So here's the deal for me; i'm not in a small group looking for attention. I am functioning under the same premise i have since moving here; i want to see Sun City be the best it possibly can be. In my humble opinion, we've placed far too much control in one place and now we are paying for it. We were told, as board members, the lawsuit would never go anywhere. Board's before us were told to change the quorum so you could save Sun City from all kinds of bad things happening. Over the past 12 years, we've rewritten by-laws, much to the detriment of the bigger picture Sun City community. The new net of all of those efforts is we are still embroiled in a lawsuit (that's costing us a fortune), spending large amounts of money and political capital on legislation to bail us out of the judge's ruling and worst of all, reduced the role of the members and concentrated the power and control in the management and board. Who the hell is being held accountable? The answer; no one. Sounds like a lose/lose to me. I've written and told any number of folks i hate politics. I in part did it for a living and grew to resent the process. If you watched the game played on this legislation that died in committee and then was resurrected under a "striker bill," you know what i mean. It simply sucks. In the next post, i will enter a letter i wrote. I will not be submitting it, but if CM wants to cut and paste it, and then address it to each legislator with my name and information on it, that's fine. We've collaborated before and it worked well, so one more time is fine by me. I wasn't snarky, didn't attack anyone, simply laid out Sun City and the problems in an easy to follow way. If they are simply going to vote strict party lines it won't make a rat's ass what we say. If they care about what they are voting on, they may read it and it may make a difference. As a friend used to say to me, we'll see.
Dear Representative : My name is Bill Pearson and i have lived in Sun City since May of 2003. During that time, i have served on the board of the Sun City Visitor Center, three years on the Sun City Home Owners Association (SCHOA) board, spent three years on the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum board with two years as president, three years on the Rec Centers of Sun City (RCSC) board and three years as president of the Sun City Foundation. In addition i wrote all of the articles for our 50th anniversary in 2010, authored 5 magazines on Sun City, two for SCHOA and three for the RCSC. There’s more, but i will spare you the details. My goal was to simply supply you with a backdrop for where i am coming from. Most people move to the community because they love to golf, lay by the pools or enjoy the 130 plus clubs we have. I moved to Sun City because we were self-governed. I loved the concept we were built under. We were the first of its kind and while the Webb Corporation (DEVCO) made lots of mistakes in those early years, they worked hard to rectify and build a structure that would endure long after they left us in 1978. With 27,000 rooftops, and 37,000 plus cardholders, it is no small feat to keep everyone happy. We have have no mayor, no city council and no real governance as most cities and towns new owners come from do. I once wrote understanding Sun City is a little like understanding how electricity works. As i have watched the two hearings posted online and listened to the testimony, it has been clear both speaker and listener alike struggle to grasp how we work as well. The oddity is, while it is hard to get your head around, it works and it works really well. Sun City was also built on the foundation of volunteering. We (the residents) give back millions of hours in our community to keep it viable and cost effective for average retirees of average means. The tenets built into the community have served us well. The beauty of Sun City’s governance has been based on open and engaged community involvement. Over the years, tens of thousands of residents have played important roles in building and maintaining how the community works and our organizational infrastructure. I purposely did not tell you my position regarding the bill you are considering. My guess is you feel, given my efforts within the community, i would be in support of passing SB1094. I am not and i will tell you why. In the past twelve years, Sun City has changed. Community documents insuring residents rights have been rewritten. Control has been centralized in the management and boards hands while home owners have been marginalized. The argument was it was done to protect us from the lawsuit we are currently dealing with. In the end, we lost on both ends of the equation. Our sister community Sun City West, back around 2000, faced similar challenges. Several people within the community wanted a more transparent form of governance. Rather than engage in a legal battle, they simply agreed to fall under Title 33. The net outcome has been a better run organization and an ongoing effort to keep residents involved. It didn’t kill them, it made them stronger. My point after this lengthy email is to simply help you get your arms and head around why Sun City falling under the Planned Communities Act will not harm us. It will provide for a better form of self-governance; one where the control isn’t centered in the general manager and a nine person board. One that is more inline with how we were built and run until 2007. If you have stayed with me in this email, thank you. I have tried to convey the essence of Sun City in a very short summary. We are an incredible place to live. Most of us living here love it. Unfortunately, most of us hate the lawsuit and the resulting battle over this legislation. It is just costing us valuable time and money. Again, thank you for reading this. I would invite you to visit our community when the legislature is concluded. We played an important role in Arizona’s development and will continue to do so for many years to come. Bill Pearson. Sun City resident. PS. If you have further questions regarding above referenced by-law changes or questions regarding this matter i can be reached at bpearson6@cox.net.
Sent to all of those listed for the Senate, will start working on the House in a few. Thanks for the honor BP, I will do my best
You should be able to copy and paste all of those addresses and paste in the to field of your email client. You can spy all email addresses at once and paste at once.
SCR, was able to copy and paste both lists and send the letter. Did copy and paste the letter to Word, then over to email, as the transition from TOSC to UTF at the email client with the legislature had added lots of dashes and other superfluous material in the body of the letter. There is still some added characters in the final product as it reached its destination, but the character of the letter was not lost. I even tried retyping the letter in its entirety, but can't get around the "pre-reader" at the States email client. Got it there with the original message intact, which I know keeping the message Bill wrote was the intent of the letter. Tried my best folks.
