Happy Thanksgiving! (just a heads up, long read and more for me than perhaps the readers). It's no secret, i like to read. I also like to write, but never take myself serious enough to be called a writer. I'm more of a story teller with a keyboard. And for anyone interested, a painfully slow typist as well. A shout out to all of us one-fingered addicts. Some may be familiar with a website called substack. It's where real authors can go to publish their works and readers can subscribe to what they have written. I have a couple of writers i have subscriptions for, i simply enjoy their musings. Matt LaBash is one of them, he writes Slack Tide. He's been kicking around a long time and is slightly irreverent and somewhat off center. Both qualities i enjoy in writers. He also has the ability to reach in and tear your heart out when he goes deep. Yesterday was one of those days. By the columns end, i was sobbing to myself. It was that good. The title of the piece was "Enjoy Every Sandwich." Here is a link but i don't know if it will work, The origin of the title is actually from a singer/song writer Warren Zevon and a song he wrote years ago. Matt was an ardent Zevon fan. The story unfolds based on a relationship with a man who often posted on LaBash's articles in the comment section (another feature i enjoy about substack). The gentleman in question was featured in an article Matt wrote called Doubting Thomas. Tom Missler was a "lapsed Catholic who grew into an atheist." Matt often writes with religious based sentiments, which sometimes chases me from columns. Tom on the other hand took the liberty of questioning/challenging LaBash in the comments section which often resulted in great back and forth. Beyond that, they communicated via emails regularly during their short relationship. A friendship was formed that ended when Tom went to his grave (just recently). Yup, the killer story was about the death of these two wholly different men; the singer Warren Zevon and the atheist Tom Missler. One died 19 years back, the other on November 12. Both impacted Matt who in turn wrote and reached an article of epic impact (on me and so many others). I won't even begin to try and tell the story, it's far too good for an amateur to try and recant. I will however leave you with these opening words, they say it all: "A tribute to a departed reader and Warren Zevon, two men who refused to "kiss the rancid ass of despair."I told you, Matt is sometimes irreverent. The reality is, both men died of cancer, neither willing to compromise on the joys of living; even when their bodies were racked with cancer that was eating them from the inside out. Both men clung to the good things in their lives till the very end. Both refused to "kiss the rancid ass of despair," that so many embrace as they lay at death's door. So, why am i telling anyone interested in reading this why this mattered to me? Good question and one i wrestle with every day. Nope, my body isn't filled with cancer (that i know of). I have nasty arthritis, but so does half of Sun City. It's the joy of growing old and most assuredly isn't worth whining about. As Matt points out in his opening paragraph, Thanksgiving is invariably that time when we are supposed to give thanks, be grateful. It's not often easy as we become immersed in all of the worlds problems. The Ukraine. National and local politics and the venom spreading across the country that has become known as the great divide. The list is almost endless, and that says nothing about what is going on locally. Which is exactly where my angst stems from. When we moved to Sun City in 2003, i fairly well gave up on what goes on outside the walls. Don't get me wrong, i still read more than my share, occasionally post my thoughts where comments are solicited and can be rightfully indignant when i feel so compelled. I also know, what i say or write is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. However, when it comes to Sun City, i am conflicted. A lot. I spent my early years here fighting with anyone and everyone critical of this amazing community. Simply because, anyone who has moved here (and that is everyone) has fallen in love with our adopted home, Sun City. What's not to love? Let me end this diatribe here, get some coffee, start another thread, and come back and finish this one off. Hopefully, if and when you come back, the pieces of the puzzle will begin to fit into place.
