The Vashon Golf & Swim Club owes more than $36,000 in delinquent property taxes, leading the club’s proprietary members to institute a first-of-its-kind assessment to all members to help make up the difference.

The one-time mandatory assessments range from $50 to $900 depending on the level of membership, with proprietary members — those who own stock in the club and play a leadership role — paying the most and social members paying the least. It is the first mandatory assessment to involve all members in the history of the 52-year-old club.

Assessments are common practice for private golf clubs, with many billing their members annually to cover any budgetary shortfalls or fund capital improvements. Bob Roggenbuck, the president of the Vashon Golf & Swim Club board, said that Vashon’s club has tried to avoid the extra fees.

“We’ve tried extremely hard not to have an assessment to the point that (the club) is behind on property taxes,” he said.

King County Assessor’s Office records show that the club owes $36,219 in delinquent taxes from 2015 and the first half of 2016. It owes another $7,941 for the second half of 2016.

Last year, the club’s leadership appealed to the Assessor’s Board of Appeals to have the club’s taxes lowered, and won.

“For 10 years, we felt that they (the taxes) were way too high. The buildings got older, but the taxes got higher,” Roggenbuck said.

The club didn’t win an appeal until last year, and the land value of the club was reduced from $702,900 to $585,000. The value of the buildings decreased from $1 million to $709,300, according to Assessor’s Office records. The reassessement meant the club’s property taxes dropped from $21,409 in 2015 to less than $17,000 this year.

The delinquent taxes are an obvious representation of a problem that Roggenbuck says has been years coming. He said that since 2008, the club has had trouble paying its property taxes that ranged from $21,000 to $27,000 per year. 2008 was the same year that the recession hit golf clubs nationwide, including Vashon’s, and memberships at the club plummeted from the high point of 454 in the early 2000s to 242 in the summer of 2009.

“We lost a lot of members,” Roggenbuck said.

It was in 2009 that the club’s proprietary members were assessed $300 each to build up the club’s operating reserves.

“We’ve been trying to climb out of the hole,” Roggenbuck said. “We knew we had to do something.”

While the club has been trying a variety of things to bring in more revenue — from creating a new trial membership with dues that increase incrementally over four years until the members become part of the regular membership, to rethinking the concept of the restaurant, moving away from a high-end dining feel to more of a grill — cash was not coming in and the property taxes went unpaid.

“I’ve heard a lot of talk about, ‘Oh, who on the board decided not to pay the property tax?'” Club Manager Craig Wilcox said. “There was never a decision not to pay. There’s monthly and bi-monthly expenses like paying employees and employment taxes and sales tax, and what starts happening is the property tax gets pushed out. The club had no cash reserves, so it’s like living paycheck-to-paycheck.”

He said the assessments are overdue.

“Assessments can be to cover a deficit or make upgrades. It’s part of what you sign up for,” he said. “The board was always leery to do it and get a bad reaction, but it had to be done.”

Both Wilcox and Roggenbuck also mentioned that the problem is made worse by the fact that the county does not accept partial payments.

“It’s all or nothing,” Roggenbuck said. “We had enough to pay the first half of last year, but then we missed the deadline so the second half became due and then we couldn’t pay that.”

Roggenbuck said the current assessments come after brainstorming meetings with members and a realization that even after cutting employee hours and having Wilcox take on multiple roles, including helping to run the restaurant and teach golf lessons, not enough money would be saved.

The club’s proprietary members were given ballots last month to vote on how the assessment would be distributed: all members would pay, only proprietary members would pay or no members would pay. Of the 53 proprietary members that voted, 36 voted to assess all members. Members were made aware of the assessment earlier this month.

Foss Miller, a longtime islander and proprietary member of the Vashon Golf & Swim Club, said that all of the club’s members have been aware of the financial difficulties facing the club for many years. He said he feels like the club has “finally got this figured out,” and is doing better, but just needs to fix its cash flow issues.

“The (club) took a big hit trying to work their way back,” Miller said. “Through management and staff changes … it looks like they’re doing well now. They’re just another small business trying to get on their feet.”

Tthe most notable staff changes have occurred in the club’s restaurant. Roggenbuck said that the restaurant went through five chefs in the past year, including the loss of the most recent one earlier this summer. Some could not stick to the club’s budget, while others could not be paid well enough to stay and others could not get along with the staff.

According to club budget documents obtained by The Beachcomber, the club’s restaurant does not have to be profitable for the club to be financially viable, but losses must be no more than $30,000 for a full year.

“We will not achieve that goal during 2016, having already lost in excess of $51,000,” the July financial summary indicates.

Depite the yearly losses, the summary reports that July marked the only month so far this year that the restaurant turned a profit.

“It’s been a struggle,” Roggenbuck said.

To keep costs down, Wilcox has been helping to run the restaurant with no additional compensation, and his wife has volunteered her time as well.

Wilcox said that the restaurant is a necessary amenity of the golf club.

“If that’s what members want, it’s an expense,” he said, explaining that most golf clubs lose money at the restaurants and assess their members for the losses every year. “We’re trying to get people to understand that you can’t have something and not pay for it. More amenities attract more members.”

In an attempt to turn profits, the restaurant, formerly known as the Mileta Creek Restaurant and open to club members only, opened to the public in 2010 and was renamed recently to the Greenside Grill. Wilcox said discussions about the best hours to be open are ongoing.

The club currently has 225 members, a number that Wilcox and Roggenbuck say represents slight growth from the past three years. While the July financial summary shows membership dues fell short of the budget by $4,600, “with the shortfall almost entirely related to the less-than-anticipated swim and other summer ‘Seasonal’ memberships,” club members remain positive about the club and its future.

Miller said that the course and its uncrowded nature offer something that can’t be found at larger courses.

“I never have to set up a tee time,” he said. “I used to come home from work, and my kids would be at home, and I’d say, ‘Let’s go play some golf.’ We’re so spoiled with that here, you could never do that in Seattle.”

Kim Richards, another proprietary member, says that the nine-hole golf course is more than the sum of its parts and is a beautiful piece of open land that should be preserved.

“It’s more than just a golf course,” he said, “it’s a real place of friendship too. I met a lot of my friends through there. It’s amazingly supportive and incredibly important and valuable. I became a member 10 years ago and have never looked back since.”

When asked what the plan is for paying property taxes after this one-time assessment, Roggenbuck said that he feels the club management has learned enough to keep costs low in preparation of next April’s property tax due date.

“We’ve gone through almost everything. We will be able to adjust quicker and not keep shooting ourself in the foot,” he said.