Bob Thompson and the Yacht Club
commentary by Joe Reynolds

OPA General Manager Bob Thompson announced the firing of Yacht Club Manager Joe Reinhart at the September 20th meeting of the Board of Directors.

Association member Jim Bruggy subsequently wrote, "Joe Reinhart gets fired for losses at the Yacht Club, and Bob Thompson gets a $40,000 raise." Ed Moran, another association member, wrote, “Woe to the person (Reinhart) tasked with implementing a flawed concept.”

Based on various newspaper reports, Reinhart was fired for not buying into the GM's "open for business" policy, for the dollar bottom line results through August, high costs associated with sales, etc., etc. The OPA propaganda machine essentially places all blame on Joe Reinhart. We read that the GM has taken grief from some association members about firing Reinhart, and the GM responds that he gets paid to make the tough decisions.

Perhaps it is time to take a look at how OPA, the GM, and Joe Reinhart arrived at a point where the GM decided to make this "tough decision."

As a backdrop to this historical perspective, former General Manager Tom Olson was fired by the board after posting one of the best yearly financial results at the Yacht Club in the history of the facility. Board members, however, thought service, quality, and sales were sub-par, despite the comparatively good financial results. Joe Reinhart was manager of the facility at the time.

Back in September 2010, after Olson’s departure, the board was grappling with what to do with golf management and food and beverage services; it held a meeting about outsourcing on 9/22/2010 in the new Community Center with a rather large crowd in attendance. It was fairly clear a majority of the board wanted to enter into a contract with Casper for management of the golf course. There was also extensive discussion of whether or not to contract with Casper for all food and beverage operations, including the Yacht Club and Beach Club.

At one point the board asked then new General Manager Bob Thompson for his opinion. Thompson said he had no opposition to Casper taking over the golf management but asked the board to keep the Yacht Club and Beach Club operation in-house and to provide him with an opportunity to turn OPA's food and beverage operations around. Yacht Club manager Joe Reinhart was at the meeting and he too spoke in favor of OPA's continued in-house operation of the Yacht Club, backed by a fair number of association members who, it seemed, had been asked to attend the meeting to support Reinhart.

Subsequently the board voted to give Bob Thompson a year to turn operations around at the Yacht Club, and Thompson decided to keep Reinhart on as manager of the facility. Keep in mind this was back in the fall of 2010, about a year ago.

It is also important to note that Bob Thompson asked the board for an opportunity for him (Thompson) to turn things around. There was no issue of "if Joe Reinhart does a good job." In short, Thompson bought the Yacht Club. Whatever happened from that point forward was totally on Thompson's shoulders, not one of his employees.

With board support in hand, Thompson proceeded with his plans, doing some remodeling on the first floor of the Yacht Club and presiding over a grand opening of the new Java Bay Café around Thanksgiving last year. Thus, Thompson had six months -- December, January, February, March, April and May -- to work closely with Reinhart prior to the beginning of the three month summer season that has traditionally been the only months showing a positive bottom line for the operation.

Thompson's "open for business" philosophy kicked into gear, with Java Bay Café opening at 6 A.M. on the day after Thanksgiving 2010. Initially closing at 3 P.M., the time schedule included the evening hours when the summer season arrived. Thompson had stated publicly the idea was to be open from 6 A.M. to 2 A.M., seven days a week, with the second floor open for dining except at times when a catered event was scheduled. It never happened.

I had little confidence in Reinhart's ability to produce the kind of results the Board of Directors or Thompson seemed to be expecting, and made my opinion known to Thompson and board members last fall. However, I did understand Thompson's desire to give Reinhart the opportunity. I also realized as early as the end of June 2011 that things were not going well. If Thompson's "open for business" approach was to work, the three summer months would need to produce far greater profits than in the past. In June, the goodwill and promotion of Thompson’s Java Bay Café initiative did result in more customers and greater sales, but a bottom line worse than the same period in 2010. In other words, sales were going up but so were losses.... the more sold the higher the loss.

Let's face it.... times are tough for any business. I agree with Thompson's decision to fire Reinhart, but I question Thompson's judgment on Reinhart, initially, and over a six-month period prior to the summer season, a period allowing Thompson adequate time to evaluate Reinhart. I also believe Thompson should have accepted the primary responsibility for the poor results, rather than essentially making Reinhart the fall guy when it was Thompson's decision to keep Reinhart as manager after months of a reportedly rough relationship between the two men going back even prior to the opening of Java Bay Café. On the other hand, Reinhart publicly went along with Thompson's ambitious management plan.

The larger question is what happens now. It appears Thompson is continuing with in-house management, temporarily placing the Beach Club manager in charge of the Yacht Club. Some say any decision on future management should be solely up to Thompson. However, he asked the board for a year and clearly hasn't delivered. The board needs to clarify this situation, either voting to allow Thompson another year based on something more than a "trust me" business plan or enter negotiations with Casper to take over all food and beverage operations if they are still interested. Perhaps other companies are interested as well. If the board wants to outsource food and beverage next year, discussions with potential individuals or companies must begin now.

The board must act one way or the other, and soon, to provide clarity for management and association members who ultimately foot the bill.