Someone over the past month mentioned the word "inclusive" as they were talking about what they hoped to see as Sun City transitions from one general manager to the next. When i read it, the smile spread across my face and i thought back to my early years here. We bought in 1999 and moved here permanently in the spring of 2003. I quickly became involved in our governance, serving on committees, volunteering and attending meetings. My first thought, even back then, was we could do a better job of bringing members in. In retrospect, they were far more receptive to the community's wishes as a whole than they became under the soon to be hired gm. Little did i know, the push from the new gm was to move away from inclusion and adopt a policy of control and containment. Committees became expendable. The argument was if people wanted to be involved, just show up. In fact, they often touted the ways they reached out to members. And with each passing day, less members showed up or even paid attention. Why should they? We became the "original fun city, the City of Volunteers went by the bye. They got to a place where a norm of 20 members in the room for a board meeting was about average. They pretty much did as they pleased with little or no push back. Once the quorum was changed in 2009, and the members rights had been further diluted, those who did believe quickly came to understand, it really didn't matter what we thought. The management and the board started doing the thinking and doing for us. Many of us watched in horror as golf became the end all be all. It was what the gm wanted. The board from year to year was made up of a majority of golfers and they merrily went along. I never once remember a plan articulated why golf was critical to our future or if there was a plan to promote it to insure golf's success. Whenever it was questioned, the PIF chart always showed less than what was actually being spent. Not just from PIF, but also expenditures from yearly capital investments. When the solar payoff ballooned by a million dollars, no one questioned how that could be. Now there is a question whether it exploded even further? Along with the complacency, there came an arrogance from the board and gm; "we know better than any of you." Maybe they did, we'll never know, they never bothered to share much with us. The problem of course is in our 60 year history, RCSC board members were never fired. They managed to hide the first one with Barbara Brehm but when they fired Karen McAdam all hell broke loose. The dirty little secret was out in the open. Members were pissed right off. It became terrifying to them. So much so they hired off duty police to stand guard at meetings. They initially thought it would die down and go away. It hasn't yet, as people looking in from the outside have decided a community governed by a small cadre is nowhere near as good as one governed by the masses. All of which comes full circle to how Sun City was built and why it was successful. Those who built it and those moving here believed in a community where INCLUSIVE was the rule. They never gave the gm the authority to make the community's decisions, they were hired to run the day to day operations. The board never gave away that responsibility, they turned to the community and asked what they thought was important. What a novel freaking idea!
Well....I know I'm gonna catch flack for this statement (because its political) but the RCSC seems to be going the same way as our Nation! We use to be a Representative Republic until the politicians figured out that being a politician meant only representing yourself! The RCSC use to represent the wants and needs of the community until they figured out they can write bylaws that keeps us at arms length with no real opportunity to challenge anything they do! I would bet that no matter what the RCSC was looking to do, there would be several Members in the community who have worked or been involved in that field during their career who could, if asked, give the board an opinion and recommendation based on their work experience. There's a wealth of knowledge in our community that nobody takes advantage of! I guess the board thinks they're smarter than the rest of us? Just say'n!
Since Sun City's inception, the community has faced adversity, challenges and issues that left our success in doubt. Starting from near on the beginning, incorporation raged till the mid 90's. The "mini-Berlin wall," with the separation of those living around Community Center not having to pay rec fees to those near Town Hall signing a facilities agreement, the community was messy. The stink from the cattle feedlot around the late 90's resulted in countless lawsuits. Even more came a couple of years later when the school district fights ensued. When DEVCO left in 1978 to build Sun City West, the infighting really started. Stay inexpensive or grow forward? In 1982 the community was asked whether to increase their yearly fees by $2 so the RCSC could buy the Sun Bowl from DEVCO? You should get the point by now, and these were just the big issues. The little ones like fire hydrants and street lighting and the elections to boards and lengths of terms were all very real to those living here. Every step of the way, EVERY STEP OF THE WAY (sorry for shouting), the members (owners) of the community were asked to decide. It was never, NEVER, the general manager or the board. They were simply the facilitators of helping residents decide which direction to take. Some of the battles got bloody, some were resolved by common sense and effective communication. However, they were always resolved by the majority of those living here. Unfortunately, too many living in Sun City today have virtually no knowledge of our history. That is especially true for board members and the gm. For some reason they think their job is to provide all the answers for us. That on its face is ludicrous. If time has taught us nothing else, we should have learned the greater good of the community belongs in the community's hands. Not a handful of folks who think they have all the answers. It is tragic where we have gone and what we have become. Sun City is a great place to live, either in retirement or to keep working. It could have been so much more if we hadn't closed our eyes and our minds to the path those who came before us had taken. We are at the threshold of a potentially better era, one where those of us living here are just as important as a board of 9 and general manager of 1.
