‘Impact’ fee will affect only clubs needing services

By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Wednesday, November 6 (9:00 a.m.): After several “reservation roadshows” and 37 follow-up meetings with members of 165 Rossmoor clubs in recent months about the overhaul of GRF’s room reservation process, there are still both unresolved questions and some outright misinformation connected to proposed changes.

That was a key element of a presentation made by Ann Mottola, GRF’s  director of community services, to the GRF Board on Thursday.

And it figures to be well into 2025 before all the rules and fees are finally adopted, she added. The hope, she said, is that GRF and club representatives continue to work together on what has sometimes been a contentious relationship.

“We’ve been trying as hard as we can to go into this journey as a partnership,” Mottola told the Board.

While Mottola said she has received praise and encouragement for her staff’s work to clean up what had become an inconsistent and otherwise problematic room reservation process, major questions remain about impact fees (formerly called “set-up fees”) clubs pay to use GRF rooms, the proportions of residents as members of Rossmoor clubs and which clubs and events would require a state Alcoholic Beverage Control permit persist.

In a PowerPoint presentation (https://rossmoor.com/residents/recreation/clubhouse-reservations/), Mottola directly addressed the ABC question.  Basically, most club gatherings where alcohol is sold, or where the price of alcohol is part of the price of an event ticket, would require an ABC license. BYOB gatherings, or others with no fee connected to alcoholic beverages, would not. The specific legalities of that, GRF General Manager Jeff Matheson said, would need to be reviewed by GRF’s attorneys.

Mottola also responded to some specific examples areas of what she termed “rumors and misinformation” concerning room reservations. These included the idea that the proposed impact fees are designed to help boost GRF finances, and that impact fees are going up anywhere from three times to 14 times current levels.

“There’s nothing happening here to try to extort money from clubs, I really need to make that clear,” Mottola told the Board.

What has been happening, she said, is that reservations fees have been charged (or waived) inconsistently, and that that must stop. Also, she said there needs to be better communication between the clubs and GRF, to help ensure a given gathering would be assigned a right-sized room, thus helping every group with reservations.

Board President Leanne Hamaji and member Dwight Walker acknowledged the importance of clubs to Rossmoor’s community and culture, and the need to craft a better reservations policy going forward. It’s a data-gathering process, Hamaji said, our “due diligence.”

“Let’s give the process a chance,” she said.

The Board took no formal action Thursday on the room reservation policy. But there were formal votes on a few other matters, including:

• Approving spends an extra $90,000 on city permitting requirements connected to the Pickleball courts building near the Event Center, including $17,800 in additional engineering fees and $71,000 in updates to the building’s structural design and sprinkler system. Matheson said these expenses still fall within the project’s budget, but that the city permitting process dictated these expenses must be addressed sooner rather than later.
• Approving spending an additional $37,340 on top of the $75,000 the Board approved in June to replace the Golf Course water pump, to repair the pump’s filtration system. The filtration system failed in August, resulting in the pumping of unfiltered water, which could damage the individual sprinkler heads, according to a GRF staff report. The Board also approved an $87,269 agreement with Cornerstone Environmental Contractors, Inc. to perform the pump replacement work in an amount not to exceed $87,269, to be paid from the GRF Trust Fund. The GRF Finance Committee recommended these actions two days earlier.
• Approving the hiring of the Beaumont Tashjian law firm of San Jose to serve as GRF’s legal counsel. That firm was one of two that submitted proposals to represent Rossmoor; it currently represents GRF’s community in Seal Beach as well as the largest Mutual with GRF’s Laguna Woods Village. Tony Grafals, Rossmoor’s attorney since 2009, took a new job in North Carolina earlier this year.
• Naming Board member Ted Bentley to fill a temporary opening on the GRF Policy Committee, running through Dec. 31.