Not only No, No, No but Wrong, Wrong, Wrong
By Kenny Jordahl
RCSCW Governing Board Director
I’ve been patiently watching the rumors run their course, the misinformation infiltrate into the community, fabrication at its worst, and out and out lies designed to rob Sun City West residents of their intelligence. Sun City West is a community my wife and I chose several years ago. A sleepy little place that only got hot in the summer. Boy has that changed.
First let me say that I in no way support any of the proposed Bylaw changes. I could take every proposed bylaw change and analyze them one by one, but I would waste a lot of time and energy. The main issue here is: Why do you have a Board of Governors in the first place? The answer is: The Governing Board develops the policies that help us take care of our beautiful community. The owner/residents of our community vote for qualified people who are willing to sacrifice their time for no financial gain, to make a better life for everyone who lives here in this community. And thereby, as in the case of the board I work with, the Sun City West Governing Board comes to you with no hidden agenda.
The average Sun City West resident will possibly listen to rhetoric that says we need to limit spending. Every Board member I know will say the same thing. Board members are residents too, so we end up paying the same membership dues everyone else pays. None of us wants to pay more than we have to, but we do all want to maintain the property we all own. I think residents can trust their Governing Board members; we are your neighbors and you elected us, supposedly for a good reason.
This all goes back to the original thought of you and your vote for a Governing Board with no hidden agenda other than to make Sun City West a better place to live. You have a group of diverse residents/neighbors (the Governing Board) who have the whole community in mind. We’re all trying to work out the problems together.
Limiting any of the Governing Board’s potential powers is an effort to micro-manage. So why do we have the Governing Board? And who’s doing the micro-managing? You? Do you have something else you’d rather be doing? As a retirement community, the thing that stands between you and your fun time is your active community service. If you choose to volunteer instead of play, the Ernie camp could possibly see you as trying to rob the residents of their hard-earned money.
Did you know that at the first sign of trouble in Sun City West the Board of Governors is the first to learn about all the pros and cons of every issue? This provides a core group of dedicated citizens who study the issues to understand and logically resolve the problems of the community in a timely manner. A concern I have with the bylaw proposals is that it doesn’t allow us to take care of emergencies in a timely manner. The Ernie method would have a spending limit for any changes and then they would go to a public vote. Before any emergency could be resolved, we could spend months of discussion, thousands of dollars spent in informing our 28,000 residents and votes are finally in – we can select a contractor and only then can we start our emergency work. This is only an example of a possible scenario. And by the way, your concerns could actually be represented by only a few residents who speak out as a Special Interest Group. The Governing Board Members represent the majority of the residents, not the Special Interest Groups. How do you want to spend your money and retirement?
I do want to thank Ernie and his friends for providing us with this exercise in futility and how to try to disrupt a community. This gives us a better understanding of misleading politics just in time for the presidential election.
My last thought for today: I believe it would be an extreme conflict of interest for a terminated employee to come back as a policy maker to the very organization that terminated him. I believe there needs to be at least a 2 or 3 year cooling off period for anyone who has previously worked for the RCSCW.
So here are the two options: You can either drive a nail into your peaceful little community or you can preserve it and stop the Special Interest Groups from prevailing. I think the residents of Sun City West are intelligent enough to do the right thing.
I agree with George. Where did this 55+active adult golf community and premier golf community come from? And about the rumors. I honestly feel the rec board has contributed more to the rumors and scare tactics than any other people in our community. It is bullying in the lowest form. I have lived here for 25 years and this is the first time that I remember the board has actually been challanged on their overzealous spending. My only hope is that people will continue the fight and not cave in to the scare tactics and rumors.
I want to thank Kenny for his blog for he points out one of the fundamental issues in this election. TRUST: Kenny is repeating the same thing Dave Moeller has been saying for some time, trust the Board for they know what is best. Kenny questions why anyone would take their time out of their retirement to get involved – why- because it is our community. Kenny is saying you don’t need to get involved because the Board can be trusted to do what is right. Frankly, the more that the Board says trust us the more I distrust the Board. This is the same thing President Obama and the democratic Congress said and look where that got us. Our county is founded on the principle of free speech and these comments are nothing more than an attempt to limit them.
If any other elected official said this would you blindly go along with this? I think not. Kenny’s opinion is very systematic of what is wrong with the Board today. They do not want different opinions. To say that any owner member should not be allowed for any reason to become a board member is truly offensive. Just ask Ed Edelstein who was removed from the Budget and Finance committee because he was asking too many questions.