So, here's my dilemma: All of us who have joined the Advocates have been painted into a corner. We are perceived as and called "haters." Really, after 20 years, donating thousands of hours to the community, written a million words about the joy of living here, i'm now set on a course of destroying it? Really? I was deeply involved for years. By 2017/18 i watched in total frustration as the general manager, along with the board members dismantled Sun City's structure of self-governance. It was done under the guise of self-preservation; while in reality, it was a power grab to control every outcome. I came to understand i was powerless, to stop it. Hell, the three years spent serving on the board, i was run over like i was hit by a mack truck. I've said, i wasn't even a good speed bump. After i left, i watched in vain, rather than attending, as they moved further and further away from our roots. I got rejuvenated when Barbara (2020) was elected and when the long range planning committee wrote a very aggressive 4 page membership survey. By years end. both had been shit-canned. Then Karen ran in 2021 and her voice was loud and on point. She was willing to tackle the tough issues and challenge leadership head on. By the summer of 2021, she too was shit-canned. Seeing a common thread here? But anyone following anything i have written (for years now), know all of this. What ensued is even more compelling. Members rose up, spoke up and they scared the shit out of the powers that be. So much so they were compelled to hire armed off duty security (how freaking crazy was that?). Then at the members meeting in December you shocked me all when we blew the 1250 quorum out of the water. We were on our way! Sounds good, but not really. They played the game with the bylaws rewrite with no intentions of every giving the membership anything. Now we are watching from afar as they still play the game, promising club members things they will never see. Soliciting votes via absentee ballots they have no right to try and get. The deck is stacked and realistically the bulk of the 32,500 members knows virtually nothing about why they should vote or the difference they could make. So, what does any of this have to do with the LaBash column above? Pretty simple and for those of you who connect the dots better than others, the guys Matt talked about in his column never "kissed the rancid ass of despair." They never got negative (although my best guess is they did from time to time), but tried to be positive more than leaning into the negative. I spent my first 15 years being, as the New York Times wrote, " Sun City's biggest cheerleader." I wanted to always take the high road. There came a time when that road was simply washed away by the actions of those who wanted control. I would love to be mister optimistic, but how does one do that as they watch the community they love be changed forevermore? It's a frustrating question and one i wrestle with every day.
Some have suggested to just be nice, be positive, be optimistic. All great qualities if you are watching a football game and the final score is nothing more than a win or a loss. In this case, it's a community we moved to and fell in love with. One of the qualities was based on the way it was constructed, the ability for the membership to have a say in the decisions that were made. The guard rails built into the documents were amazing and as i came to understand our history, it was abundantly clear, it wasn't by accident. From Sun City's earliest days, the residents took ownership and embraced a way of life wholly different from where they came. They struggled over every decision and choice of direction. The battles were heated and contentious. It wasn't always a mutual love affair, but selfless acts of members willing to engage in give and take. They forged the nearly perfect setting where the partnership between the membership and the leadership were equal forces to insure Sun City be unique from where they came. And that's where it got ugly, the changes foisted on us to become what we are today, weren't by accident either. First they stripped us of our rights at membership meetings (2009), then they blatantly took away our identity, City of Volunteers (2011/2012) and then gradually morphed into a free-standing organization where the solutions came from the hired help and the board became little more than rubber stamps. The reality is, if they hadn't been so brazen and fired Barbara (2020) and Karen (2021), they would still be rolling merrily along with nary a whimper from the membership. Talk about self-inflicted wounds. Let me sum up why what has been happening since 2006 is so disastrous to Sun City. It's embedded in a slogan i have written for too many years to count: "Sun City is the sum total of our parts." From the day we moved here, i always saw big picture Sun City; not the small picture so many like to think of as Sun City, that the RCSC is the only organization that matters. They're not, they just like to think of themselves that way. The leadership since 2006 gradually isolated themselves from the rest of the community. They have all the money they need and have the tools on any given day to raise even more. They don't really care about what the other organizations do, or even if they survive. They don't understand an infrastructure built around volunteers and organizations that provide the services that exist here, because we aren't incorporated. The 35 year fight to incorporate (1961-1995) was a battle waged by the owners who loved the way the community was built and fought to preserve it. The RCSC, since 2006, won the wars by becoming what everyone struggled so hard to prevent happening: A community governed by a few. I watched in horror as i full well understood what they were doing and why. Now the only question left for me, and others, are we just fine with what we have become? Should we just sit back and cheer them on and silently watch what was built over 50 plus years be destroyed? This election is critical and everyone knows it. It's why what is happening from those in control has been so out of control. They will do anything to win. I get it, they've spent 15 plus years getting us here and they have no interest in seeing the membership having a voice. If there is a saving grace, it's this; Sun City is a great place to live. Sadly, it could be so much better.
