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Golf revenue continues to fall in Jacksonville

Thomas Clatterbuck



2018 was another bad year for the Jacksonville’s Links golf courses. Like most municipal golf courses, the Links loses money every year. It was clear as early as August that 2018 was going to be a particularly bad year for the courses. The recently released 2018 audit shows just how dire the situation is becoming for the courses.

Total operating losses totaled $198,000. This is nearly triple the losses suffered in 2012. Expenses were up eight percent since ’12. The real driver is that revenue is down 24 percent, from $377,000 in ’12 to just $288,000 last year. This is why the cash infusion from the city came much earlier in the year; the Links was struggling to cover payroll expenses due to low revenue. And unlike in years past when the bailout is needed in the winter months, last year the Links needed help during the fall.

Fixing the root problems at the course will not be easy. Golf participation is declining nationally, and Jacksonville has not been spared from these trends. But the first step is admitting there is a problem. A golf advisory committee was created in February 2018 and they did provide some good recommendations for improvements. But their last meeting was more than a year ago. In full council meetings, council members are reluctant to even acknowledge that revenue is down substantially from years past.

Six-figure losses are the new normal for the Links. It is up to the council to decide if they want to continue to write these losses off, or come up with a more sustainable plan for the courses.

You can read the full audit here.

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Senior strategist, statehouse reporter and political correspondent for Springfield Daily. Graduate of District 117 and UIS. Thomas covers stories in both Morgan and Sangamon Counties, as well as statewide politics.

2019 Election

City Council hears final arguments, recommendations in Ward 2 recount

Thomas Clatterbuck



The Ward 2 aldermanic race might set a new record for closest election that wasn’t a tie. The first full count showed Gail Simpson leading Shawn Gregory by a single vote. Gregory challenged the result and asked for a recount. Then the race got closer. After the recount, the recommendation of the hearing officer was to declare Simpson the winner by not one vote, but 0.361 votes.

During the recount, all of the ballots were inspected again. That further inspection revealed that some of the ballots had problems. A ballot that is not filled out correctly can be disqualified. One had two colors of ink, one was damaged and had to be reconstructed, and another had two candidates marked. These ballots were resolved on an individual basis.

But there were two sets of ballots that needed further discussion. The first were ballots where the election judge marked them in the wrong place. There is a line where the judge should put their initials so the tabulators know it is a valid ballot. Three ballots, all from the same judge, had marks near, but not on, the provided line. Two of them were for Gregory. They were not counted in the hearing officer’s recommendation.

Another group of ballots came from the Mary Bryant Home. The Mary Bryant Home is a community for the blind and visually impaired. Due to their conditions, many of these voters required assistance in filling out their ballots. To protect the integrity of the vote, especially with vulnerable populations, there are affidavits that must be filled out by the voter and the assistant to make the votes valid. For thirteen ballots, this did not happen.

However, the affidavits do not match specific ballots. To ensure voter privacy, the ballot cannot be directly tied to a specific voter. When the thirteen ballots were thrown out, each candidate had a proportional reduction in their count based on how well they did in each precinct. In the end, Simpson lost 4.278 votes, but Gregory lost just 2.639 votes. That closed the margin, but did not eliminate Simpson’s lead.

The real debate hinges on how comparable council members think these two types of errors are. John Mehlick, the hearing officer for the recount, considered both errors equally disqualifying. Although he stressed that he did not want to throw out any votes, he pointed out instructions were not followed on both. During his remarks to the council, Mehlick stressed that the council should demand “excellence” from its election judges and administrators.

Not everyone agreed with that logic. Questions from several aldermen suggested that they found the initials to be a far less serious breach of protocol than those on the affidavits. Others argued that disqualifying votes due to errors from election officials was not something they wanted to do, and argued both sets of ballots should be included.

The council’s decision

There are three likely outcomes the council could decide on. If both sets of ballots are eliminated, then Simpson wins. If both sets of ballots are kept, Simpson would still win. And if the affidavits are thrown out, but the initialed ballots are kept, then Gregory wins.

The choice is unenviable. Most of the time, standards are set without knowing how it will impact an election. Today, the council knows it is not just setting a standard to follow, it is also picking winners and losers in a democratic election. The Simpson team asked Alderwoman Turner to recuse herself due to her party’s endorsement of Gregory during the campaign. Turner agreed to this request, saying that if her stepping back would help the post-decision healing process in the community, then she would do so.

The rest of the council did not come to an agreement Tuesday night. Aldermen Redpath, Fulgenzi, Proctor, DiCenso, and Hanauer moved to accept the hearing officer’s recommendation, and declare Simpson the winner. Aldermen McMenamin, Conley, and Donelan, as well as Mayor Langfelder voted against, which prevented the motion from passing. Any motion will take 6 affirmative votes to pass.

The council will reconvene Thursday night to continue their discussion of the issue and come to an acceptable agreement. You can watch their full discussion in the player above, and read all of the documents from the recount here.

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Local Airbnbs to City Council: let us pay taxes

Thomas Clatterbuck



Who wants to pay more in taxes? Normally, business owners point to Illinois’ high tax burden as a problem, but some property owners in Jacksonville actually want to be allowed to pay more. One of these owners is E. Scott DeWolf, who runs an Airbnb location in Jacksonville. But when DeWolf went to the city to voluntarily pay the hotel motel occupancy tax, he was told he wouldn’t be allowed to do so.

