For OPA's net bottom line result the $50,000 transfer is an non-issue operationally. As you are aware, the only thing that changed was that the $50,000 revenue was booked as revenues for a different department. One of my last (and only) successes last year on the B&FAC was getting OPA to footnote the $50,000 change in both the Beach Parking and Aquatics revenue lines on the monthly report. It was NOT done for the first couple of months as "everyone knows about the change" per OPA (which is pure bull exhaust) and is typical of the thinking about the financial reporting in OPA.

If the GM did not mention the revenue reporting/accounting change at a meeting, shame on him. But I do not see this as being an issue that the Aquatics manager has to be involved with anymore than whomever manages the Beach Parking (?) needs to explain why his or her revenues are not comparable to prior years due to the same accounting change.

The change in propane supplier is an operational change and, as such, is a something that benefited Aquatics. The fact that Marty Clarke proposed the idea is immaterial. If OPA management had rejected the idea they would rightly have been criticized for not realizing a cost reduction opportunity. Since they accepted the idea they should receive the credit. To say losses would have been higher absent this change seems to be obvious and of little benefit IMHO.   

What you perhaps desire is a cost variance analysis of current year results with prior year results. This can be useful only if one can breakout TOTAL COST between its two components ... PRICE and VOLUME OF UNITS consumed/used. For example, TOTAL PROPANE COST is equal to the PRICE PER UNIT consumed times the VOLUME OF UNITS consumed. Both factors can vary year to year and affect TOTAL COST. 

Likewise, TOTAL REVENUE is the product of TWO FACTORS--- PRICE and VOLUME OF UNIT SALES. OPA almost invariably will raise the PRICE to try to increase TOTAL REVENUE without any regards to the impact on the VOLUME OF UNIT SALES. (IMHO, OPA BODs in the past tinkered so much with golf membership rates that many members went elsewhere out of sheer frustration).

Other costs have fluctuated over the years that affect the bottom line. Employee Health Care Costs are one of the fastest rising components of total payroll costs. For Aquatics, salaries for life guards has risen over the years due to more stringent certification requirements. This, in turn, reduced the number of qualified life guards that pool operators could hire. Based on the old law of supply and demand, the cost of hiring certified life guards rose compared to earlier years.

Thus, to make determinations as to what is the root cause driving costs and/or revenues from year to year (price or volume or changes to both) is not easy if a cost management system that allows such comparison is not in use . Some of the more sophisticated total cost or total revenue comparative analyses may not be easily computed given the current management systems in use today by OPA.

At any rate, I applaud any OPA manager who can increase unit sales while holding or reducing his or her cost per revenue dollar to presumed reasonable levels. (These two basic stats should be easily derived from the data OPA has.)

Gene