The last post begs the question: How could we be so much better? This is where i get the inevitable cry's of Monday morning quarterbacking or revisionist history. You can take what i write as true or not, they are simply the issues we have been saying and writing for years now. The member's voices didn't matter. Let's take them one by one and you be the judge: 1). As far back as the mid 2000's, when the RCSC installed wifi across the centers. anyone paying attention understood there were issues. It was slow, sometimes there were dead spots and all to often when it was most needed, quit working all together. Committees as early as 2010 were pushing for technology improvements. They did nothing. Either they didn't care, or or they were incapable and it was beyond their grasp. In 2022, we were told just how bad it was. Butt ugly! 2). Before the long range planning committee was disbanded in 2012 or 2013 there had been numerous pushes to build a performing arts theater. I saw at least two viable plans over the years prepared by the Players. Sadly with the general manager fixated on golf and the board makeup of predominantly golfers, those plans never got any traction. 3). When the nursing school departed the Lakes Club in 2012, the owners wanted to sell it. I was on the board and we toured the amazing facility. 38,000 square feet and the solution to our every problem. The land was owned by the Sun Health Foundation in a land lease, but it was workable. The building would have cost around 4 million dollars and the RCSC assistant general manager projected 4-5 million dollars in remodeling costs. Have I mentioned, Theater Works had been performing plays there for about a year. The building would have housed the entire RCSC operation, a dozen class rooms for life long learning and card rooms in addition to the theater. 4). I was on the board when we approved and built the Marinette Pickleball Pavilion. As nice as it was, it was rife with mistakes; still is. The lighting is bad and when it rains, it floods. Several of the members of the long range planning committee recommended building an indoor facility with air conditioning. We should have listened. Instead, we have tried to fix the problems more times than i can count and there's still a myriad of issues. yet, they do nothing...how about enclosing it now? 5). With the massive costs we are facing with the Mountain View rebuild (40 million dollars according to the RCSC long range PIF budget), all of this potentially could have been avoided had we at least asked the members in 2012 if they thought purchasing the Lakes Club was what they wanted/should have happened. Carole Martinez and I begged the board to do at least that. The board refused and the general manager argued it could drive up the purchase price of the building if we made it public. Imagine now if we had bought it and the theater was there and the only thing we needed was to enhance Mountain View as a sports complex with multiple pools, more pickleball courts and perhaps even adding an indoor dog arena where the social hall/auditorium is. A fraction of the cost, the theater in the middle of the community along with a massive Community Center, gathering spot. Throw in a fine dining area, small bar with a venue for musicians and an indoor/outdoor coffee and ice cream parlor. There was room for all of this. I cringe every time i write this and the boo birds always show up and tell me to let it go. When i write it, my point is simple; we can't have a do over, we can insure these things never happen again. By shutting down the voices of the membership, we changed what could have been to what is. Anyone paying attention to what is going on these days, we are rife with problems. Anytime your goal is to control every outcome and place those decisions in the hands of the general manager and or a few board members, you run the risk of making mistakes. More voices, more opinions worked well for Sun City for 50 years. The day that changed is when we started down the wrong path. Sadly, we are still on it.
In fairness, we always knew there was going to be an issue with our golf courses and the watering it took. I never voted against those improvements; water distribution, irrigation or wells. The desert landscaping came along after i had left the board but it made sense, especially when we were told under the 2025, 5th water management plan, we would get no water for the roughs. Those courses that aren't done are going to take a huge junk of our PIF going forward (18-20 million dollars). The bigger issue for me was the singular minded commitment to golf the former GM embraced. It was illogical at best and at worst, decided by a handful. It was one of the reasons she carved out the membership, the community at large would have pushed back, if they knew or understood. As the the expenditures increased, the members became further removed from the process. Worse yet, the transparency of the process shrank with each passing day. It was like watching a slow motion car wreck and being unable to do anything about it. I knew what they were doing and no one cared. As i complained, the mantra was Pearson hates golf. Nothing could be further from the truth. What i hated was what they were doing and not telling/showing anyone. Hell, half the board had no idea how much money was being plowed into golf. The more money they dumped into golf, the more they needed to justify their investment in the game. The problem was, the game was struggling to survive. Their/our salvation came with the pandemic and it became the only game in town. Members hungry for something to do, started golfing again. That's a good thing. The problem was the RCSC looked at those living outside the walls as an add-on to their needed golf rounds. Which would have been fine if they hadn't built a structure that incentivized cheap golf. Full play pass sales exploded as both members and non alike swooped in and bought up the passes. There was no better bargain to be had anwhere. There's been no review of how we market golf in years. They measure success by the number of rounds played, not by the revenue it generates. Not my job to figure it out, but in my humble opinion the golfers in the community should be the ones helping shape those decisions. The idea two non-resident employees decide what is best for the community strikes me as foolish. This is what happens when you take the members of the community out of the equation and a few become the arbiters for what works. We are simply living out the end game of 15 plus years of running from our magnificent history. We've ignored the blueprint that made us unique in the quest to become what every other age restricted community is...a fun place to live.
