Brentwood water users foot unpaid bill for bankrupt golf course in Antioch

Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)

July 26--BRENTWOOD -- The city is stuck holding a $136,000 bill after a local golf club company filed for bankruptcy and its general manager was arrested for loan and insurance fraud.

On Tuesday night, city council members voted to write-off $136,536.75 in uncollectable debt from non-potable water usage bills that Roddy Ranch Golf Management LLC owed.

Roddy Ranch Golf Management, LLC, operated a 235-acre course off of Empire Mine Road, near Deer Valley Road, and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 18 of this year. The golf club's owner cited rising water costs for their closure.

Under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the owners are allowed to retain a certain amount of property that will not be sold to pay off debtors. Legal counsel for the city of Brentwood has advised that the water bills owed to the city would not be collectable.

On the same day in April, the golf club's general manager, Kevin Fitzgerald, 46, turned himself into police after appearing on Northern California's Most Wanted list. Fitzgerald was wanted for conspiring to commit loan fraud, committing insurance fraud, filing a false police report, diverting construction funds and defrauding an elder.

Authorities said that Fitzgerald and a general contractor, Mark Mattson, 56, had conspired together to steal $200,000 from an $800,000 loan to the golf club to install solar panels.

Money for the water bill still owed to the city of Brentwood will be taken out of the Water Enterprise Fund.

The Roddy Ranch golf course was supplied water from the Roddy Ranch Pumping Station on Fairview Avenue, south of Balfour Road. The Roddy Ranch Pumping Station provides water to the Shadow Lakes and Deer Ridge golf clubs as well as the Brentwood Country Club. All three pumps need an average of 863 gallons per minute for irrigation.

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