We wanted to be sure to capture President Lehrer's comments and member responses to her Guest Commentary in the Sun City Independent recently. While Lehrer may view the train as en route, the final plans and budget assessments will tell the real story.
Nevertheless, the members of Sun City will not be bull-dozed into other multi-million dollar projects without more TRANSPARENCY, clear process, up-to-date input, and true review of the numbers. We don't see lingering questions as analysis paralysis but as clarification. In fact, we dispute there was enough analysis done.
Sun City Independent
Dale LehrerPosted Tuesday, June 21, 2022 4:00 pm
By Dale Lehrer - Recreation Centers of Sun City board president for 2022.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Lehrer: Analysis, paralysis and Mountain View
Based upon the past few months of Recreation Centers of Sun City members repeatedly expressing their opinions, I feel it’s necessary that we all agree to take a break, enjoy summer and plan on returning to board business in the fall with the understanding that the Mountain View Center project has officially “left the station.”
The board has made its decision and determined that the process started years ago and is moving forward. Period. No one can predict that the economy will improve, and the longer we wait, the longer it will take to get work done and return to having first-class amenities at our Mountain View location.
I believe that after all this time, we have reached what I like to refer to as “analysis paralysis” — the inability to make a decision due to over-thinking a problem. There comes a time when an individual or a group of individuals can have too much data. The result is endless wrangling over the upsides and the downsides of each and every option — and an inability to pick one.
As most of you know, I have been a staunch advocate when it comes to consistent collection of utilization data for all RCSC club and monitored activities. It’s hard to believe I would be opposed to too much data, but in this case, we need to stop the second-guessing and move forward. Two town hall meetings, a year of evaluation and discussion on the Long-Range Planning Committee and an ad hoc committee composed of RCSC members who represented all activities and sports at Mountain View have all contributed in creating a recommendation for the design of Mountain View. The board approved the recommendation and an architect was hired to create a conceptual plan.
The conceptual plan was presented to the board and members, who commented on the lack and proximity of handicap accessible parking. As chairwoman of the Long-Range Planning Committee at the time, the lack of safety, security and access control in the architectural plan was also a huge red flag for me. These concerns brought forward by members were all legitimate. The plans went back to the architect for revision to address these issues.
Oh no! The revision to correct concerns of RCSC members now called for the rotation of a building to an area currently occupied by pickleball courts — and the rest is now part of our history. As a result, a small group of members has crafted numerous ploys and claimed a lack of transparency, all designed to delay or change the entire Mountain View project.
There has never been any secrecy or a lack of transparency around this project. There was only a design change that happened to interfere with the current pickleball accessibility. Acknowledging this, the board has been looking at options that would supplement the lost Mountain View courts. The Pickleball Club has been heavily involved in this planning and has overwhelmingly agreed with a potential court replacement solution.
Therefore, I respectfully ask that you trust and respect the process that has occurred and trust and respect your fellow members who dedicated their time and energies to determine what would be best for all. There may come a time when you’ll be involved in a similar project and will come to understand the investment and commitment made by these individuals who worked to serve the needs of everyone affected.
The Mountain View project is long overdue. It’s time to stop the “analysis paralysis” and move ahead.
Comments related to this post captured on NextDoor:
Please share your comments on the Mountain View 'train'. All-aboard!
9 comments:
So much for SCA harping on transparency when SCA posts comments from other sources names are blacked out. Why is that? I can go to the web site sand see who commented. Evidently 9nly SCA people will have their names shown.
Turning to other points, where has the $40M figure come from? I have asked this question repeated and the response is nothing but crickets.. also it is a false argument and, in my mind idiotic, to compare the cost of Fairway to Mountain View considering Fairview was constructed approximately 2007. I will say again that the cost of Mountain View is unknown until the architectural drawings are completed and an RFB is made public.
Deep down I really your candidates become Board members because when you are on the “other side of the table” I will be relentless. That is not a threat, that’s a promise because I believe you are patently unqualified.
Have fun storming the castle.
It's my understanding that you didn't even serve your full term of office on the Board, what's up with that. Nobody agreed too your expertise?
And I'm sure you'll be relentless and enjoy every minute. You're always looking to prove people wrong! Must even be tough living with yourself being that you know so much?
Dave, Normally i ignore your brain dead comments and chalk it up to your stroke or heart attack or whatever. In this case, i will not be that freaking kind. In that you have told us repeatedly you are the foremost numbers guru/expert/boy genius in all of Sun City, i found your question on where the Advocates got the 40 million dollar estimate laughable.
Are you really that dense? Dude...go to the RCSC PIF Budget (assuming you can find it) and open it. Then add up the figures the RCSC has posted for the Mountain View project. It will come in at 39 million dollars and change. Just for shits and giggles factor in the GM used a 3% inflationary figure on these numbers. Smells like place holder numbers to me, how about you?
