Around HereBy Leo CoughlinWhen the notion of subsidizing Largo's municipal golf course to the tune of $150,000 a year came up last week, Commissioner Gigi Arntzen wanted to know what kind of marketing plan those who run the course are going to come up with. Arntzen might better have asked what kind of marketing scheme is going on at the city's Cultural Center which currently is eating up $400,000 a year or so in taxpayer subsidies. For fiscal year 2011, a transfer of about $150,000 from the city's operating budget for the golf course fund will probably be required and $100,000 in 2012, said Amy Davis, city budget manager, who has just departed that office after a tenure of superior performance. City Commission members no doubt like to think of themselves as keen watchdogs of the public treasury. Probing questions from time to time from some of them would lead one to believe this is true. But other factors paint a very much different picture. Take the Cultural Center as the most glaring example in the city. The subsidy of $8,000 a week dumped into the center is mind boggling. And the subsidy, which used to be $10,000 a week, has gone on for years. Questioning about this never came up. If memory serves, Bob Jackson, when mayor, would occasionally make a passing reference to it, but there was never any follow up. Until now. Commissioner Curtis Holmes, the newcomer to the commission who promised during his election campaign that he would bring to office the technique of "thinking outside the box," has done exactly that. Among the welter of items that he has put on the commission's plate for public perusal is the penetrating question of "Where does the $8,000 a week go?" Holmes asked that at a meeting a couple of weeks ago and the always nervous assistant city manager, Henry Schubert, choked out an answer that seemed to be saying the money went to pay for "overhead, management costs, utility bills and other costs." Word has arrived that a full blown, top to bottom audit of the Cultural Center is going to be done. If it were to be done correctly and with a strong purpose in mind, an outside entity should be doing it. An audit, to define it in its most simple terms, means to account for every dollar that went in and every one that went out. It ought to be interesting and city officials - elected and appointed - should welcome it. Nothing clears the air (or casts a brooding dark cloud) so much as an audit. Then Holmes seized last week on the spending of some $491 to send Commissioner Harriet Crozier to St. Augustine to attend the Solid Waste Association Road-E-O. This is an event that has gone on for years and apparently Crozier is the mascot of the trash collectors because she manages to go every year. Intelligent minds are still wrestling over what purpose her presence serves other than a boondoggle. Because Holmes raised the question further of just how much the whole thing cost, Brian Usher, the Public Works Director, trundled up to the microphone, obviously very uncomfortable. He testified that it costs $7,000. That nine people (excluding Crozier) go on the trip - six of them drivers and three "judges." Let's see - 9 people for two days at a total cost of $7,000 comes to $388 per person a day. Hmmmmm. Obviously this information looks bad, so a different set of figures appeared in the Manager's Report that came out less than three days later. And Human Resources Director Susan Sinz was dragged into the picture (no doubt to spread the responsibility even thinner) and it turns out that - at the very end of the lengthy report - that the cost is $4,050. And that's just for the personnel; and does not include transportation. The 377-word explanation in the Manager's Report, issued Friday, pointed out the merits of the ROAD-E-O; namely, that it gives drivers in a competitive setting a chance to show off their skills. So what? It's been going on for a long time. Crozier suggested 17 years at least. And Mayor Pat Gerard offered a justification - "Solid waste people get few opportunities to network." Really?
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