Fair Warning...Pay Attention Please...

This will be very brief and to the point. Over the next 6 months, watch for posts here regarding changes and actions by the RCSC board of directors. It doesn't take a genius to watch the last several board meetings to know the community is looking in one direction and the board is going in the other. As it happens, i will be happy to point those actions out. Simply as a public service announcement.

 

This truly should be an amazing time for the RCSC and the community it serves. We will be getting a new general manager sometime this year which alone should be big news and of interest to many of us. You'd never know it by what has been published, because the inner-workings of the RCSC is like a closed secret society. They make no effort to detail or discuss the challenges/issues directly in front of us. For example, we know some stuff, but virtually nothing in detail. Here's a short list, at least one for anyone who pays attention:
1). We know the lake agreement is set to expire.
2). We know golf is being pressed to deal with too much "green-space" and watering them will have to somehow be adjusted.
3). We know they have been claiming a new Mountainview rec center is just around the block.
4). We know the long range planning committee has been pushing the RCSC to finally get their head around how far we are behind technologically.
5). We know they are planning on rebuilding the golf maintenance building at Lakes East/West.
6). We know the softball club has been clamoring for a new building but are told to wait.
7). There is considerable speculation they are changing the by-laws so they can once again hide behind closed doors to deal with these issues.
8). It appears there are fractions and factions on the board who see things differently; that's a good thing BTW.

Point being here, lots and lots of stuff going on and very little in the way of substance. Having spent the summer of 2020 rebuilding and retelling the Sun City story from start-up (1960) to build-out (1978) in the Freeman room of the museum, i know there has always been issues that were divisive and difficult. In fact, the fight over incorporation started right after we opened and raged until the mid-90's. It was butt-ugly but it was fought in front of and within the organizations and residents living here. That was how everything was done. Of course back then, the RCSC considered residents/owners members and not card-holders. They knew it was our community, not theirs.

I wake every day wondering how we got so far afield of the original construct and concepts that made Sun City iconic and the one community everyone looked at and studied. My hope was the new gm would help take us back to a better time, but given what i am seeing, it appears that won't be the case. It is why i started this thread. As the months move forward, will we embrace the tenets that made us special/different/unique or will we fall deeper into a hole where transparency is just another dirty word?

We'll see eh?

 

While i was typing the post above, got an email from the RCSC stating they had selected a new GM. Congrats to Bill Cook, He was hired a year or two ago to be the CFO or something akin to it. I have met him once and he seemed pleasant enough. He was considered the front runner. No idea of his skill set but given what we are facing, we should know soon enough.

I have a simple, basic philosophy; anyone taking a new position, never pre-judge, let them prove whether they can do the job or not. The rumor was he was the current GM’s choice, but i have no proof if that was true or not. The word was the outreach effort wasn’t all that aggressive which would fit with the idea there was some forgone conclusion.

Running the community is an awesome opportunity. Hopefully he will be willing to listen to what people are saying beyond just the officers on the board.

 

Hey gang: Here is going to be the new look for the RCSC come tomorrow's meeting. On the agenda will be the fight over whether the board will go back to closed door work sessions or continue to let folks get at least a glimpse off how they function. They made a GIANT production of getting rid of closed door sessions and now some board members are contending the by-law changes are really nothing more than a return to the same old same old. If you watched the last board meeting you saw a board member propose a common sense solution with work sessions being filmed and played back for folks to watch. The proposal threw them off their fast track game to slam it though and they tabled the amendment till tomorrow. Rumor has it there was some grief over board members voting for the amendment and now we will get a chance to see how they worked it amongst themselves before revisiting.

Stay tuned eh...never a dull moment.

 

By the way, there should be some kind of decision regarding guests and moving to phase 3. Should be interesting.

 

So, did you go aggie? I just can’t bring myself to be in the room as they dismantle everything the community built over these early years. It was a way of life founded on ownership and participation. I guess the good news was, i drove by Sundial and it looked like there was a better than usual crowd in attendance.

 

I think it won't be too painful to watch the video of the meeting. It's like they are testing the waters and so far they are able to discuss issues openly. COVID has basically changed so many issues and we need to not use last year's issues as the norm going forward. It was also so good to see so many Members take to the mic and make statements or ask questions.

My one takeaway is that they should limit BODs to the 3 minute rule so we don't have sermons. So much better to watch on video when you can fast forward. The audience chairs remain so uncomfortable and this was a record-length meeting.

 

Thanks for the update aggie. I see they issued a response to Ducey's executive order regarding masks but what did they do about opening up to guests?

 

This is my question to you Bill. How can you remove a member from the board who have the audacity to say Sun City West is a better place to live than Sun City board member McAdam has to go she is the biggest cancer I've seen on the board in the 14 years I've lived here. I'm not going to get national politics involved here but we're still being threatened by a pandemic you watch these numbers spike in this state and personally if that happens Nationwide this country will be shut down again just like Germany and the UK before. There's actually another person on this board that should be removed but that's for another day and it's not one of the retreads it's a newbie again no respect whatsoever for Sun City who gives a shit about Sun City West go move there you think it's so damn great. Anyway would somebody please answer my question thank you.

