The Sun City Advocates were formed just over a year ago. We agreed upon three objectives to accomplish one clearly stated and defined goal: We would use Communication, Education, and Participation to try and elect candidates in the 2022 RCSC election who believed members' voices should matter. Despite all of the criticism that we were just a bunch of disgruntled and angry members, nothing could be further from the truth. We did it because we love Sun City, what it once was and what we hope it will become again.
I crawled out of
bed late the night following the member/board exchange. I wrote a lengthy piece
on the frustrations of another three-hour session of them telling us how
wonderful they are. I trashed it because the time for words is over. If you are
interested, you can watch it here. If
you watch it, you will get a glimpse into your future should we not win the
election by voting for Fast, Collins, and Totten.
If our candidates
don't win, it will be more of the same, only worse. They will be bolder and more brazen in their disregard for what members think and want. If you think not,
you can watch the Budget meeting
where they tell us all they need that $29 per year so they can, wait for
it, put even more money in the bank. With the myriad of problems,
we are facing, the identified goal from the general manager is larger reserves
in case there is an "emergency" like the Sun Dial roof collapse in
2006; long past fixed.
This last year has
been painful to watch. The dictatorial style of leadership is an embarrassment.
The flawed and failed efforts on the bylaws rewrite were an embarrassment. The
shameful efforts to pass an increase on the lot assessment without any real discussion
were an embarrassment. Giving away half-price golf to non-residents and taking
tee times from RCSC members was an embarrassment and a slap in the face.
Treating the minority members of the board with total and utter disdain was an
embarrassment. Promising clubs everything without creating a budget to do so
was an embarrassment. The board president collecting signatures at RCSC club
meetings for absentee ballots was an embarrassment and likely a violation of
our bylaws...especially when she was one of the board members who demanded
"signatures on RCSC property" be removed from the newly crafted
bylaws.
I'm tired of
watching and being embarrassed by people who have no shame, and no sense of right
and wrong. It's time for you to tell your friends, family, club members,
neighbors, and even people you don't know living in Sun City to vote. You can vote
online here by logging into the RCSC website portal. Better yet, we can
turn out hundreds (why not thousands?) of members to vote in person at the
Lakeview social halls on Tuesday, December 13. The hours are 8 am until 4 pm
and you will need your rec card to verify casting a ballot.
As Tom Marone often
writes, "if you don't vote, you get the government you
deserve." Vote for Steve Collins, John Fast, and Jean Totten.
Bill Pearson; one
man's opinion.
20 comments:
You are right, Bill. The rescinded is to do away with the vote that squashed the budget. Rumor is Darla will change her vote because she will know whether or not she is back next year. And "rescinding" the
vote isn't correct. The vote failed. You can't erase that! BTW ...it's Rich.
Thanks for jumping in here Rich. Parliamentarian procedure is supposed to be a fairly straight forward process for those with the background. I'm no expert on Robert's Rules, but Tom Marone is both well versed and poses questions/problems on a message board filled with experts on the subject. Sounds like you and Tom are in agreement, now the question is: Will our parliamentarian do the right thing or cave to Dale's wishes?
The sad truth is the parliamentarian has no power over the Chair (Dale). The only thing the parliamentarian can do is advise the Chair of what the rule actually is. The Chair can rule in any manner she wishes even if it's wrong.
It's up to the rest of the Board members to raise a point of order and challenge the ruling of the chair. A point of order requires a second and then the entire board gets to vote on whether or not the chair's ruling should be sustained. If the Board votes "YES" then the ruling is sustained so the members that don't agree with the chair's ruling must cast a "NO" vote.
That makes the vote a little tricky and that's why I mention it! They need to vote "NO".
For those who may be reading this and have a copy of the 12th Edition of Robert's Rules, go look at 6:27 note 4. "...the motion to Rescind or to Amend Something Previously Adopted can be applied only to a motion on which the vote was affirmative..." The motion failed, so there is nothing to rescind!
Just a quick correction! The point of order doesn't need a second, it's the appeal the decision of the chair that needs the second. The entire board can then debate the decision and vote.
So Tom, the parliamentarians for both The U.S. House of Representatives and the United State Senate are just window dressing and the chair can do anything they want? Just asking.
Dave, we're talking about the authority of a parliamentarian based on Robert's Rules and the RCSC, not the federal government!
Besides, the federal government, or any organization for that matter can write their own special rules of order that would take precedence over Robert's Rules. I would have thought that you, with your superior intelligence, would have already known that.
I guess you're just being you and looking for an argument, or are you just looking for another excuse to tell us how smart you are and how everybody else is?
Tom, in spite of you over analyzing the question, as I have told you I am very literal. You said that the parliamentarian has no authority over the chair, so are certain parliamentarians more equal than others based on special rules. Does any organization have to follow RRO to make special rules or can they go off the RRO reservation to formulate these? I am trying to draw on your vast knowledge of this subject which certainly does not extend beyond that considering your responses on Rich’s blog.
