Audit finds golf course employees violated city rules

Employees in the Austin Parks and Recreation Department’s golf division misused city resources in providing golf lessons to people for pay while on city time, according to an investigation conducted by the Office of the City Auditor. One employee also received payment for repairing golf clubs while on city time. Their supervisor approved the practices that auditors say violated city code.

According to the audit report, employee Eddie Nunez, a golf pro, used city resources to help advertise his golf club repair business. In addition to putting up advertising in the Clay/Kizer pro shop, “Nunez also used the pro shop and other city staff to run his business. Specifically, City staff gave out Nunez’s contact information, accepted clubs from his customers, helped customers label the clubs, stored the clubs in the pro shop office, and took payment for Nunez,” auditors wrote.

The audit also says two other golf pro employees, Mike Wooldridge and Billy Bynum, violated city code by using city emails to set up private golf lessons. Bynum taught two clinics and Wooldridge taught one.

Bynum told auditors that he thought he and Wooldridge were running the clinics as “independent contractors.” But auditors wrote, “By using their city positions to run golf clinics and picking themselves as the privately paid instructors,” Wooldridge and Bynum violated city standards of conduct.

Another employee, Janelle Wilson, also violated city regulations by receiving payment for providing golf lessons while on city time on one occasion, the audit reports. Wilson indicated that she simply made a mistake when she failed to clock out to teach one clinic.

Their supervisor, GOLFATX Operations Manager Steve Hammond, responded that his organization would “evaluate the possibility of bringing club repair services ‘in-house.’ There is a value to the golfers of Austin and these services are becoming more difficult to find in the area unless you belong to a private golf club.”

Hammond also defended his employees teaching golf while on city time and claimed to have gotten approval for such activities from an ethics professional in the Law Department. “It would not be in the best interest of the division or the game to alter the practices approved by the previously mentioned … professionals.”

However, Brian Molloy, chief of investigations for the auditor’s office, said he had reviewed the Law Department’s response to Hammond’s question, which did not address allowing city employees to receive payment for teaching while on city time. Molloy said some other professional golfers should be allowed to come to the club and teach the clinics. “They have to have some kind of neutral mechanism for picking the golf teachers,” according to Molloy. He noted that it will be up to either the current acting director of the department or the new director to make that decision.

Auditors raised a concern beyond violations of city code, noting that “allowing city employees to operate their secondary employment activities on city premises during city operating hours can send a confusing message to residents using the golf courses. It will be unclear to many whether the person they are dealing with is acting as a city employee or as a private business operator. This confusion could impact the perception of city services and create unintended legal risks,” according to the report.

Nunez, who has repaired golf clubs and taught in city golfing clinics, provided a lengthy response to the audit. He wrote, “to clarify the allegation that my re-gripping and repairing golf clubs is a ‘business’ is incorrect. I learned how to replace grips and repair golf clubs in 1985 and, to me, it’s a hobby, a skill I truly enjoy. … I take much pleasure and pride in helping golfers who need assistance with their golf clubs and charge nothing more than a minimal fee,” although he does not reveal the amount of the fee. “At no time in all these years have I openly advertised what I do as a ‘business.’”

The other employees named in the audit did not respond to it. Interim Director Angela Means wrote in a response to the report, “The Department has reviewed the report and concurs with the findings. The PARD human resources team will collaborate with management to review the report and findings and then determine the appropriate next steps in each of these reported matters. Additionally, PARD has been actively working to revise business practices related to golf instruction at City-operated golf courses to help ensure future operations align with City of Austin values. PARD will also ensure that all Department employees have taken and passed the most recent City of Austin Ethics training.”

City Manager T.C. Broadnax has announced the hiring of Jesús Aguirre as the city’s new PARD head. Aguirre was formerly the CEO of Waterloo Greenway. He previously worked for the parks and recreation departments of Seattle and the District of Columbia, and his hiring was the result of a national search. He will start on Jan. 12.

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