Let's start this with a disclaimer: this is simply my position and in no way reflects that of the owners of Sun City...oh wait, we are the owners. For those of you who don't know, Sun City is a non-profit corporation. We don't exist to generate a profit, but the RCSC, according to it's founding documents, serves at the behest of the members. I would encourage anyone who disagrees to check the Articles of Incorporation (the highest order the of numerous documents Sun City functions under). Most people could care less about that, but it becomes germane to the discussion. The bulk of the folks either living here or buying here are more familiar with for-profit corps that exist to make a profit for their share-holders or owners. Beyond that is the whole question of performance, pay, benefits and whether you keep your job based on how you perform. For-profits typically have a more intense structure while non-profits are more relaxed. Finally the compensation for for-profit corps is usually better than not-for-profit. With that out of the way, the obvious question is; so what? For me, the obvious answer is...who is accountable in Sun City? Is it the board? The general manager? The employees working for her? All of the above? Worse yet...nobody? The easiest finger pointing goes to the golf courses? How the heck did we commit 40 million dollars to golf to be where we are with the golfers? We heard last night at the member exchange using the best seed was out of our budget and that's why we are closing the courses for 5 days (along with the weather). We know many golfers feel the courses are playing harder and the answer is we are trying to build more difficult courses to attract avid younger golfers. So is that the director of golfs fault? Or does that fall on the shoulders of the board who set budgets, or the gm who pushed for extensive golf course renovations? Next up, let's look at the Bell lawn bowling greens: $600,000 to rebuild both greens and the grounds. We had to shut down for a year because it didn't start in a timely manner. When they reopened (finally) they were 90% gorgeous and 10% ugly (the end rinks played awful). In an effort to fix them this year they have been working hard to get it right. Unfortunately they have been closed again for near on two months and we have no idea if their efforts to fix them were done right or wrong. To add to the woes, we have a Sun City resident who builds lawn bowling greens all over North America. Did we hire him to do the greens Nope, they paid him a small consultant fee and then ignored much of what he said they should do. Who's responsible for that cluster flock? How about the Sun Dial pool, bathrooms and fitness area? Last year we closed it for the bulk of the summer to redo the women's locker room and redo the pool area. This summer we closed again for several months to do the men's locker room and fitness area? Wouldn't it have made more sense to do it all at once? Who plans these things? Who builds the budgets to address these issues? How about the spectacular new pickleball pavilion. It is state of the art, first of it's kind (to my knowledge) and when it opened, players loved it. Because it was kind of like foraging around in the dark, there were some mistakes made. Apparently the sunlight coming through was problematic for players and the RCSC has been experimenting with netting to shade the light. After two years of trial and error, the RCSC told the pickleball club they didn't have the money in the budget to pay for it and asked the club to raise some money ($18,000 aprox) and they pay the remainder. The club went begging and raised the money. I only find this to be an issue because the RCSC has never been so flush with cash. Nothing wrong with folks pitching in, but is this to become the new norm? Who is accountable when the RCSC builds something and it's not done right, who should pay for the mistakes? Finally, we should quickly look at the solar lease/purchase deal we did in Sun City. It started as a lease (as a non-profit we didn't qualify for the rebates and incentives) and are converting it 66 months in by buying it outright. There was a projected 3 million dollars savings in doing that, but earlier this year we were told that 3 million went down to 2 million dollars. How the heck did that happen and who is accountable? If you have followed the volumes i have written at all regarding Sun City, there's nothing comparable to it. That said, we are drifting and that's always cause for concern. Especially when over the past 10 years we have watched the documents governing the community be rewritten to remove power from residents and concentrate it in the board and staff. The problem of course is as that happens there's less accountability, and if you get my drift, that's not just a bad thing, but a horrible thing.
Last year Womens locker rooms were redone due to mold. How did it get that way? Wasn't anybody checking? Then the elevator was out of commission for a while for repairs & updates. Then the mens locker rooms were redone and are still being worked on. The pool & fitness areas were closed from mid July to Mid September for resurfacing of pool decking. BTW. It is very nice. I agree. These things should all have been done at the same time. Too late now.
