Somebody please tell me it ain't so...

Just read this weeks Independent and was shocked by one of the comments on the editorial page. The writer claimed the RCSC was now making people wanting to walk to the top of "Meeker Mountain" have to produce a punch card to do so (for their guests).

I refuse to believe that is the case, no one is that stupid greedy are they? Help, anyone know for sure?

 

Bill, just called the RCSC, and sure enough, if you are a guest, you must have a host punch card. Spoke with someone at the center and Bob verified it to be true.

WE HAVE NOW HIT A NEW LOW!!!!

Isn't it about time to form an ad-hoc search committee for a new GM? Hasn't she said she was leaving about this time, although the time has changed from time to time. Does she think she can just hand over the reins to the AGM in her fiefdom and that is all there is too it?

 

Thanks Carole. There are no words to describe the stupidity of that move, NONE! What next? Charge guests/visitors to see the inside of the Rec Centers? What the flock would the difference be?

Taking the paddle boats out is one thing, walking to the top of the mountain is another. Hey, why not put in pay toilets while you are at it?

Gimme a freaking break.

 

excuse my ignorance, but where is Meeker Mountain?

 

SCR, no ignorance detected. It is the walking trail that goes up the to top of the Lakeview Lake overlook. It has a small waterfall to see, and makes for a nice view of the lake and its homes. It has always been open to the public, so to make it a paid attraction for those whom are visitors, well, it makes us, as a community, look awfully petty.

 

My bad, sorry about that SCR. Kind of an in-house joke regarding "Meeker Mountain." Some of the most amazing photos we have at the Museum are of that area where the Lakeview Rec Center, Viewpoint lake and the hospital are. Pre-1968 photos' show flat farmland with absolutely nothing there; nothing. Fast forward two years and we have the lake, the center, the beginnings of the hospital and the mountain.

The original hospital plans were for it to be in the area of 103rd and Coggins. Small and unassuming until Jim Boswell got involved and donated 1.5 million dollars and the location changed across the tracks. There were several stipulations and one was it sat up high so it could be seen. To accomplish that, they took the dirt from Viewpoint lake. The plan was to make the lake large so the excess dirt after the hospital was built was used to build the mountain setting. Over the years it has been enhanced any number of times.

I have taken a dozen or more media types there over the years. As Carole said the view is quite extraordinary. It is one of the places we take visitors and guests to showcase how special Sun City is. Unique is the one word that comes to mind. Now we've decided to monetize it. I'm really curious who made that decision: The board? Management? All of the above? Someone, please help us all understand your thinking as to why or how this happened. I eagerly await your answers.

 

I can kinda see how there might need to be some control to keep unwanted persons out of the area, but charging RCSC cardholder accompanied guests is too extreme. This is private property so trespassers could be prosecuted and removed if necessary. Limiting access at no charge to cardholders & their guests could be done on a trial basis before more extreme measures are enforced.

Why was this not an item that came up for discussion at a Board Meeting? Surely this had to be an issue that was brought to the attention of the BODs. Will be interesting if it is brought up at the BOD Meeting on the 30th.

 

Really? Really? The RCSC has decided that taking the grandkids for a walk or showing off the facilities to prospective SC buyers requires an admission charge? Another black eye on the reputation of SC residents thanks to the RCSC Corporation's unfriendly attitude toward "outsiders". I can't wait for the RCSC's next example of stupid is as stupid does. The RCSC Corporation is destroying our community values and culture, IMO.

 

For those that don’t know, access to the park used to be wide open. When they put the fencing around it i asked why and they said because homeless people were sleeping there at night. That made sense. Better yet, to get to it you have tp pass by a monitor. They can control anyone just walking through.

The question obviously becomes who and why was the decision made? Aggie is right, i recall no one talking about this at board meeting. It is exactly why i have become so frustrated. The community used to matter. And, IC is spot on; have the 5 grand kids show up with their parents and i guess the grandparents are supposed to cough up $2.50 per person to stroll the grounds. Or the perspective buyer who is told they can visit the park for $5.

REALLY?

