A major overhaul could be coming to Huntington Beach\u2019s Meadowlark Golf Course as city officials discuss possibly firing their current operator and upgrading the facility after what they say were years of poor maintenance and late rent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re still dragging their feet on paying us money,\u201d said Finance Commissioner David Cicerone, who was on the city\u2019s task force examining the issue, at the commission\u2019s Sept. 24 meeting. \u201cIf we can improve the course and address things like drainage and irrigation, dramatically improve the overall clubhouse, the restaurant, the bar in there, then we could be looking at what is the crown jewel of Huntington Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
The debate comes as the city\u2019s lawyers are going back and forth with Arcis Golf, the course\u2019s operator, over whether or not the company owes them nearly $300,000 in late rent payments and fees.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to a presentation attached to the commission\u2019s Sept. 24 agenda, city officials notified the golf course operator in July 2024 they\u2019d missed nearly $13,000 in rent payments amid\u00a0 but they also tacked on a $400,000 late fee for the late rent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Arcis\u2019 lawyers disagreed in their response to the city at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not contest the amount of rent the audit found owing them from the end of the four year term,\u201d wrote Arcis General Counsel Scott Siddons in an Aug. 2024 email. \u201cHowever we find the $400,970 assessed in late fees to be excessive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Representatives for Arcis Golf did not respond to requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So far, Arcis has paid the city over $119,000 in late fees and rent, but hasn\u2019t agreed to pay the city\u2019s full request.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, finance commissioners are drafting a letter to city council members, asking them to either boot Arcis before the end of their contract in 2028 or bring in a new operator after the current deal expires.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cicerone called for the city to stop leasing the facility as soon as possible, giving Arcis 30 days to pay back the money or they\u2019d immediately start looking for a new contractor to take over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI now think it\u2019s appropriate that we do send another letter to the city council \u2026 advise them they are in breach of their agreement,\u201d Cicerone said. \u201cIt absolutely is in atrocious condition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also mentioned he\u2019d already spoken with other operators that were \u201ckeenly interested,\u201d in getting their hands on Meadowlark as soon as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But other committee members said the city should wait for the contract to expire in 2028, then look for a new operator.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Frank Lo Grasso agreed that the golf course is \u201ca bit neglected,\u201d but raised concerns over what would happen if they tried to kick out Arcis without another operator ready to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Commissioner Paul Geery raised concerns that no matter who gets brought in, they might not measure up.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI know all about management companies that manage golf courses and what they commit to before they have a contract and then how they perform after they have a contract,\u201d Geery said. \u201cSo, you\u2019re getting the really nice, positive answers now, but once they get in there they\u2019re not much better than Arcis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt would basically put it in no man\u2019s land.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Kelly Gates, the chair of the commission, also brought up how it could be a good time to fix the flooding problems at the course.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t golf, but I look at the homes, the people that\u2019re living there \u2026 all day long during the winter they hear those loud pumps,\u201d Gates said. \u201cIt\u2019s a terrible place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org. <\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major overhaul could be coming to Huntington Beach\u2019s Meadowlark Golf Course as city officials discuss possibly firing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":270841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1430,140691,140692,62,67,132,68,120462],"class_list":{"0":"post-270840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-huntington-beach-city-council","10":"tag-meadowlark-golf-course","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-voice-of-oc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115302386612493569","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}