Washburn: Mayor Pouts Over Lack Of Civility and Trust ... Really Mr. Mayor?

Concord’s Mayor Byron Champlin caused many heads to be scratched when he called for more civility and trust to be present in Concord.

He was probably spot on when he mentioned the lack of trust in the current governance at the council and school board level, but where is the uncivility? Petitions, counter groups to government waste and differing opinion do not make for a lack of civility. In colonial days, when miscreant public officials dotted the horizon, some were hung in effigy, and some were justifiably tarred and feathered and run out of town. Society has become more enlightened and tolerant of governmental abuse and much as those actions might be appropriate today, they are no longer in practice. Given the terms of office, recall petitions are not practicable.

When a candidate runs for school board or city council, the implicit promise made is that they will faithfully represent the views of their constituents. This did not happen with the new middle school, and may not happen with the expanded call for a new golf clubhouse. Petitions were started and two new counter groups coalesced around a different point of view. This is hardly the mustering of the militia, let alone being uncivil.

The proposed new clubhouse has caused a greater degree of purview of the operations of Beaver Meadow and how we got to the place we are in with its current state. The golf course advisory committee had its origins in 1986 with the joint recognition by the administration and city council that Beaver Meadow was a treasured city asset and required operational oversite to assure its continuance. Later the membership of the committee was expanded. And then the nature of the committee’s oversite’s responsibilities was reduced to give it the equivalency of a chowder and marching society.

Some of the current knocks are; there is no differentiation of membership golf and cart fees between residents and non-residents. This is not an unreasonable change.

Jack Benny in his time was a comic genius and part of his schtick was the claim never to exceed the age of 39. The current junior membership age limit is an absurd 39. Benny would be pleased with this election.

One of the “Friends of Beaver Meadow Group” proudly boasts that outings at Beaver Meadow provided sponsors with $300,000 plus in revenues. This was accomplished by discounting greens and cart fee by an astounding 76%. Additionally, these outings were held on prime golf days reducing the opportunity for collecting greens and cart fees plus taking away member usage. No golf course can afford such a discount. Outings are an important part of the annual revenue stream for all golf courses. A 76% discount spells a financial disaster for other courses and has for Beaver Meadow. Restricting outings to Mondays as a reasonable alternative at a more sensible discount would be a significant improvement.

Another unanswered question is why does Beaver Meadow employ three golf pros? Most employ 1, some employ 2 but 3? Concord is known for excess personnel costs but this is beyond reason.

Beaver Meadow has an accumulated reserve fund of $1 million. It accumulated this reserve by ignoring annual maintenance, a trait common to City of Concord property management.

If you follow council actions you will learn that many council members place an undue emphasis on committee reports. It uses this as an excuse for the failure to do their own due diligence. The mayor controls what appears on the council agenda. If it is not there, the public has no forum to discuss their concerns. The mayor has changed the meeting format to end council meetings allowing councilors to participate in “happy talk” at their option, but no option for public comment

Also, at the State of the City speech, both the manger and mayor boasted at the 2,352 housing units in the pipeline. This would normally be a moment of pride if the cat wasn’t let out of the bag at a recent council meeting that we had zero sewage capacity for these units at the Hall St. sewage treatment facility. To his credit, Councilor Foote has been patiently prodding the administration to come up with sewer and water impact fees to no avail. Absent the impact fees, rate payers will be socked with the cost of these system improvement which should be born by the developers profiting from their projects.

Robert Washburn is a CPA and former Concord city councilor.