Got mine sent as well. Kind of a rehash of an old post, but the message is still there. Lets hope for the best. Dear Representative : My name is Carole Martinez, and I am a resident of Sun City, Arizona. I have also served two terms on the RCSC Board of Directors as well as volunteered at the Visitors Center. When I ran for the board, I trusted and believed everyone had a voice and would be heard. Ideas could/would be brought forward and given a fair shot at being deliberated and reaching understandings which would reflect mutual respect and decisions. My eyes were opened rather clearly and quickly after being elected. The current board members had already decided, among themselves, who would be officers for the coming year and who would get what position within the Board. Since I was only one voice, it didn't matter if I liked the idea or the person or not, as the outcome had been decided already. This is how my tenure on the board would go. Always just one voice against a barrier of agreed upon decisions between the board members and the GM. There would be "meetings" of the contingent, the golfers, and Jan would be included or briefed on the contents of these meetings, allowing her to be apprised of the direction the work session would be going. So, the agenda presented always included the answer to the agenda item already inserted in the agenda or as a handout as to the costs, reasoning, or where it could/would fall into the larger scheme of golf items to be done. Me. I would bring my handouts, once again, to the board, seeking a dog park, and getting little support. The response to the dog park issue? Approve it, but then make sure it never sees the light of day after that, just to shut me up. So yes, there was an approved motion to build a dog park by the Sun Bowl, but it remained quashed on the agenda for future consideration and was only given lip service by the management team. So, who really runs the RCSC? The BOD of course, at the behest of the GM. This would explain why work sessions, which would last 8 hours at times, now can be accomplished in two or three hours. Why the lesser time, no dissenting voices to make the meetings run any longer. The contingent, still in place, only different members, but still the same modus operandi; fulfill the desires of the GM, espouse her standings on the issues, and support her political stance. MY opinions of course, but descriptions above are as I recollect them. The board was in Jan's pocket and vice versa. Little of what the members brought forward was even given real consideration. Nope, it was to mail the member a letter of thanks, but the board will not consider your suggestion at this time. It is imperative the RCSC be moved to Title 33 of the ASRS, specifically to be a part of the Planned Communities Act, which was purposely written just for this very type of issue, a community held hostage by a board governed by the GM. The answer is to vote no on SB 1094. I beseech your sense of fairness to the residents of this fine community to give them back what is theirs, a board which truly represents the needs and desires of the members. A board in which the cares of the membership are tantamount to the whims of the GM. Please, vote “NO” on SB 1094. Carole Martinez, Sun City, AZ member
So tell me why I don't see more names other than these few signed up on the AZ LEG website in opposition to this bill: Dawnna Barnes, Self(03/25/2019); Carl Coak, Self(03/25/2019); Jonathan Dessaules, Self(03/25/2019); Fred Fischer, ARIZONA HOMEOWNERS COALITION(03/27/2019); Paul Fitch, Self(03/25/2019); Bryan Hawk, Self(03/27/2019); Regina Heck, Self(03/26/2019); Ashley Hill, Self(03/25/2019); John Kruczek, Self(03/27/2019); Eva Kuo, Self(03/27/2019); Dennis J Legere, ARIZONA HOMEOWNERS COALITION(03/25/2019); Dennis J Legere, Self(03/25/2019); George McClain, Self(03/26/2019); Catherine McGurk, Self(03/27/2019); Art Moyer, Self(03/27/2019); james roberts, Self(03/27/2019); George Staropoli, Self(03/27/2019); Anne Randall Stewart, The Sun City Formula Registry, Self(03/26/2019); Don Varenhorst, Self(03/27/2019); Don and Patti Woolley, Self(03/25/2019) There are some names that I'd expect to see that are nowhere on this list. I'd post the list in favor but there are 100s.....
Probably because most residents have absolutely no clue what Title 33 is all about and they have no idea how to express their opposition. Based upon the responses to this topic I would also suspect that many have taken the attitude "I don't want to get involved". Give one concrete fact, backed up by data, that Title 33 would be harmful to the community. Change always frightens to uninformed.
Here's a link to get you the information. Once you are on this page, look to the left and click on RTS Manual. Easy to follow once you read through it. Not just for those wishing to speak as it also covers registering positions on bills. https://apps.azleg.gov/RequestToSpeak/UpcomingAgendas
aggie, the manual says "If you create an account at home, you will only be able to use the Bill Status Inquiry application to track activity on a bill, not register an opinion or create a request to speak until you come to the capitol and sign in on one of the Kiosks here. " It says you must go to the capital and log into a kiosk before you can do much from home. Did I miss something?
I believe you have to sign up for an account first. If you wish to speak or give an opinion on a bill you must go to the kiosk at the capital. To register a position on a bill can be done online if you have an account set up. This is what I've understood but haven't set one up myself.
I did set up an account... but most everything says "RTS not enabled" and refers you to a kiosk to activate. There must be an alternative since there are several hundred people listed as supporting the bill... I doubt they all went to a kiosk.
Nice job on the letter IC...we'll see. So let me guess, those folks who sent in their letters emails supporting the bill (because they scared the crap out of them) were entered into those in favor of the bill. Just a wild ass guess on my part but i'll bet you a dollar to a doughnut they were entered by someone downtown. Any takers?
Good advice E but do you honestly believe hundreds and hundreds of Sun City residents followed the tutorial to get their support for the bill posted?
