It's the middle of the night, and i'm wide awake. Unsettled would be a good word. Two RCSC meetings today and they left me troubled. The member/board exchange was the same old, same old with the word of the day being "completed." Makes no matter if it was or wasn't, because it's the obvious right of the board president to tell us it went away because she said it did. Then we were treated to the admission the board president did in fact gather signatures on RCSC property, but that's not the same as gathering signatures for a recall petition, or gathering for proxies or whatever. This was all good because another board member did it one time. Sorry, no, it was never a recommendation from the election committee and approved by the board. At least she agreed the "optics were bad." Lot's of other comments and questions, but what does it matter what they were? I'm looking forward to the member's comment about adding night meetings and whether that gets a completed check mark? I know for sure the ones she made that board members were there to serve the members and not the RCSC were ignored. The point here is, i quit taking notes. There's no point. The meetings have become the show pony to let people know all they are doing for them; even when they don't and even when they should have, but haven't. Confused, don't be, at least not yet. The second meeting, the planning session on the budget is the one where we were baffled with the bullshit. I'm sorry, let me ask again, why do we need the $29 increase? Because we want to put the money into building a large reserve account? Because we haven't taken an increase since 2017? Because the costs are exploding and we need it to survive? Honestly, all are good reasons to pass an increase. Having said that, we fail to get around the fact we have added more than 10 million dollars to our carry forward account since 2016 and in 2022 we will be hovering around another 2 million dollars that went unspent from yearly budgets. Whenever the question was raised about the massive carry forward funds, we were fed a steady stream of how under funded we are from a capital reserve account standpoint. Here's the fly in the ointment: The RCSC has more cash on hand than ever in our 60 year history. The new goal is to accumulate more. It appears as if the general manager is bound and determined to tell the board what he wants in the reserve account. That's not how it is supposed to work. The board sets the policy. The general manager carry's it out. Several board members suggested establishing board policies relative to reserve funding based on advice from professionals. It may make sense to create a line item for adding to it from the yearly capital budget. Until that happens, the money they have saved should be used for the membership. In fact, stay tuned, because tomorrow we will explore the folly of what is going on and why all this talk of reserve account funding in 2022 and 2023 is nonsense. Unless of course, the board has no intention of living up to all the commitments they have made the past 6 months. You know, once the election is over.
I would have walked out of yesterday's meeting supporting any increase if there had been just a smidgen of intellectual honesty shown. For starters, as members of the Clay Corner showed up in force and demanded it was their time, it would have been nice had the board president admitted their requests for electrical panels to run their kilns should have been granted years ago when they requested them. Unfortunately, that's not how the RCSC is run. Management decides who gets what and when they feel it's needed. The board is either incapable or unwilling to tell the general manager he has to do something. I guess in the long run, it worked out fine for them (the RCSC), because these Clay Corner members have been hanging on and waiting so long, they see the only solution being contained in voting for an increase and electing a board who is terrified of telling management what needs to get done for the members sake. I'm not sure why after the past 7 years of million plus surpluses they suddenly are going to grow a set and tell management their job is to spend money, not hoard it. It would have been refreshing in the budget discussion if the focus was on getting stuff done. Instead the focus was on building reserves in case of an emergency like the Sun Dial roof collapse. I won't bore you with the details, but we are long past that type of event ever happening again. Using it as a crutch is just a shoddy and shameful argument. * Far better to just have been brutally honest and tell us we need the money because the new pickleball courts at Lakeview, to do it right, is well in excess of a million dollars (that is as of yet not budgeted). * Far better to tell us the new softball building, storage and lighting needs to be completed in 2023 and they need the money for that. * Far better to tell us they need the money because they have a plan to add an indoor dog arena in 2023, rather than some murky mention of it being discussed at a future date. *Far better to tell us they need the money to try and catch up on our technology that has fallen off the radar screen. * Far better they tell us with the Life Long Learning club dead and buried the RCSC is prepared to offer Osher continuing education classes at our facilities. * Far better they told us they needed the money to put the air conditioning unit back in the Vintage Car club that an employee arbitrarily removed. * Far better to tell us the problems with the POSSE had been worked out and they wouldn't be spending a fortune on rent a cops. * Far better to tell us they would be raising golf rates to non-residents rather than letting the rest of us living here subsidize the cheapest golf rates in the entire West Valley and perhaps all of Arizona. * Far better they would have told us they needed the money for better outreach and communication so new buyers moving here know the basics of how the community functions and why it matters they become involved. That's just for starters. We didn't even touch on the Mountain View discussions that will unfold when the project comes in way over budget. We had to drag it out of them on movement on the Quilter's club space at the new Grand Center and the fact they finally poured the floor so opening will be sometime in 2023. We did hear they finally got Viewpoint lake drained (unless the rain the other day hurt their progress), what we haven't heard is if they are still on budget. Which by the way was 8 million dollars and not a dime more. We did get a mention they we will be pouring more money into golf with turf reductions and out buildings to store equipment over the coming years. As you read down the list of all the reasons they could have told us they needed the increase for, think about this: The biggest issue on the general managers plate was what? BUILDING CASH RESERVES, not how he can make the community a better place for the membership. Money in the bank is wildly insignificant if the memberships needs aren't being met. As we sat through yesterday's ordeal, how many times did you hear talk of getting us back on track by spending the money's they have been hoarding and not spending? You didn't, they want to move some of into a reserve account. Not freaking once. A million and half dollars saved every year and every year all of these issues could have been addressed. They (management) simply elected not to, and the board refused to tell them to do so. Who is working for whom? Cash reserves are the wet dreams of accountants who look at everything as a business transaction. For those of us in the community, who see the RCSC as the conduit for building that sense of community, we left the room sorely disappointed. Yesterday we all got a glimpse of our future and the only way it changes for the better is by electing Totten, Collins and Fast.
