Logic and reason missing from fields idea

The proposal by Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor and parks and recreation commission Chairwoman Wendy Leece to bulldoze part of the Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club's Mesa Linda course and build sports fields in its place is so flawed and ridiculous that I'm quite certain it will never come to fruition, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to introduce a few more rational thoughts to the recreation-field planning process.

It's disappointing that this idea was just thrown out there without much regard for the governing bodies that Leece and Mansoor lead. The reason for that is pretty obvious ? it would not even make it out of a subcommittee meeting of either body.

As is typical of Mansoor's approach, rather than evaluating and debating ideas using established governmental processes and the resources of the city's staff, he just launches his grand plans on his own. He pitched his plan to have the city assume federal immigration duties unannounced at a City Council meeting and decided on his own that we need to spend a few hundred million dollars to bury utility lines. So foisting this inane idea upon the public without evaluation or debate is, ahem, par for the course.

It's completely obvious that Mansoor and Leece know very little about golf, but it's also troublingly obvious that neither of them seem to know very much about city contracts and master plans. The contract in place with Mesa Verde Partners, the facilities management company that operates the golf courses, runs through 2016 and is for the current facility. Breaking that deal may be doable, but not without considerable legal wrangling and expense. That deal also brings the city a net profit of $800,000 per year, which goes straight into the city's general fund. Bulldozing and reconstructing would cut that revenue by at least one-third during the two years or more that would be required to rebuild the Mesa Linda course. Unless fees are raised significantly, the revenue generated by a tiny 3,000-yard "executive" course would not match those generated by the current, already-short 5,000-yard course.

As has been noted, bulldozing the Mesa Linda course would also be severely detrimental to youth golf. Destroying one established recreation facility with a long track record of success to replace it with another is hardly what the residents of Costa Mesa expect when we say we want improved recreation opportunities in the city.