 

It's fairly obvious as long as the BOD continues to give up all of the power to the GM, there no longer is a community, only the corporation and the GM. We, as a community have lost all of our voices and rights due to the most recent actions by the BOD. I was hoping the new board would have the backbone to take control of the RCSC back, but that is also not going to happen, not with the current BOD president.

The old statement of "there is always next year" is wearing thin and thread bare. At what point does the community get to have a say on how it is managed and run? What year will that happen, after everything has a fee attached to it, heck we are almost there. Bill, you mentioned pay toilets, don't be surprised when it happens.

 

Almost beyond comprehension! Rumblings across Sun City has it the board was unaware of this? How on earth could that be possible...unless of course they aren't actually charging a punch for guests to access the park. Clearly, management wouldn't take that arbitrary step without board approval...would they?

 

If true, this asinine move by the RCSC is, sadly, just one of the hundreds we members have had to try to rationalize over the past decade or so. You'd think a non-profit Corporation would have lots of higher priority things to worry about than charging OUR guests to view the grounds we're paying for. I wouldn't charge someone I invited to my home to tour my yard. And therein lie the rub -- we, the SC Community, pay for the hill, the walkway and everything owned by the RCSC. EVERYTHING! Yet it's not ours, and now we're forced to mickey mouse our guests with a nuisance charge. How demeaning and petty the RCSC makes us seem.

The SC community needs to man up to the fact that the RCSC Corporation is NOT the leader of our community, nor does the Corporation necessarily have the best interest of we residents at heart. The RCSC Corporation is just that, a Corporation. A supposedly non-profit entity which has built an empire to serve itself when it should have been building to serve it's customers, aka we members. The RCSC is quick to remind us it's THEIR Corporation, not ours. That we members have NO ownership in THEIR Corporation. They afford us few rights to participate and/or intercede in the operation of THEIR Corporation. The idea of a Board of Director representing we members became a ridiculous premise when the BOD modified the Corporate documents so that it can, and frequently does, turn a completely deft ear to the membership. The Corporation survives not because it does a good job, but because the membership is contractually obligated to fund whatever whims the Corporation decides. The Planned Communities Act (aka, T33) was enacted to thwart over zealous Corporations like the RCSC. That safeguard is gone now thanks to the fear-mongering falsehoods promulgated by the BOD, the GM and, lest we forget, the chicanery of two politicians.

All this said, there are lots of good people employed by the RCSC and many of them take pride in providing what we members want. It's these folks who make the Rec Centers a success, often in spite of the Corporate Management. That should come as no surprise since many of these employees are members themselves -- they live in the community and want to make the Rec Center a welcoming place. But it's my experience these workers have few nice things to say about their Corporate masters. The club officers, at least the ones I know, don't have a lot of nice things to say about the Corporation, either. An awfully large contingent views RCSC management as the "office of no". How long this situation can remain the status quo is anyone's guess, but it IS a bomb just waiting to go off. I can only hope I live long enough to enjoy the blast.

 

Dang ic, one of my pet peeves; who owns Sun City? I've written volumes about it, guess i failed yet again to help people understand who owns this damn community. I know the argument, that it belongs to the RCSC and we get to pay for it and use it if we follow their rules. This community was built and paid for by those who bought here from the beginning till now. It wasn't the RCSC who paid for it we did. The RCSC was established to serve the needs of the community.; it's that simple.

Those who come to power almost always feel they are the answer and that was okay (i guess) till they abdicated their authority to management. At today's meeting we saw up close and personal how bad it has become. No, i don't go to the meetings. I watched and it became clear the decision to charge admission for guests to visit the park around Viewpoint Lake was simply one management made. Most of the board looked shocked it had happened. It is how far we have fallen from the initial construct of this remarkable community we all love.

When we buy here, we buy into the concept of ownership, if we don't then those who can just take it and do as they please. For 50 years the board made the decisions, management carried them out. Rich Hoffer likes to say it should be a symbiotic relationship...if only that were true i could probably live with it.

 

It was discussed at the meeting today, clearly stated as being a management and NOT a BOD decision.