Airbnb is a short-term rental service where property owners can rent out rooms or buildings that they own. DeWolf was joined by Professor Kevin Klein and Bryan Leonard to discuss the positive impact Airbnb has had on the local tourism environment. They shared how the experience they can create in their properties fills a niche that regular hotels don’t, and that this draws visitors from across the state and even some from over seas.

However, despite being an internationally recognized brand, Airbnb still operates in a legal grey area. Listings aren’t considered rental properties, because visitors have short stays like at a regular hotel or bed and breakfast. But they aren’t recognized as hotels either because they are otherwise residential properties. As a result, since the start of Airbnb, taxation has been an issue. While Airbnb has taken some voluntary steps to collect the occupancy tax, this collection has varied from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. To further complicate matters, not every area wants Airbnb to operate there. Adding new rooms may impact the viability of existing hotels, and adding new traffic to residential areas can disrupt neighborhoods. In Jacksonville’s case, Airbnb is not recognized as a hotel, which is why they cannot pay the local occupancy taxes.

It may seem strange that Airbnb operators would want this to change. Why ask the council to raise their taxes? There is a very pragmatic reason: if Airbnb locations do not pay the occupancy tax, they cannot advertise with the local tourism boards. This keeps them out of some of the main local referral networks. They cannot even leave brochures with the tourism board.

But their request is also driven by a genuine commitment to the community. These owners have heavily invested in building up their properties and enhancing local tourism. And adding more rooms is necessary for Jacksonville’s busiest tourism days. When sporting events take place, or the college host graduation, visitors often have to room as far away as Springfield or Lincoln. Building up a healthy community is good business for everyone.

In the mean time, DeWolf said that they were still willing to contribute to the community even if they cannot pay taxes directly. He personally offered to donate 5% of his sales, equivalent to the tax he can’t pay, to the Jacksonville Heritage Culture Museum.

You can watch their full presentation in the player above, and the rest of the city council meeting below.

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Integrated Resource Plan recommends shift towards renewables

Thomas Clatterbuck



What does the future hold for CWLP? Currently, four coal-fired Dallman units provide almost all of Springfield’s power. But that may change soon. At the Monday meeting of the Public Utility Committee, experts from The Energy Authority (TEA) unveiled the results of their months-long integrated resource plan (IRP), which called for major changes to the utility.

The IRP is based on economic models. Energy markets are impacted by many different factors, including the price of fuel, government regulations, market demand, and even the weather. It is impossible to know how the future will play out, but by running many scenarios, TEA was able to come up with recommendations that fit the most likely futures. By 2031, power generation will be evenly split between renewables and coal (53-43), up from the current 100 percent coal generation. Improvements to energy efficiency will account for the remainder.

Phasing out coal

Coal will play a much smaller role in CWLP’s future. Every scenario called for retiring Dallman units 1 and 2. These units should be retired in the next few years; possibly as early as 2020. Additionally, Unit 3 was also recommended to be retired. However, because of the logistics of the plants, unit 3 will take longer to decommission.

This recommendation was based on the economics of coal. Kevin Galke, who presented for TEA, said that fracking was a “game changer” for energy markets, and one that no one saw coming. At the same time, renewable energy has also become substantially more competitive. This combined with the high capital expenses at the units, made them economically unviable.

But coal is not totally eliminated from the portfolio. Unit 4 is expected to provide energy for the city for at least the next decade. Its ultimate fate depends in large part on the price of coal. If the city can keep coal costs low, unit 4 remains much more viable than if prices continue to climb. However, in the event its capacity needs to be replaced, a gas plant is a more likely choice than a new coal one.

Adding in renewables

Renewables are the source of choice to replace coal. TEA acknowledged that many renewable projects in the past had been motivated by social consciousness rather than economics, but that new technologies were changing that landscape. Under the TEA plan, renewables will account for nearly half of the city’s power by 2023 and into the 2030s.

The transition from the Dallman units to renewables will be facilitated by a few years of heavy market purchases. But after the transition is complete, the city should return to being a net seller of energy.

What comes next

The IRP was just the first step in creating the future of CWLP. Now that the city knows what direction it needs to go, the task of implementing this plan will fall to the city council. Their task will not be easy. Taking coal plants offline is in many respects just as hard as building them, due to the complicated machinery and environmental issues with coal waste. And although CWLP may be eligible for certain Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) grants, creating the renewable capacity will also require significant planning.

But there is also a human element to CWLP. The three units recommended for retirement employ a large number of workers directly, and supports the coal mines and trucking companies that keep the units fueled. Even if this move is the right one for CWLP and the city as a whole, many people stand to lose their current employment. The council acknowledged that they will have to find a way to transition these workers to other jobs either in the utility or in the private sector. They cannot simply be abandoned with no plan.

In the mean time, the public comment period for the report is now open. The public is invited to comment either by email to or by mail to CWLP General Office, 4th Floor, Attention IRP, 800 East Monroe St, Springfield IL, 62757. There will also be an open house May 20th at Lincoln Library from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.

To learn more about the IRP, you can visit CWLP’s website, or watch the live presentation in the player above.

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