So you understand the differences….
Posted on TOSC May 29th,
2002
by Bill Pearson
I know sometimes people comment on how
much i know. Truth be told, way more than most understand is the real resource
behind it all is my good friend Ben Roloff. He doesn't post on this site or
others for that matter. He writes articles for the Independent, for SCHOA and
has given an untold number of speeches. We go to coffee often and talk about
Sun City, past, present and future. It's one of my happy places.
Ben sent me two emails this past week and said, share them with whomever.
They are so good, i decided TOSC was the
proper place to post them. I often talk about the good old days when the RCSC
trusted the membership to help shape the community. In this case, it was before
they became the Recreation Centers of Sun City in 1972. It was however after
the merger of the three centers, and were called the Sun City Community
Association that was formed in 1968.
I am going to bold his emails, easier
to read, here's the first:
As per our phone conversation of
yesterday afternoon, I am sending you a summary of an article that appeared in
the Sun Citizen Newspaper on September 16, 1970. A reporter was at the 3rd
quarter meeting of the Sun City Community Association, Inc. (RCSC before name
change) when they still held four member meetings annually. The primary
business on the agenda was a proposal for four bylaw changes that had been
received via a petition from circa 200 members after the 2nd quarter meeting.
After allowing for some discussion, particularly of # 1 and #2, with different
viewpoints expressed by the 396 members in attendance, a vote was taken by a
"show of hands" and all four amendments passed and the bylaws were
modified.
Proposals:
1. Board members were limited to serving
one term of two years. (Before the change, there was no limit to the number of
two-year terms served consecutively.
2. The Board would hire the General
Manager who would be empowered to hire and fire the other employees. (All
hiring and firing was formerly done by the Board.
3. The President of the Board would
appoint only the Chair of each standing committee. (The old bylaw said the
President appointed the Chair and also the rest of the committee members.)
4. The minimum size of each standing
committee would be five members. (Prior to this language there was no minimum.
The petition the Board received from members suggested a minimum of seven, but
the Board changed that number to 5 before presenting the proposal to the
membership for a vote.
Feel free to share with anyone you
think might be interested in this bit of our historic governance practice,
"A work in process!"
Really good stuff, but wait, there's
more.
Pt.2
Ben loves to tell a story as much as i
do. Leaving me hanging for the rest of the story isn't a new tactic for him.
It's what good story tellers do. Here's the follow up with an interesting
tidbit into the whole of the school district fight that took place two years
later:
Now, the rest of the story.
Exactly one year later, (September,
1971) the Sun City Community Association, Inc. B.O.D. (RCSC) brought the
proposed change in bylaws regarding allowing directors to have a second 2-year
term back to the membership for a vote at the 3rd Quarter membership meeting.
This time the impetus for the change to go back to allowing a second term came
from the B.O.D. instead of by petition of the members who forced the change
ending consecutive terms the year prior. After debate during the members
meeting, a vote was taken regarding the proposal for a second term as proposed
by the B.O.D. Those favoring were 30 with those opposed numbering 660. Motion
defeated! (The population at the time of the 1970 census was 14,400 for Sun
City, 4,900 for Peoria, and 1,800 for Youngtown. Those against a second term
argued that with that size population there were more than enough capable
candidates available. Those favoring a second term said the B.O.D. would
benefit from the continuation of experienced directors.)
p.s. With those population numbers
generated by the 1970 census, it makes it understandable that Sun
City/Youngtown controlled all the bond elections and school board candidate
decisions. The combined Sun City/Youngtown area contributed over 70% of the
funding for the Peoria School District while sending less than 1% of the
students to be educated.
Yikes! The vote to allow a second 2
year term was voted down 30 to 660. Seems the population valued a constant
churning of representation than the same board members serving repeatedly.
Think about it these days, we now allow two 3 year terms and the board can keep
sticking you back on every time they fire somebody or they die or quit. What
changed?
What's even more telling than the vote totals is the fact the membership was committed and involved in the process of self-governance.
Better yet, the documents allowed and encouraged their
participation with quarterly meetings, the submission of motions and then
action on them...by both the board and the membership. Imagine; trusting those
living here to make good decisions for the community at large. What a freaking
novel approach.
Thanks Ben for sharing our history.
Once you begin to understand how we were built and why we were successful,
perhaps you will grasp why some of us are concerned. Of course, if you don't
know, then what difference does it make?
32,000 members - one GM - 9 Board Directors
I really did a double take when i wrote
my comments above. Imagine the concept of not trusting the community at large
to do the right thing. It still stuns me to think about the move away from a
community of 32,000 plus members having a voice to one where the general
manager and a handful of board members knows better than the rest of us.
Thinking the collective masses would undermine the life style we have here
doesn't say much about what the leadership thought about us does it?
Do people care anymore?
Ben's newspaper articles are fascinating, the real question is; do people care anymore? I know a handful do, but when the history of the community and more so the organization's history is so poorly known, why would anyone care? The one thing that would change all of this would be a concerted and targeted effort of community education. Frankly, there's been no interest in that.
It's pretty simple really, if your goal is to become the "Fun City" rather than the "City of Volunteers," the more inclined the leadership is to run from teaching our history.
City of Volunteers
Bill Pearson
Advisory Panel Member
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