October 28, 2016 Went to the evening board meeting last night. I prefer the evening meetings, as I am a night person. The board meeting includes all of the management reports including the Assistant General Manager report. Now, I will admit that all of these reports do get tedious, but I heard a number for a “maintenance building” which about had my skirt fly up, and I was wearing pants! $1.9 million, ($1,900,000.00) for a maintenance shed. How long has this little building been in the works? Did anyone in the community know about this building? Was anyone allowed to view and give input on the cost and use of this building? Was this the best use of this money? When I was growing up, I planned ahead to have a car, which I saved for. I had a plan on how I wanted to raise my boys, and planned long term for their education and future. I always knew what I wanted to be, so I strived and worked hard to get to the desired position I wanted. I guess most folks would call this long-range planning. Probably the same thing you folks did to get ready for and prepare for retirement. Everyone out there has probably put together some kind of a plan at one time or another for their or someone’s close success. No one needs emergencies in their life, but most folks have a plan to face the needs and move forward. This all relates to Long Range Planning and how it is desperately needed at the RCSC. The board members make decisions for implementation for long after they have left the board. There are no board members still around on the board when the decision was made to construct a new trades shed. They have all moved on from the board, and there are new board members stuck with the decisions made by their predecessors. How does one defend the actions of a prior board when the current board is not privy as to how decisions were made? Had this decision been made by committee, had a plan put together, had the consistency of members whom were answerable to the community and the board, would this building have cost as much as it has? Could there have been better choices made? Would there be people out there gasping at this amount as I am? We will never know, as the committee who had the oversight of such work and costs was disbanded. Long Range Planning is not a bad word. It is not something you do once, then move on. It is a fluid action requiring monitoring of the activity caused by choices. It is being prepared to handle and maneuver through the pitfalls and potholes, and protect the corporation and the cardholders. It is offering the cardholders a sense of well being with the idea that monies are spent well and appropriately. Some of the expenses on the report seemed reasonable and conscionable, easily understood, and explainable to any member who may ask. Long Range Planning Committee should be returned as a fulltime committee and not an ad-hoc status. There is a need for the oversight as well as the public input, plain and simple. If you want more information about expenditures, please visit sunaz.com, board, management reports. See if anything makes your skirt fly up!
Hey amber, good comments as i absolutely agree for the RCSC to function without a long range planning committee is foolishness (spare me the comments on what is going on with the property on Grand Ave). The point here is what has happened since disbanding the LRPC and even before, has been for one simple reason; so the board and management had total and complete control over how PIF monies was spent. The irony is, they always have had the final say,the long range planning committee could only make recommendations. The bigger problem was when they were functioning, if the board failed to at least consider what they were saying made it look like they didn't care. A little history is in order: My first year on the board (2012) the LRPC was in place and working on their number one priority; redoing Marinette Rec Center. Pickleball was exploding in popularity and that center was targeted to accommodate the growth. I was stunned when at one of my first board meetings i was told the LRPC had no say in 75 % of the dollar allocations for the Preservation and Improvement Fund over the next ten years. Previous boards and management had decided on the master plans for golf course renovations (approximately 6 million dollars per course) and replacing all of the maintenance buildings for the courses (5 total). It was shocking to me these kind of decisions had not been at least floated before the long range planning committee as they have been an integral part of Sun City's success for years and years. It didn't take a brain surgeon to understand carving them out was by design. Clearly, expenditures that would come in around 40 million dollars over a 10 year period would have been a hard sell for such a small portion of Sun City's population. The point is, if the courses needed that kind of investment, it would have made sense to use the LRPC as a buffer and to convince them why we should be spending that much money on a game struggling to hold it's own. Since Fairway was built, there's been a steady stream of board members who were avid golfers. Couple that with a management staff who felt golf course renovations were important and the perfect storm was created. When the Long Range Planning committee was in place, it wasn't top heavy with golfers, but with people who had a differing views and agenda's. In fairness, the building at Willowbrook/Willowcreek is for the golf maintenance and to house the RCSC trades (now located behind the bowling alley at Lakeview). When it's all said in done, i suspect it will come in around 2 million dollars; clearly a hefty price tag. The tragedy here, and to ambers point, these kinds of decisions are made completely and solely by a board of directors and in large part by the direction of the general manager. Worse yet, as board members leave, the GM is left to use past decisions to influence new board members on their course of action. The beauty of a LRPC was those folks were in place long after board members had left and knew full well what was said, done and intended. The democratic process of self-governance has been slowly and methodically removed and been replaced by an autocratic system where a handful of folks make decide what is in the best interest of the community. Tragic.
