The acronym was SCWOOG. I suspect most of you have no idea who or what they were. Starting in the late 90's and into the early 2000's, this neophyte organization sprang up because residents were tired of how their community was being run. Sun City West was almost the mirror image of Sun City. Couple of small exceptions but pointless for this discussion. It reached a boiling point when a general manager left and the board gave him a very large severance package. The community had no knowledge of it until a board member leaked it and the issues that were festering became the proverbial tempest in the teapot. The board president argued residents had no right to know some things, the SCWOOG group argued it was their money and they had the right to know everything. This mess was headed to the same kind of court battle ARS attempted with the RCSC for near on 20 years. I guess the leadership in Sun City West was smarter. They saw little value in expensive litigation that angered the community. They too argued they weren't party to Title 33 and had no obligation to comply with state statutes like open meetings. After much consternation there were 22 changes to their documents and agreed, they had nothing to hide. It changed the dynamic in the community immediately. Everything, other than information in executive session, was open and available. They didn't do business with secret emails or coffee clutches with just the officers figuring out how to deal with board members they didn't like. They didn't pretend they weren't meeting when they were. As an example, while i was on the board, we set up a session where the boards of the two communities would sit down and talk. It developed a wrinkle when the SCW board told us it had to be an open meeting, members would have to be invited. Our board was stunned; why would you want to do that? Because, their documents call for it. Duh. Clearly the community has taken off in a different direction when this happened. You can argue it's better, or worse. As an example, they still allow single people to pay the single rate. The downside is their single rate is nearly what our couples rate is. If you go to their website, they are totally transparent. In their 5 year plan, they tell you straight out, 40% of those living there are single owners. If we are being totally honest, in Sun City, single home owners subsidize couples. Who's ox is being gored? Another example is the community made a decision to subsidize golf. They have no obligation, as Sun City does, to keep golf self-sufficient. It's one of the reasons their rec fees are considerably higher. The challenge we have here is, are our numbers accurate? I defy anyone, board member or gm, to prove to me golf the budget is neutral. There's just way too much that has gone on that is questionable. There shouldn't be. The RCSC fought to keep Sun City from falling under Title 33 and stay Title 10 where they have the freedom to run the community the way they want. I've never understood the fear of being totally open and transparent. There is nothing, or there should be nothing that goes on in Sun City, that can't be shared with the residents whom are the owners of it. When the RCSC ran off and got Representative Payne to introduce legislation to keep us from being covered by Tittle 33 and stay under Title 10, it screamed volumes. Aggie said in another thread, something about how the RCSC hasn't always been forthright or open in communicating information. She's right. The gm had a vision for how she wanted to run the community and the board members simply became party to keeping within the mode she was comfortable in. Frankly, i don't hate the gm or the board for doing so, i resent their unwillingness to understand our history and the simple fact the community was built by those living here, not a hired gm or even by a handful of board members who marched along arm in arm with her. Here's the link to an old SCWOOG story...interesting reading.
And we could call it SCROTUM!?!? Sun City Restoration Of Transparency to Uninformed Members! It's a joke folks...don't start sending telling me you're offended!
