Comments From The Board...

Discussion in 'Sun City General Discussions' started by BPearson, Dec 7, 2021.

  1. BPearson

    BPearson Well-Known Member

    Yesterday was yet another day of frustration, seems those of us sitting in the crowd have a lot of those of late. They started the meeting by reminding us how generous the board was by allowing us our comments. To add insult to injury, they removed the podium members used to stand behind. Do you think that was accidental?

    Before i begin, my work life was literally centered in these exact kinds of trappings. Meetings, by-laws and everything that went with them. I quickly came to understand the importance of becoming familiar with all things focused on how it worked.

    I studied structures and one of the items was where power came from. There are seven basic "power bases" with several sub-sets within them. I will ignore all the other and will simply touch on "position power." For years i had to listen to guys holding lofty positions sitting on a stage reading speeches written by speech writers. For years as i sat in the crowd, i found myself muttering, what a pile of happy horse manure.

    The December 6 meeting resulted in much the same. One board member was especially intriguing with her brain-dead comments. No names here, but the reality is simply by sitting on the stage, what they say becomes fact, for no other reason than they have "position power."

    I did get an opportunity to refute at least one of the comments. Yes, Sun City has a lower annual rate than Sun City West. The rest of the story is Sun City West charges single residents a single rate. Sun City uses single residents to subsidize couples. Not arguing whether it's better or worse, it is just different. It's all relative to where you are and what you are paying.

    The more interesting comment was how good the past 15 years has been. I really wish we (the members) could sit down with the board and have that discussion/debate. Was the last 15 years really that good? Sitting where we are and the problems we face, are we really positioned to address all the issues we are facing?

    After listening to the board yesterday, it appears they are judging our success on how "low" our rates are. Is that really the measuring stick we should be using? Should we ignore everything and just wave the $496 as the end all be all.

    Most of us know if you just kick the can down the road, ultimately the cost of doing that come due. For example:
    1). The most glaring is where we are from a technology standpoint. I said at the meeting, after reading the technology committee report, we might be 20 years behind. Ultimately the costs to get up to speed could well be 10 to 20 million dollars and nowhere it is addressed.
    2). Clearly, golf has now become the cash cow the community feared when it took the courses from DEVCO. The past 15 years those numbers were buried and no one knew how bad it was. As golf continues its downward spiral, the only way to prop up play is to give away rounds to those buying full play passes or surcharge play. We cannot continue to subsidize golf to the tune of a million to two million dollars per year.
    3). For years, the RCSC was guided by the community members involvement. The Legal affairs committee kept the board and management inline with the by-laws. When there were proposed changes, board members dealt with them before making drastic changes. I have copies of both legal affairs recommendations and exactly how board members dealt with every change. I won't belabor this. The GM for the past 15 years has done it all. I would argue this; when you center control in one person, you get what you get and all of us are now living under it.
    4). Perhaps the best comments yesterday were from the member who served on the Mountainview planning committee. He said this: The plan they proposed at Mountainview was half what it is now. Somewhere along the line, the board has taken the liberty of building the Taj Mahal. Why?
    5). The one thing that has become apparent is our by-laws are brutally written. No one knows what they say, no one can answer questions, there is simply no clarity. Going forward, we need to rewrite them in a joint venture with the new board and with the community.
    6). Over the past 15 years, the officers of the RCSC became more important than the other non-officers of the board. That has to stop. Board officers have defined duties, not more power. It should be one board member, one vote. Meetings should not be held between just the officers and non-officers carved out.
    7). The past 15 years we have been told how all of our financial information is out there. They post everything. That is utter nonsense. The only thing we see is what the gm wanted us to see. It's been watered down and homogenized to the point where there is no clarity. It needs to change.
    8). The contracts set over the years, whether it be grandfathering, Dawn Lake or golf being self-sustaining cannot just be dismissed at the whim of the board or management.

    The point is simply this; Over the past 15 years, we have evolved to a place i don't recognize. For those who have come well after me, they don't know. There was a concerted effort to become the "fun city" not the "city of volunteers." It was a designed plan to become more like every other age restricted community out there and lose our uniqueness.

    So, no Darla, i don't think the past 15 years have been all that great. Yes, we have cheap annual fees for couples. There's more to the equation than what we pay every year...and sadly the bill is coming due from all the can kicking we done.
     
  2. OneDayAtATime

    OneDayAtATime Active Member

    Well said BPearson! It also gets a bit old to hear a Board member say, " you do know that we don't get paid for all the h ours that we put in here?" Yes, we know because you've told us many, many times. What's better yet is that YOU knew, too, before you ran for the position. It wasn't a surprise greeting you your first day in "office."

    What I did find refreshing was the exchange between Director Rooney and the gentleman who inquired about a climbing wall in a gym. She answered the question!! She smiled while answering!! She explained why the design of such a wall was not considered in any of the phases of the plan!! She "thanked him" for his comments!! Maybe they should have appointed her to be their spokesperson for all of them. What they're shoveling at us might be easier to swallow if it's said politely and with a smile! (NOT!!)
     

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