Bill, for the most part, I agree with most of what you have said. GOLF COURSES As for the golf courses, it appears to me that maintaining 8 golf courses is going to be a very costly proposition. 40 million may be a little extravagant, but that’s about 5 million per golf course. How does that compare to what is spent on other private and public courses in the Phoenix area? If the golf courses are in such a deplorable state, why do the golfers continue to play the courses? Are our courses any easier or harder than comparable courses? If the courses are too hard to play why are the rounds played steady or increasing? Who determines how hard a course should be to play? Is there a standard for how difficult a course should or should not be? What are the complaints about desert landscaping? Is it the golfers who are complaining or is it the residents who border the gold courses? Why does desert landscaping on the fringes not make sense? What does the public, who play our courses think of the condition of the courses and their difficulty? How often will 5 million be spent on each course? If folks are complaining that the courses are harder to play, could it be that as we age all exercise and sports become harder? Say it isn’t so. When we spend 5 million per course what are the benefits to the community as a whole not just golfers? How much additional do golfers kick in for play on newer more modern courses? Or do they continue to pay the same amount year after year? If our courses are too hard to play for some, why don’t they go to courses that are easier? You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all the time. SOLAR In my opinion, (that probably isn’t worth a nickel), leasing solar was never a good idea. Regardless of whether or not we get rebates, outright ownership is the best practice. Why pay a leasing fee on panels we will never own when for a few dollars more we can own them and get the maximize full financial benefits of going solar? What was the cost of leasing as opposed to buying it outright? Was it 40 million that could have been better spent on solar for the benefit of ALL Sun City residents instead of just golfers? ACCOUNTABILITY As far as accountability goes, if there is accountability it should be directed to the Board. The residents have given the board complete and total control of Sun City. Where was the resident outrage when the governing documents were changed to exclude the residents from any decision making giving the Board complete and total power? We have only ourselves to blame and it will only continue to get worse unless the residents take legal action and/or show up at Board meetings in massive numbers to demand that control of Sun City be returned to the residents by changing the governing documents back to their original state. The above may be hard line, but B…… about it will never, ever solve the problem or get results. We need a board that makes recommendations and steers the community without absolute control.
I was going to try and respond line by line SCR, but the site quote button is a mess and makes it impossible. That said, these are questions worth pursuing as a community, but will never happen. It didn't before the commitment to golf was made, and for sure it never will now. The Long Range Planning Committee that was in existence were told point blank they had no input as to the golf expenditures (roughly 75% of the PIF monies to be spent over the next 10 years). What's wrong with that picture? So we are clear, the 40 million dollars includes out buildings and pro shop/coffee shops rebuilds or updates. A typical golf course renovation is in the 5 to 5.5 million dollar range. Sun City courses have always been reasonably easy (compared to those with some of the more elaborate ones around the Valley). People liked them because they could play them and still shoot pretty well even as they aged. I don't know about courses outside of Sun City and their renovation costs or if they are doing them. If we stay within the walls, the 3 private country clubs (all built around the same time as ours) aren't getting any of the massive investments ours are getting. They get less play by far, but i would be astounded if they have anywhere near the budgets the RCSC courses have for maintenance. As i have said before, if you want to spend the kind of money on golf they are, there should be a game plan on what kind of outcomes there should be over the next 5 to 10 years. Anyone think there is? As far as the solar, buying it outright was never an option. Two reasons: They didn't have the money in the bank to pay for it and the costs without the rebates and incentives priced it out of being practical. The structure in place (to buy it outright after 66 months) was the best practical solution that brought us the best return on investment. Finally, don't look for residents to be storming the palace gates anytime soon. The changes made to corporate documents has changed the dynamic within the community and resulted in almost unchangeable decision making by the board and staff. While that makes their job easier (and with little or no oversight) it certainly doesn't do much to inspire residents/members to get involved. Pay attention, i hear rumblings there's more rewrites coming to corporate documents that further strip away community safeguards.
What else could they possibly take? There is already no way for the community to stop any action the board is considering, so what else can the community lose?
