I highly advise anyone with a few minutes to burn, to watch the 6/6 BoCC meeting regarding the Sailfish Sands golf club and hitting bay. Words can’t describe how clear it became that this government has NO BUSINESS running private enterprise! Some on the board, and their thoughts that the county was perfect in their approach is a joke, and frankly makes me think they are blinded to reality or willfully ignorant.
Kudos to commissioner Heatherington for saying the county should take some responsibility.
Here’s some facts to consider:
La Matina group brought in $2.1 million over 8 months according to county records- yet there was no indication what the costs were. From a position as a former restaurant manager I would suggest that the profits from this time period were likely single digits. Rarely do restaurants (especially of this model) make more than 6 to 8%. So, I would suggest that the commission’s belief that La Matina made a killing is simply a mis-understanding, but that is a red-herring it self.

What I would point out is this:
The county expects to bring in $655,000 over a 12-month period- barely a third of what La Matina made in 8 months. If we applied the same rental cost the county asked the former lease holder, that would be a cost of $511,128 per year or 78% of total receipts. For contextual purposes, a typical rent for a restaurant in is 6% to 10% according to the national restaurant association- and that includes taxes and insurance. Given the county expects to make a mere fraction of what the former manager did, and their own calculations show rental costs 10x higher than national averages, how in the world can anyone believe that this was a reasonable rate to ask to begin with?! It is clear that either the RFP was absolutely flawed by staff or that the intention was for a private operator to fail. Given the hidden numbers on the seaside cafes and the waterpark- I sincerely doubt there was any real effort to see a private group succeed. The fact that so much discussion was held on how long to hold out on an RFP, I don’t believe there is any will for private enterprise to run it at all.

How many more private enterprise endeavors must we enter into at the neglect of the county’s responsibilities? The cost to operate this facility is 150% the total anticipated revenues set for rainwater infrastructure improvements in FY 2024. Maybe our flooded county school district employee can live at the top golf facility since her home is continuously flooded by rainwater from failed conveyance in her neighborhood.

As Martin County recently celebrated its 98th birthday, maybe a present is due. May I suggest a compass, our leadership is clearly lost.