legislators, although Hay maintained that, under exactly the same conditions, the Club had moved from profitability under the first private operator into the red under the second operator, despite Carlin maintaining the incentives for the two operators were different and needed to be accounted for.
The discussion ended anticlimactically with the Committee, Commissioner Carlin, Putnam County Attorney Carl Lodes and others going into Executive Session and emerging with no consensus other than that the Committee would be considering other options available to them regarding Putnam National and its operations.
Aside from the one discussion, the Committee reviewed and approved a number of "FYIs," numerous budgetary amendments and fund transfers, pre-filed resolutions, reviewed several monthly reports and acknowledged a memo from Commissioner Carlin that the County had negotiated an extension, until January 19, 2007, to repay the $5 million principal used to buy the golf course and the approximately $300,000 in interest currently owed. The date was chosen so that the County needed to borrow only once, as opposed to twice, and thereby save on bond and note insurance costs.
The following resolutions were pre-filed: to permit the transfer of maintenance, repair and minor renovation appropriations, a tax reduction and a tax refund to a company in Southeast and a tax refund to a Carmel resident.
The following requests - all, with no fiscal impact - were approved and will now go to the full Legislature for approval: a transfer to fund the Town Hall Pandemic Flu meeting held November 2, a transfer to fund the Homeland Security Program, a youth program empowerment against tobacco grant, two transfers funding road patrol overtime, a grant from Pow'r Against Tobacco and temporary personnel hired and equipment purchases related to a Cities Readiness Initiative Grant.
Additional approvals with no fiscal impact included funding for recycling/litter cleanup promotional materials, for computer equipment and related software for the HAVA-mandated (Help America Vote Act) voting machines, for the Kent Senior Center, for the continuation of the Child Passenger Safety Initiative, for State fuel assistance, for motor vehicles special services and postage, for full-time personnel to cover an unpaid maternity leave, and for the Septic Repair Program.
The Committee also approved transfers to cover the cost of flu vaccine, for the purchase of diagnostic equipment, for the hookup of the emergency generator at the Koehler Center, for the cost of advertising for the Household Hazardous Waste Day and to cover the increased cost of gasoline for an early intervention program at a private institution and preschool care at a private institution, for road patrol overtime, for the purchase of inventory items,, for leased transportation, to cover a shortfall in road patrol gasoline and for car insurance.
Among transfers that had fiscal impact was $21,000 used from the DWI Reserve to purchase a mobile license plate reader to be shared by four law enforcement agencies, $30,000 from the Contingency Fund to cover the Court-appointed legal defense of indigents, $40,000 from the Contingency Fund for gasoline and motor oil and $50,000 from the Contingency Fund to the Law Department.
The review of the Sales Tax report revealed that the expected shortfall in sales tax for 2006 versus what was budgeted would be closer to $4 million than the $2.5 - $3 million that had been expected at the year's midpoint.
The next meeting of the Audit Committee will be posted on the PCN&R's website as soon as it becomes available.
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