Welcome to the Monday, October 5th, 2026, Carmel Finance Utilities and Rules Committee.

We have two items on our agenda today.

Ordinance D 2847-26.

It approves the Brookshire Golf Course fees and rates for the counter year 2027.

An ordinance D dash 2772-25 and ordinance adopting requirements for nonprofit organizations receiving public support from the city.

Thank you,

Mr.

Chairman.

Yeah, I'm Zach Jackson, CFO and controller for the city, and I'm joined by Bob Higgins, the golf course superintendent.

I

want to go through a few things since it's been a while since these rates have been brought to council for approval.

So just going through a little bit of the background.

But anyway, we'll get into that here in a

minute.

So just by way of background, Brookshire was established in 1971 as a private course and then purchased by the city in 2007 as a public course and to uh prevent development on that site.

The acquisition was facilitated by redevelopment, uh which retains ownership of the golf course.

And today Brookshire operates as a standalone city department, just like any other of our departments.

So

here is the law that that's bringing us here today.

Except I've added some bolding just for emphasis.

And so every year prior to November 1st, the the golf course superintendent or general manager is to bring uh proposed rates forward for the approval of council.

Um it's supposed to be uh the as I says here, the necessary fees for the effective operation

uh

Brookshire as a golf course and banquet facility.

Um I think that's important because not only are we talking about golf course rates, it implies that we're setting banquet facility rates, but the way it's operated, it's it's the third party contractor that that sets those rates.

I do go into kind of what our contract says so you can see how we charge the that contractor, but but we don't directly charge uh people for renting the facility.

Umce the rates are approved, uh the these next two kind of lines come into play.

So the the general manager has a discretion to modify the fee up to uh but uh

uh

not any more than 20 percent of the amount approved by council.

Um and if uh uh if Bob sees a need to increase the fee by more than 20 percent,

uh

he would have to bring that back to council.

I think also just the way this is laid out, uh, as you see at the bottom, this was uh uh last touched in in code in uh 2011, um, which I think was the last time that rates have

been

uh presented for review.

Uh I think there's confusion about those last two lines in terms of well, if

if

Bob is increasing his fees by only three percent, does he even need to come to council on an annual basis?

But but but here we are making sure this is uh we're doing this correctly.

Um

looking at the next slide.

This is our

uh

this shows our our food and beverage vendors.

Uh so the code talks about the banquet facility, and we do have uh a vendor for that uh MTS Collective, also known as Mustard Seed Collective, uh pays a monthly rent.

Uh if they are using the patio, they pay extra for that, and especially now that we have the the pergola uh that's even more popular.

Uh if they're using the the simulator room, that the simulator room, uh the golf simulator room is used as for the uh the uh not the bride, the groom's suite, if you will.

Um depending upon the type of year that's included with the rental, other times it's it's uh it's rented

out.

And then for the snack bar, uh previously it was the same vendor operating the snack bar, but now uh par five group LLC is operating that uh they pay a monthly rent, and then also uh the city gets a cut of uh their sales over 30,000 each month.

But

again, we're we're not directly charging people to rent the facility that the the third party contractor does

that.

Uh as you're aware, there was a a study to look at uh operations uh last year.

Uh it was done with uh Carmel Play Parks and Recreation.

Uh the study uh hinted at several uh or made several recommendations.

Uh one was to rethink the season pass rates, and and that was done for for this year.

Uh the study found that green and cart fees were already in line with market.

Um