Whatever happens with this election. I hope that the membership becomes more involved and realize that substantive change is needed.
Kenny, I ask you how can Sun City operates and maintain more facilities, for $3 million or 15% per year less than we do? This represents $100 in member dues per member, per year. What have you done Kenny to limit our spending and keep dues down?
I agree with Mr. Pfeiffer – “there has been a lot of bull on this subject”.
First off I think the question is not “…to the way the Board raises money”, but rather how it is spent.
At present I understand each entity of 3 – Golf, Bowling and Recreation Centers have a percentage of the Recreation Center annual fee to cover their expenses, in addition to putting some into the Reserve Fund. If a By Law amendment passes, the entities will no longer share a percentage of the annual fee. They will be self-supporting – golf and bowling operating expenses vs. their running expenses will fall short. No more sharing from the annual Recreation fee to cover expenses. This is where the “rumor” of having to close golf course(s) originated. In addition, there is the possibility the Recreation Centers would have to charge fees for individual activity use.
There is conversation, but to date no decisions, but conjecture from the overly active resident rumor mill, from the Board on how they will react to the proposed amendment result(s).
I attended, over the past several months, the last Thursday of the month Board Meetings and read media reports on the subject and with the exception of several misguided individuals, there has been no statement or comments, with factual backing, regarding the Board raising money and “…Sun City West will go down the tubes”. Just not true, but those making the statements sure like exciting the people. They talk about buying you lunch, but forget to say there is no restaurant.
Again Mr. Pfeiffer I agree with you the annual Recreation fee “…that goes to the rec center doesn’t do a thing for the home owners it just makes the Rec Centers look good.” As a homeowner I would think you, as am I, are happy with that so when prospective buyers visit the area they readily see the homes with related community facilities are well maintained, affordable and for the use of the residents.
One knows the specific Phoenix area real estate market is and has not been doing well. On the other hand, Sun City West is a well maintained and organized “over 55+” community and is not suffering the drastic real estate market meltdown. A neighbor just sold their home in 1 day, not a short sale, foreclosure or “give away”. It was fairly priced, well maintained and as is all Sun City West – a good neighborhood.
Yes, we live in an “over 55” retirement community, with premier golf facilities. It is not block after block houses, but has additional features that attracted us to make an investment here. I like it, I support it and I can see with your interest in writing you do too. Why not advertise to the outside world a premier feature we have, in addition to the great woodworking shop and metal club.
There are those who are and continue to be upset with non- factual self-serving rhetoric. The Sun City West concept in which we live and have made a knowledgeable investment is far and above any other site, as far as return on investment.
The unbelievable patience and decorum of the supportive residents is being rubbed raw. The time is fast approaching for those who continually are making deleterious and non-constructive rumor generated comments to have us whisper in their ear – move, I have a buyer for your house.
Mr. Pfeiffer, it appears to me that the jist of your concern is “that the money that goes to the rec center doesn’t do a thing for the home owners it just makes the Rec Centers look good.” I agree with the part of your statement about dues being used to keep our facilites looking good. Keeping RCSCW in good condition is one of the primary responsibilities of the Board and Staff. Most of our members use the facilities we have to offer so using dues to keep facilities in good condition does benefit home owners. We all signed a contract when we bought our homes. The Assocition agreed to provide recreational amenities and keep them in good condition. Home owners agreed to support the work of the Association by paying their annual dues. It’s an arrangement that has worked well since Del Webb started selling homes here. Most of our members and visitors say it’s a real bargian.
George, you must be posting from Mars, or some where far away?
I’ve been listerning to a lot of bull on this subject. I hear from the Rec Centers supporters that is the bylaws are changed to the way the bosrd raises money Sun City West will go down the tubes. I don’t see it that. The more you take away for the home owners the less they have to spend on their own homes. If the homes get run down what does the Rec Center do ask PORA to send letters to the people to keep up their homes. I can see if the money we pay the Rec Center went for help keeping up the peoples home but they don’t so therefore that money that goes to the rec center doesn’t do a thing for the home owners it just makes the Rec Centers look good. So I don’t want to hear any of that bull that Sun City will get run down. One more thing on the home page of this web site it says, Sun City West Arizona’s Premier Golf community. That’s incorrect. It’s a retirment community. I know you crums on the board want to make it a Golfing community. The golf is here to entice the golfing jerks to pick and retire here. Stop trying to brain wash everyone into thinking that Sun City West is a golfing community.