Catch you on the 15th, it will be wild.
First of all Congress doesn't use RONR, they make and use their own set of rules. Second, there are rules/motions within RONR that allows you to suspend the rules and do things that are normally not allowed to be done. Too bad the Board doesn't understand their own rules because they could make their own lives so much simpler at meetings.
Dave,
"Catch you on the 15th, it will be wild." That sounds like you know something the rest of us don't. Perhaps you have privileged status.
I have been made aware of an executive session scheduled for Thursday, the day between the election and the next BOD meeting. Apparently the meeting was originally set for Monday, but was changed. The reason for the executive session is not known, even for some of the Directors. I hope they all read the section in the bylaws stating the topics allowable in executive sessions.
This is the reason that I suggested to the Ad Hoc committee that executive sessions should follow the same procedures as other meetings, including posting, an agenda, call to order, Pledge of Allegiance, motion and second to go into executive session for ......one of the reasons stated in the bylaws and a vote of the Directors to enter into executive session. An officer(s) cannot just announce an executive session. There needs to be a majority vote to enter into one.
If this process had been included in the bylaws and followed, at least the Members know what is going on rather than relying on rumors. You didn't agree with me. Instead you threw your pen down and said, "This is a corporation, not government." Dave, you are correct. RCSC is a corporation, but it is a NONPROFIT corporation which is responsible to its Member/Owners. Nonetheless, the principles are the same - responsibility, honesty and integrity.
At that meeting, I sensed that our parliamentarian agreed with me when she said most executive sessions come during a regular, special, or emergency meeting. Might be why those are called "sessions" rather than "meetings". However, we might need a Supreme Court decision to figure out the difference between those two terms.
By the way, you said that "RCSC was NOTHING (my emphasis) like my experience with nonprofits and school boards." Quite the opposite, there are so many more similarities between them all than you can imagine. It's true, each organization, not just RCSC, has its unique features that one needs to know. How many hospital boards, school boards, Foundation boards and nonprofit boards have you been on? Get your list together and we can compare.
We will soon know the results of the election. I wonder when we will learn about the executive session. Oh that's right, it's confidential. Not even you can know about it1
Janet Curry
p.s. A Board of Director member is not "personnel" as they are not paid. If the executive session is to "discipline" a Director, they can't do it under "personnel issues" like they have done previously. Words matter!
Janet, the difference between a "meeting" and a "session" are quite clearly defined in RONR 8:4.
The monthly meetings of the Board are clearly individual sessions. Year-long sessions are typical in federal and state governments but kinda rare for corporations such as the RCSC.
And I'm glad the proposed Bylaw revision failed because in my opinion it was worse that the current one! Hopefully we will have clearer heads on the next Board and they can attack the current Bylaws on an individual basis.
CONGRATULATIONS!
NEWLY-ELECTED RCSC DIRECTORS!
John Fast received 1,873 votes
Steve Collins received 1,802 votes
Jean Totten received 1,722 votes
Meet the 2023 RCSC Board of Directors with their term years noted. Wonder who they’ll choose as officers?
2021 -23
Dale Lehrer
Sue Wilson
2022 - 24
Allan Lenefsky
Karen McAdam
Kat Fimmel
John Nowakowski
2023 - 25
John Fast
Steve Collins
Jeanne Totten
RCSC Absentee Voting…does it make a difference?
About the absentee ballot signup shenanigans by board & election committee…has it really been going on for years? We may not ever know for sure, but it won’t happen again!
COMPARING ABSENTEE VOTE
TOTALS 2018 - 2022
Election in December by Year
2022 - 255
2021 - None reported (wonder why?)
2020 - 49
2019 - 199
2018 - 204
I don't want or need "wild" at this stage of my life.
I want to live in a community of adults who behave like adults and treat each other with courtesy.
I was never so disappointed in anything Sun City to learn of the one-sided absentee ballot collection.
These new folks won fair and square and we need to give them a chance. There better not be any funny business is all I can say.
Best of luck to the board members elect.
I hope we can put this behind us and everyone can work together.
I feel cautiously optimistic.
"I was never so disappointed in anything Sun City to learn of the one-sided absentee ballot collection."
Just to be clear, there were White Hats on the Election Committee who sought to counter the actions of the Black Hats.
Duly noted.
I will admit that I have a love-hate relationship with rules. I prefer less rules, but when rules aren't written and defined then they get interpreted by whoever is attempting to use them in a manner that suits their personal needs.
Glad to see Michael Wendel's comments on TOSC. Salaraies are Generally included in a corporations budget.
For you out there that do not keep up 9n current events!, you may remember the former president, Jabba the Putz, tweeted regarding 1/6/21 Come as it would be wild. I was just being metaphorical.
Guess I didn't get that tweet!
Merry Christmas to all!
Janet Curry
Oh, THAT president! Took me awhile to catch on.....
Happy New Year, too!
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