 

On Saturday, Ben and i are doing our second in the series "Coffee Brake." We've pushed the per-registered attendance limit to 30 and filled up a week ago. We did our preliminary run through yesterday and it should be a hoot. We are focusing on back page oddity stories from 1976, the first year cable television was introduced in Sun City. Time permitting, we will then open the floor to comments regarding hot button issues Sun City faced in their first ten years. There's tons of them and our goal will be to build future presentations around them.

All of which matters because historically, if people only understood, how much work went into building a community like Sun City. Had they known/understood perhaps they wouldn't have sat passively by as documents were rewritten to change a structure that was near on perfect in balancing out power within the community. If you watched the video from yesterday's meeting, you saw Ben mention our soon to be held non-membership meeting. It's been 11 years since the 100 person quorum was changed and we've not reached the new numbers since then. Anyone who thinks those were accidental changes and had no consequences need take a deep breath and rethink how much we have moved away from self-governance to a more autocratic form.

 

A question to the board was "did you know about this" (the charge for walking Meeker Mountain) and the response was complete silence. I know I have bad hearing, but I did not hear a response from the board. Again, if the GM is going to make all decisions, we no longer need a BOD.

 

I took the silence as being the BoD version of "Don't ask, don't tell."

 

Bill, we're not out of sync and I haven't missed your well written points over the years. We differ, perhaps, because I now make the distinction that the RCSC is an entity separate from the Community. Most in SC don't -- they still assume a classical relationship where there's a "town" (eg, the SC community) and a "parks and recreation department" (ie, the RCSC) that is under direction of the "Town." While that's never been true legally, for 3+ decades the RCSC by-laws required the RCSC to accept a fair amount of direction from the membership and so outwardly it fit the classic model.

Your point is we built it, it's ours. Well, we blew it, and not for lack of trying by you, Carol, and a host of others. But the fact remains, the Community blew it. WE, as a community, abdicated or rights by our lack of involvement and a let the other guy do it mentality. By doing so WE, as a community, allowed the RCSC to change it's by-laws to effectively preclude our participation in what they do. WE, as a community, allowed the RCSC to spearhead the adoption of a state law which permits the RCSC to function in a secretive manner. WE, as a community, could have gone to a member meetings and voted to retain control, etc. But WE didn't. The community mostly sat quiet when the RCSC raised the quorum number to a number virtually unattainable. WE may never have a say again in anything important. It's easy to blame the BOD and the GM ad nauseum, but it's WE who shot ourselves in the foot. No one else pulled the trigger. It was WE the "Community."

The voices of a few warned the community, the RCSC fear-mongered against our warnings. A few tried to stem the situation by getting elected to the BOD, but their efforts were short-sheeted by the GM and the board members she had in her pocket.

As long as I've lived in SC I've heard residents SC say "They can't do that, it's our Rec Center. We pay for it." Well, guess what folks? The RCSC can! And although we did, indeed, pay for almost everything the RCSC has, we own none of it and have virtually no say in what the RCSC does with. The RCSC is now what many liken to a timeshare -- decent facilities but the owners (ie members) have no say/control and we're locked in for life.

Who owns SC? Well, there's roughly 19-thousand households in the "community"; we each own our piece of land and we each have a contract that says each of us must pay the RCSC a yearly assessment fee. There are no bounds on the amount of the fee, and there's no guarantee we get to use the RCSC Corporation's facilities. That's it, regardless of who built and paid for it. It will take an extra ordinary event for the RCSC to cede control back to the membership. I have not said much nice about the RCSC, particularly over the past 10 years, but I do try to support clubs and activities where I can -- it's not their fault the RCSC is a giant dick.

 

You had a window of opportunity to have title 33 in place with the result of the judges ruling in 2019 but none of you would support the 40 litigants that beat RCSC in court in the first phase. No you squandered the ruling and sat quietly while RCSC got the legislature to change the laws governing Sun City governance. Some of you were asked to make your objections known to the legislature but refused. So don't point your finger at your fellow Sun Citizens and blame them for your failure to support the lawsuit and your unwillingness to oppose the BOD and the GM. You have
created your present situation and now have to deal with it. That finger is pointing at you.

 

Funny, we were just talking today and all agreed that what we need is more finger pointing.