 

I don't think that Director McAdams should be removed at this point because she has addressed some key points and doesn't seem to back down from undue pressure from other Board Members. That said, no one likes to be a captive to lectures and lengthy speeches of their personal beliefs. Comments from the Board is not the time for these prepared speeches unless they are brief and to the point. I am very concerned that we will be seeing a big uptick in virus cases and can only hope the hospitalization/death count will be lessened by those willing to get vaccinated.

I would say the 3 Cs I'd like to see are Concise, Courteous and Cautious. That would be the length of my speech.

 

Did you watch the video? I'll have to re-watch because it got so confusing with amendments to the amendments to the previous amendments on the motions really muddied the water. The biggest issue is not displacing Members from facilities by guests. It would/will be very difficult on RCSC staff to monitor when they have to refuse guest attendance just to keep safe distancing practices in place. The pool space quota seems to have the most issues.

Hopefully the RCSC Blast just sent out will answer your question as far as when/where guests are allowed.

 

Director McAdams put information out there in regards to what the CDC guidelines are that were false. Hell I don't know if this was intentional or not she is a very spiteful hateful person from what I can see nor do I care how many degrees or where she went to college and yada yada yada. I do have a problem though when confronted in regards to correcting something she said by director Akins that I believe it was board president who told director Atkins she was out of line for interrupting, no sooner than that and you can listen to the confrontation, director McAdam threw the word slave out there. Now with all of her wonderful credentials I do believe this was intentional wording on her part. And if this is the case she needs to be removed immediately as there's no place in Sun City for this type of a person on the board of directors in any town in the United States. Listening to that brought back a flashback of that piece of trash that is no longer president which was a big part of his playbook.

 

I am not going to comment until i watch the video aggie/SW. It hasn't been sent out yet, at least i haven't got it. I will say this; Director McAdam's is the most knowledgeable person we have had on the board. You may not like her politics or her demeanor but she understands the way boards should work. Unfortunately ours is far afield from how it should function. I did hear from a friend who was there for part of the meeting and the comment was made there were countless abuses of Robert's Rule's of Order. If you are going to serve on the board, either become familiar with what they say or at the very least, hire a parliamentarian like they used to have in place so they did follow the proper procedures.

The one comment i would make is this and it is in the form of a question: With the changes can residents bring guests/visitors through the facilities to at least see them? I will explain once i see the video from yesterday's meeting.

 

Here's a link to march 25th

 

for some reason, the link is not being displayed correctly. I'll try typing the link instead
https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhTmeaX8_UU

 

just curious, what does it mean when they say they are going to table a motion?
Does that mean that board members will in some form discuss the tabled item amongst themselves before it comes
up again at a board meeting?

 

I just go to the RCSC website and then click on the YouTube icon at the bottom of the main page or meeting summary page to watch committee or BOD videos. Nothing was said about visitors being able to tour inside facilities accompanied by Members so you'd have to go direct to the powers that be for an answer. For some reason there is more complete information about guests and opening up of outdoor activities on April 5th coming up on my iPad than on my iMac or PC when viewing the main page for RCSC.

 

It could be brought up again as a new motion at some future date but I think they opened a can of worms that they wish we'd all forget about!

 

So, interesting meeting. I would strongly encourage the board get a parliamentarian before their next meeting. Robert's Rules of Order are exacting, however they bring order to disorder. Clearly there was a fair amount at this meeting.

I have to disagree with you SW, McAdam didn't say Sun City West was a better community to live in, she pointed out they had acted more quickly than Sun City has (as has Sun City Grand). She also didn't use the phrase "slaves," she said the RCSC's actions were slavish (behaving in a servile or submissive way); referring to the way the community has been treated during covid19 and how it has been handled. I happen to agree, the care and concern expressed during these trying times has been frighteningly indifferent, cold and callous. Think not? How about how they dealt with Canadian golfers who asked to have their golf passes extended because they couldn't get here. At the same time, we opened the courses to outsiders while telling the members (not card-holders BTW), they couldn't walk the mountain at Viewpoint lake and at the early stages not to walk the parking lots at the rec centers. There's never been a shred of remorse about telling members to quit whining and just pay their lot assessment.

I am curious as to what happened with the proposal regarding meetings. Last meeting they tabled the proposal to record work sessions and this meeting it fell off the table or was pulled. Then there was the issue at the end of the meeting when the single woman came prepared with facts and data. She proposed the board consider options to single people (primarily women) subsidizing couples. With all of the gnashing of teeth and agony of how hard this was, it's not. I've said this any number of times; we bought our house when we were 51. We couldn't use the facilities, yet the RCSC issued us punch cards to use when we came down to visit the property. Her argument was when she has guests she has to buy cards and pay for them even though she owns two properties, pays close to $1000 a year and only gets the use of a single member. It would cost the RCSC nothing but what single owners pay when they buy punch cards to take guests to rec centers. Concerned about abuses, put a limit on it if you are that worried about the couple of bucks you would lose.

All in all, the exchange was healthy and hopefully we will keep doing business in front of the owners...oops, members.

 

Guess I should have my hearing aids turned up but regardless she shouldn't be on this board.

The golf situations with the Canadians is wrong. It wouldn't cost RCSC a nickel to do the right thing.

Now Bill please answer me on this question please. I was just told that you were asked to represent some employees in Sun City who are thinking about forming a union or for guidance on the best way to go about it. I guess some employees at Bell are not happy with the way things are going and the way they are being treated so they are going to do what they can do. That's what I was told.