As long as we are chatting, when you ripped on John Fast in another post, you said your first impression of him was when he commented at a member/board exchange meeting about the dog park. One little problem, that wasn't John Fast. Oops, another mistake from Mr. Perfect who only comments on topics he knows something about.
Let's be honest, everyone makes mistakes and the more we say and do, the more inclined we are to error. I know i often find myself admitting i said or wrote something that was wrong. When i do, i promptly admit and correct it.Coming here and blowing crap out your ass that is obviously wrong doesn't play well. Especially when you tell us all how tough you are going to be.
Finally, if you simply asked the question, you would know the comments from Next Door had indeed had the names edited out because the site administrator asked them not to be shown without the authors permission. Kristi on the other had agreed to have her name used. Dang brother, wrong again.
You and i have always been friendly towards one another. Throw down the gauntlet bro and i will pick it up every single time. Love to have your thoughts on matters, but becoming a jackass benefits no one. Civility is so much better than not being. Perhaps being uncivil (on my part) will help you better understand that.
OK Bill, it took me being less than diplomatic to finally have someone advise me where the $40M figure came from even though I have repeatly posted and requested from people where it came from. Thanks for that truly.
I was not using any of the rec facilities nor attending Board meetings when held due to my belief that RCSC’s response to COVID was lackadaisical at best. When I did attention a meeting in December 2021, I sat a short distance from Laurie Ellington (sp?) who the stated she had be exposed to COVID apps. a few days prior. I check the date on my watch and did the math from my last shot. Sure as shit I contracted a semi-nasty case of COVID which caused me to cancel two necessary medicinal procedures. Thanks Laurie, appreciate that.
As for John Fast and the dog park thing I apologize for my misstatement.
As for the Next Door thing, I have never visited this site and due to my many commitments at the moment I have not had a chance to download it and I believe for the foreseeable future probably will not. Again I apologize.
We have had interesting conversations and I look forward to many more. Being uncivil, you work with attorneys for over forty years and you might understand where I am coming from and some of the best have tried to intimidate me, didn’t work.I remember one of my first posts on this site when I volunteered to educate your membership on topics they where clueless about but so far no takers except my one minute explanation to Jean about restricted and unrestricted funds on a financial statement. So far I have heard nothing from here or any of the other potential candidates from SCA. Doesn’t bother me, but when they are on the Board, say MV gets off the ground and ask them how much of the project has been completed and at what cost, I don’t want to hear from the nimrods in Management because the Board is where the buck stops and they should know. Get my point. I will already know the answer by looking at the project, I just want to hear from them.
Dave. I have always preferred civility to hostility. I am more than capable of both. Thanks for responding and yes we will continue to talk whenever time permits, hopefully always remaining cordial.
BTW, this site isn't conducive to very effective exchanges. That said, i suspect if you are interested in writing a guest column regarding who finances work in the community, we could find a spot for it. Clearly there is been a lingering effort by the RCSC to be less than forthright. I will give Bill Cook this, he has been far better than his predecessor is sharing information. Part of the reason there is so much consternation is what we are now finding out.
I will tell you this, if you write something, dumb it down. I'm no numbers guy. I can do them, but certainly not well versed in breaking them down. So, if for no one else, make them readable for me.
I wouldn’t mind a guest column on finances because if you have what I call the “Captain Midnight Decoder Ring” financial analysis is easy as is the accompanying language. While there are other aspects to analysis such as EBITA (don’t ask) that are not germane to what your group needs to know.
There is also heavy construction I can talk about as I know the CFO has information that would be of interest to your group.
I also have a pretty good working knowledge of civil law and administrative law as relates to Social Security appeals, Medicare appeals, Veteran medical cases appeal, etc.
I can also talk about what the Black Death and COVID-19 have in common and do not have in common. Actually it is a lecture I am preparing for continuing education next year. You have to take the class to find out.
There you go, see you Thursday.
Tom, perfect example of people not knowing what they are talking about. You can ask Bill or anyone who attended the late October, 2018 meeting. I could tell you personally but names will not be revealed as the substance is more important than the names.
See you Thursday.
Wow. Playing mean and dirty is beneath you and Advocates. I hope.
I always let others set the tone anon. As i said above my preference is to be civil. That said, when someone comes and pisses in my Wheaties, i'm not inclined to turn the other cheek. Dave and i go back a long ways and we've always been civil, friendly. His outburst here was unusual and frankly if it was directed at me, not a problem. Threatening a potential candidate for the board was below him. She is a very nice woman who has always been more than civil every time she has stepped to a mic and addressed board members.
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