Sioux Falls City Council defers golf course management decision

After two hours of debate, the Sioux Falls City Council voted unanimously to wait to decide to enter in an agreement with Lanscapes Management Company LLC.

The city council was scheduled to vote on a resolution that would approve a 5 year contract with the Nebraska based company to manage the city’s golf courses.

The council voted to defer the vote for one week.

The vote came with plenty of controversy and heated debate.

Landscapes Management LLC would be taking the place of Dakota Golf Management, which has worked with the city of Sioux Falls for more than two decades.

The owner of the company wasn’t ready to say good bye to managing the city’s golf courses and the many golfers who fill the city council chambers weren’t either.

“Give Dakota Golf a chance. Vote down this agreement tonight,” Dakota Golf Management owner Tom Jansa said.

Applause rang out after Jansa gave public comment to the city council.

He says he doesn't want his 23 year agreement with the city end. And he wasn’t alone.

Many supporters took to the podium to show their support for Dakota Golf.

“In the end what is DGM reward for all these years of great customer service, excellent golf course management, and dealing gracefully with the struggles of a major reconstruction project” Well, it seems that the reward is to move the operation to an out-of-state company and effectively put DGM a local business, out of business,” golfer Roger King said.

Another issue at hand was assets.

Dakota Golf has managed the three city courses as a private entity, which means they have purchased all the assets on the course.

The company owns everything from the golf carts to the office supplies.

Dakota Golf thought the new company taking over management duties would buy the assets from them, but that isn’t the case so far.

“It's actually the city that's purchasing the assets,” Jansa said.

The city and Dakota Golf have not been able to settle on an agreement.

DGM wants to sell the assets for $750,000.

The city only wanted to pay $450,000.

“Why is the city buying their equipment is the big thing and how much is it going to cost,” councilor Theresa Stehly said.

As part of the agreement with Landscape Management Company LLC the city is planning on purchasing their own assets.

“The initial and inventory stocking is about $460,000, far from the millions of dollars that some have been claiming,” City Finance Director, Tracy Turbek said.

Councilor Theresa Stehly brought a motion forward to defer the contract with Landscape Management LLC for one year and extend Dakota Golf Management’s contract for one year.

That motion failed, but another councilor motioned to defer the vote for one week and it passed unanimously.