Low-rent deal to lease out Wichita park clubhouse for 10 years becomes bigger scandal | Opinion

It’s sort of refreshing that after all these years the city of Wichita can still surprise me.

Unfortunately, this time it’s not in a good way.

Turns out, the mess that is the city’s stewardship of Clapp Park is more messed up than even I had imagined.

It was revealed Tuesday that the Park and Recreation Department has been undercharging the current tenant of the former clubhouse at the former city golf course for the last two years (more on that in a minute).

If you read my column on Kansas.com on Monday, you know that I objected, rather strenuously, to a city plan to extend the lease for the 2,880-square-foot clubhouse to Duck’s Flying Discs, the disc-golf business currently occupying the building, for the next 10 years.

Duck’s at Clapp includes a disc-golf pro-shop and snack bar, with a lounge area where customers can drink their Cokes and beer.

The proposed rental rate was $500 a month for the first five years and $550 a month for years six through 10.

To put that in perspective, an alert reader of mine pointed out that that monthly rate is less than it costs to rent out the 4-H Hall at the Sedgwick County Extension Office for a single day.

The clubhouse is immediately adjacent to, and includes use of, the disc-golf course that replaced regular golf at Clapp since the city shut down the 18-hole course in August 2019.

In Monday’s column, I also took exception to the city staff trying to sneak this item through in the consent agenda, the part of the meeting where purportedly routine and non-controversial business items are passed in bulk without any public discussion.

Council member Mike Hoheisel pulled it off the consent agenda, mostly so that Parks Director Troy Houtman could sing the praises of Duck’s and its contributions to the maintenance and monitoring of the park.

Then it went sideways, when council member J.V. Johnston asked Houtman what Duck’s is paying to rent the clubhouse now.

Houtman said he didn’t have that number off the top of his head.

Johnston pointed out that the original agreement for the use of the clubhouse (which passed, also on a consent agenda, in May 2021) started at $300 a month rent and included automatic rent increases of 30% for each subsequent year of the three-year deal.

Johnston estimated Duck’s should already be paying $659.10 rent a month under the original agreement, which is more than $100 a month more than the proposed new contract.

Council member Maggie Ballard finally asked Duck’s owner Christopher Dendurent how much he was paying for rent. He said the city has invoiced him for $300 a month ever since this contract started — with no increases as were agreed to in the original contract.

I’m not blaming Dendurent for this disaster. If I had an inattentive landlord who undercharged me for rent, I’d pay them what they asked for. Who wouldn’t?

And by all accounts, Dendurent’s done a decent job of keeping the clubhouse from getting run down and/or vandalized. He’s apparently gone beyond what the city required in terms of picking up trash and clearing tree limbs around the park — though it should be noted here that the city already pays another contractor to mow and maintain the park and pick up trash.

After a lengthy discussion, the council finally decided to extend Dendurent’s lease for up to a year — at the proper rental rate — while considering what to do to straighten out this incredible mess.

Mayor Lily Wu pointed out that as new development occurs at the park — starting with a disabled-accessible playground that’s due to come on line next year — there will be more visitors to buy snacks and drinks, so the clubhouse contract could become more valuable than it currently is.

She and council member Dalton Glasscock advocated that the city should explore potential other uses, before committing the bulk of the park to the niche sport of disc golf for the next 10 years.

Wu also said there needs to be accountability for the fact that due to someone’s failure to do their job at City Hall, Duck’s was undercharged on rent for two years.

That would be a good start.