Will someone explain to me exactly what this is all about? Is it two alpha males that aren’t capable of compromise and how is their behavior in the best interest of Sun City?
Suggest checking this topic thread, “ Our Dedicated and Beloved Sun City Posse.” https://talkofsuncity.com/threads/our-dedicated-and-beloved-sc-posse.4468/
It's a great question Larry and one that has left many of us scratching our heads. The articles available explain what has happened, the why is still a mystery. If you take the POSSE commander at face value, the golf course patrols (mainly on the North course) triggered the problem. I have no reason to disbelieve him. I know on another website a former board member suggested it was a contrived fight to make the RCSC look bad. That was pure and utter nonsense. After listening to the back and forth the other day, my take is just this: the RCSC general manager has virtually no knowledge of the community's history, nor does it appear he cares When the POSSE came to him six months back about patrols he didn't see it as anything urgent. After months of inactivity the damn just broke. We know the POSSE went to over night patrols a short while back. That was a huge step forward for them. I suspect that decision was made due to the crime data available. The POSSE has never been a police force, nor should they try to be. They were built to be the eyes and the ears of the community. Their role is to report suspicious activity, not try and stop it. Most folks don't know, a handful of the POSSE members used to carry. It took extensive training to be allowed to carry a gun and was one of the reasons everything changed. If you have read anything i have written over the years, my mantra is history matters. The POSSE has been an integral part of Sun City since 1972. Hundreds of thousands of vacation watches have been done and served Sun City well. If you neither know that nor care, there's little reason to care how they feel. My best guess is they felt both disrespected and unwanted. Which in my humble opinion is shameful.
It seems to me that the Posse is taking on roles that the MCSO should be providing. Eyes and ears are nice, but arrests are better. I’m also questioning whether the manager is the right person for the job. Keeping the BOD in the dark for six months about the ongoing feud is definitely not my idea of good leadership. It’s time for the tail to quit wagging the dog.
We await the RCSC’s superior abilities to assess the actual need for patrolling after their hired off-duty MCSO sheriff’s week long observations. Don’t listen to the community and volunteer Posse, what do they know??
So we were told today at the candidate forum by a current member of the board the reason the POSSE can't patrol on the golf course is because they need additional training and certification. Don't believe me? Watch the video.
Larry, back in July you posted a similar sentiment: "...what needs to happen is MCSO needs to do their job". In an ideal world you would be right, but that's not the world we live in. Here in SC we like to boast about our low property taxes -- are you willing to pay more property tax to support more officers? How much more? How many officers would you like? Currently, AFAIK, the MCSO isn't funded to have even one dedicated full time 24/7 presence in SC (which actually would require 3+ officers for 24/7 coverage plus their associated infrastructure costs -- ie, cars, radios, benefits, training, etc, etc). Today's world is ripe with disregard for the rule of law, ripe with information based on conspiracy theories and political posturing instead of facts, ripe with disregard for government, police and judicial authority, ripe with an overwhelming disregard for truthfulness. It's not surprising there's more want for security in SC than we used to feel, but neither the MCSO nor the Posse is going to resolve these root causes when so many people feel their personal freedoms should rule unrestricted. My take is the SC Posse was conceived of and still functions as "a neighborhood watch on steroids" -- ie, they provide not only watchful eyes, but perform services the police will likely never have the funding to provide. They've always had connections to the MCSO and have worked hand in hand, to greater/lesser extents, depending on the political winds of the times and budgets. I've always appreciated the Posse's existence. My sense is the rift between the RCSC and the Posse is perhaps yet another byproduct of the GM wanting to reinforce the notion that the RCSC is a business, not a community organization. He's apparently hiring security (funded by our assessment dollars) and avoiding the virtually free use of the Posse. There's probably more to it, things membership is not privy to that could prove me wrong -- but the RCSC's self-induced lack of transparency leaves us all to draw conclusions without knowing the facts. (Yet another example of why the RCSC's conformance to T33 would have been a good thing for SC overall.)
Your third paragraph says it all IC. The gm has no clue about how the community was built and why it was successful. At least the previous one lived here and tried to work with organizations, at least enough to get by. Yesterday the comments were made about the importance of organizations working together. Listen carefully, the RCSC hasn't been working with them for a while now. Why should they? They have the money and do as they please. I know i drive people nuts with this whole sense of community spiel. It's been my mantra even while on the board. No one was interested in listening then and even less interested these days. Perhaps i'm just a dinosaur on a fool's mission. Perhaps it's time to walk away and let them just do whatever they want.
NO! That's not the answer. The more we allow them (the Board and the GM) to get away with, the more power they will take. They need to know that we're watching and we need to hold their feet to the fire. As always, "You get the government you deserve" Committee members don't seem to have any influence on what the Board or management does. Might be time for an unofficial Watchdog group but the funny thing is, there's no RCSC facility where we can even meet!?!?!? They've got us by the cojones! I make no bones about it, my vote this year is going to Jean Totten, John Fast and Steve Collins because I know their interest is in the Membership and returning Sun City back to a community of co-governance.
There is no way we walk away. That's their plan. Bill's post about the challenges of the last 50 years is a must for the Independent. There is too much at stake. There has been no accountability for too long. I am fairly new to TOSC, SCA and all the shenanigans, but I've been in public service, NPO management or the legal field for nearly 40 years, and I know BS when I see it. There is plenty of it going on. RCSC has a unique IRS designation. It doesn't fit a typical NPO profile, but it doesn't mean that they don't have responsibilities that the IRS says they have to follow, in addition to our own governing documents. Accountability matters - for the Board and management. They can't just get off the hook by us walking away!