We normally think of NPs as charitable... as doing good for the community. I would guess the majority of our members think this of the RCSC. But there are plenty of large NP Corporations that have different agendas and only do enough community service to meet IRS regulations... I'm thinking of Banner, Mayo, Thrivent Financial, etc. Not making a profit simply means you spend all your excess profit internally... salaries, building expansion, etc. It doesn't necessarily mean they provide affordable products and or charitable services for their customers/members. I feel RCSC has moved into the realm of big business, not big "charity". My inlaws (who moved to SC in it's early days) said there was always a propensity for the BOD to pretty much ignore member input when it deviated from what the golfer and bowlers wanted. I read a couple years ago that ther were about 5000 SC residents who golfed... so the $40MM netted to $8000 per golfer. Sad. There were a number of cases in SC history where the 100-member quorum was able to assert themselves. The last time this "almost happened" was at the member meeting just prior to the quorum change from 100 to 3500... I think there was something like 85 members there. The board seemingly was concerned that ARS's activism might actually get a quorum at the next meeting and so they raised the quorom without a membership vote for approval. It's hard in SC to attain the happy medium... there are those who are ultra frugal... there are those who are not. Nonetheless, it never ceases to amaze me that we repeatedly reward an AsstGM who consistently delivers mediocre facility upgrades the members don't like and are overbudget. There are clubs that will have nothing to do with him because of his autocratic nature. In my book the only thing he is good at is making others responsible for his bad decisions... and making the RSCS members and employees afraid to speak their mind. The RCSC facilities we don't like is the responsibility of the GM/AssGM, not the membership. The RCSC says it listens... but in my experience, they clearly don't hear. It's mostly lip service. This RCSC autocracy will continue until what goes on becomes general public knowledge... until then ignorance is essentially bliss and the RCSC wants to keep it that way. SCW saw the need for transparency and made it happen. If the lawsuit doesn't put RCSC under title 33 then the RCSC will eventually run SC property values into the ground with ever increasing Assesments and PIF fees. Many residents came here for low-cost/tax housing, not for the amenities. Many residents need transportation, handicapped accessibility, etc to use the facilities. The RCSC has done little to service these members, to attract them with amenities they want and facilities they can use. When these members speak out they are marginalized (sometimes almost threatened) by the Club office and Management. To effect chance the members have to unite, organize, and then vote their will at the member meetings... that's accountability. Until that happens we're just pushing on the rope.
Lot's to comment on here but for now, here's a link C regarding Sun City West and how they got where they are today.
Let me respond to IC's comments, because they are an integral part of the discussion regarding accountability and how this community should respond as we move forward. First off, my best recollection to the number of actual Sun City golfers is/was around 7000. additionally we have lots of folks living on golf courses who are not golfers but love having green space out their back windows. While i'm not making the case for the massive infusion in cash to golf, one of our attractions are the courses and hence we need keep them up (wholly different than overspending). The quorum issue was the most dramatic change in the governing documents and the changes the board made were fostered out of fear, nurtured by the management. There were safeguards built into any changes attempted at the quarterly board meetings and for as long as Sun City had existed, there was nothing brought forward that threatened our governance. Our documents protected that from happening. Unfortunately the board was told the language could be challenged in court and we could possibly lose (after dragging it out for years). It was all BS, but the board ate it hook, line and sinker. It is a challenge to run Sun City in a manner the majority approve of. In our history that has been one of the biggest challenges. There are those who want to spend no money and others who want to throw money at everything. It's why i have written a hundred times the boards decision to pass the PIF was the most significant action a board has ever taken. Balance is often in the eye of the beholder and the GM has argued that golf will only be getting about 40% of the PIF with 60% going to other amenities. My feelings are allocations shouldn't be based on a percentage, but based on what's needed. The best way to do that, IMHO, is to work with the community to determine that either through long range planning committees, town hall meetings or surveys. There is virtually no accountability within the RCSC as boards tend to turn a blind eye to what is happening. Whether a person does something good or bad is immaterial and everyone pretends it's all good. Typical in not-for-profit corporations, as most want to just go along to get along. IC is right, we have a massive hill to climb to effect change. Those seeking office to the board always campaign on more transparency and better more open communication and once elected become trapped in a system of doing what has been done for years and years. Even when they push back, the majority is content to maintain the status quo. The other night i had several people ask me to pick up a packet and run again. I told them, not yet. When i do it will be with a plan in place. I will run with a committee of three with defined goals that include open work sessions and changes the community can either embrace or vote against. The second step will be have another set of three similar minded individuals to elect the following year so we become the majority on the board and we can actually accomplish the platform we run on. Here's the good news: Sun City is a still a great place to live. The folks running the community aren't evil or bad. It's just time to embrace a more open style of governance and to begin to restore our documents where people living here still had a voice that could be heard without getting elected to the board.