It was mind numbing. If I hear that roof collapse analogy one more time I might scream out loud! It's starting to sound like a version of "Fear Factor."
Thing is that the roof collapse of Sundial was caused by Jan Ek and her staff when they turned off the dehumidifiers in the indoor pool area which then caused the roof wooden beams to delaminate through excessive moisture which ruined the glue and caused the collapse in 2006. It needeth not to have happened, but through sheer incompetence. Then RCSC did not have to pay for it as the insurance company did. RCSC lucked out. Sometimes it better to be lucky than good. Not very often though.
Cook continues to use it as a "fear tactic" for reserve building. RCSC learned (hopefully), we now have reserves to cover interim expenses in lieu of pending insurance recovery or unforseen expenses, etc. It's so obvious that there needs to be so much more committee involvement in budgeting and finance...understanding of funds, how they are used. Questions asked yesterday were pretty fundamental in many cases. This is at the end of the this year's process for crying out loud. They act like deer in the headlights - first time they have seen or heard some of these things!
And I'm getting sick and tired of hearing about how much other senior communities are paying! If we REALLY need the money then I'm okay with the increase, but if you're going to just stash it away when we already have the most ever cash at hand just because...then no!
There-in is the beauty and the beast of the presentation we heard the other day Tom. I could have easily made the argument we needed the money because we have fallen so far behind the memberships needs and now we need to fix all our shortcomings. They simply can't bring themselves to tell us they need to do better, they need a lot of money to try and catch up on all the things they have been remiss on. Instead, we were told how good they are doing and how everything is coming up roses. Instead we were told they need the increase to put more money in the bank. Instead we were told of the huge payroll increases. We know the state minimum wage is going up a dollar and hour, what we don't know is what the ripple effect on others in the wage scales is. We also know now, they are adding two more management positions and we don't know how large the raises (and bonuses?) are going to those at the highest on the pay scale. As board members we used to know that, there were no secrets. The mantra, trust us, has gotten old and stale. They've failed us too many times to just let them do whatever they are going to do. The SOP (standard operating procedure) in the past 15 years has read like a Nike commercial; "Just Do It." It worked great until they fired Karen and members started sticking their noses under the tent. Here's a question that has baffled me as i have listened to both board members and the general manager argue for the $29 increase to the membership. The argument was often based on the massive increases, some of which has been water, seed, fertilizer and new equipment for golf. We know we are all being asked to pay more, my question is simple and it is regarding the full play passes for members; why has there not been an increase on that $1550 yearly rate since 2017? If so much of these increases are attributed to golf, why have they ignored the full play pass? So i am clear, the daily rates for members has increased yearly. The surcharge annual pass buyers pay a fee every time they play plus their $800 rate. The golfers out there playing 200-300 times a year are enjoying the cheapest rates in Arizona. And, don't even get me started on the non-resident paying literally half price for a round of golf. It speaks volumes when Sun City West residents come to Sun City and buy the full play pass. So many questions...so few answers.
Seems to me that when the GM is hiring "managers" the Board should have some sort of input? Does the 2023 budget have a line-item for hiring two more managers? As far as the mandated minimum wage goes, perhaps if the employees are receiving an increase in pay they should also receive an increase in responsibilities and instead of hiring more employees we could cut back a little? As someone at the Exchange mentioned, the RCSC never talks about cost-cutting or efficiency, they just keep overloading the system! I still think an argument can be made regarding Mountain View! We added Grand and the Vintage Vehicle Rec center. So...we increased the number of Rec centers but the population of Sun City didn't, or doesn't increase! How about just building a performing arts center and pickleball courts and forget about everything else that can be found less than a mile away at Fairway?
Does anyone know if the Finance Committee or Board get any real detail like you just described, Bill? That's the real frustration! All we hear are words. I feel like the Board is just spoon fed basic information, and they are left to fill in the blanks. When the question came up about payroll increases, Cook should have been able to say, " Director Collins, if we refer back to page X in the budget, we can look at the breakdown of all categories of staff...part-time, full-time, salaried, and it includes increases for minimum wage, cost of living, any bonuses, benefit changes, total for 2023 and difference from 2022. There is also a line item for contracted services" How hard is this? But, it tells me they aren't provided details. Why?
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” Wizard of Oz Our RCSC boards have lived happily in their “Land of the General Manager.” That is until recently when some dared to pull back the curtain with Member support!
