Keep Mulligan’s Open!

On Monday, June 15, at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall, Nancy Rapp of the Parks and Recreation Staff plans to propose to the City Council that the Santa Barbara Municipal Golf course be put out to bid to a private management company. This would mean that in June 2016, Mulligan’s Café at Muni would be forced to close.

The Medina family has owned and operated Mulligan’s for 23 years. Every year we have increased our sales, and we are currently doing about $1.5 million in sales, of which the City of Santa Barbara gets 10 percent. We currently employ about 25 people, and the majority of the employees have been with us between 10 and 23 years. We are a close-knit crew made up of daughters, a son, brothers, neighbors, and so on.

Both Mulligan’s and the Pro Shop are making money. The maintenance crew is the sole reason for the financial difficulties (The maintenance cost is double what it costs to maintain any other golf course in this area). The majority of the maintenance crew are city employees, so if the maintenance is sourced out, the financial problem would be gone. (Also, all the city employees would be moved to another city job, and, therefore, none of them would lose their jobs.)

Rumor has it that City Council plans to approve the recommendation, which would force Mulligan’s to be gone as of June 2016. Between both the restaurant and the Pro Shop, 40 to 50 employees would be without a job. Conveniently, Nancy Rapp has announced her retirement for August 2015.

Please come to the City Council meeting and support Mulligan’s. If you can’t attend please send an email or letter.