Progress …. Looking forward

Looking forward…… Transparency? Maintained homes? Restaurant outsourcing? Amenities?

Unofficial News “Fair and Balanced Opinions” From Sun City Residents

About a year ago this month, frustrations were building that ultimately gave impetus to development of the SC Information Newsletter and associated http://scinform.blogspot.com/

Status of SCTX Governance-- March 2005
Residents were not generally permitted to raise issues or even voice a comment at Governance meetings; agendas for Governance meetings were not readily available; records of meetings and associated documents were not readily accessible and in some instances were available only after exercising member’s rights under the "Texas Non-Profit Corporation Act" which requires disclosure of certain information. Many Governance meetings were held behind closed doors; decisions were arrived at in secret and without broad resident input; and then not always communicated. Even the election process was modified to permit only pre-approve Resident Candidates to seek Governance positions. SCTX was truly following a “mushroom management” style of Governance.

Status of SCTX Governance-- March 2006
The purpose of this issue of the SC Information Newsletter is not to dwell on the past. The description above is only used to provide a baseline to illustrate that much has changed during the past several months and to think about what the future could bring with a little effort. Agendas for most meetings are generally timely and available; records of meetings and associated documents are now generally accessible, although some now are less useful because of reduced content and are available only after some lag time. The greatest progress has been in the structure of Governance Meetings. For the most part, meetings are open to the Residents and Residents are invited to raise issues and provide input to the decision process. Perhaps most important in all this and what could be enhanced and embraced by various Governance group was the Board of Director’s Commitment to TRANSPARENCY in the Governance process.

One author recently described Transparency as a condition opposite of secrecy! “Secrecy means deliberately hiding your actions, transparency means deliberately revealing them. It is the deliberate attempt to move from a secretive or opaque organization to one that encourages open access to information, participation, and decision making, which ultimately creates a higher level of trust among stakeholders”

Transparency has been a principle goal of SC Information Newsletter and associated http://scinform.blogspot.com/ since their inception.
The charge by the SCTX Board to the “Strategic Planning” Committee to review Transparency and communication Governance issues and to report back at the March Board meeting was encouraging. Additionally, the recently developed and soon to be launched Web portal will provide an outstanding capability to greatly expand resident interaction in the Governance process. The very sizable portion of Sun City population that has online capability provides a major opportunity. See http://www.sctxcompclub.org/MtgFollowUp/Mar13_06WebPortal.html

Governance bodies embracing Transparency by providing robust information content for the web site could greatly expand the two-way flow of information as well as insights into the decision processes by utilizing the new Portal. “Best practices” to build upon abound; deliberative SCTX Groups need only to review the Golf Task Force web site: http://www.geocities.com/sctxgolftaskforce/index.html
or the Computer Club for ideas on archival capabilities: http://www.sctxcompclub.org/Archives/Archives.html
Additionally, the City of Georgetown and Williamson County offer examples of excellent processes regarding open meetings, second readings on important actions to allow for resident input and ethics rules to prevent interest conflicts. These practices may have been put in place because of legal requirements that do not extend to Associations, but good practices should not require legislation to implement. Good ideas should be embraced no matter what the source.
Transparency is not a panacea—Bad decisions can still occur. Transparency provides only a framework and openness to the decision processes that enhances the odds of better decisions.

Perhaps a theme song could cheer up this effort-- http://sunshineweek.blogs.com/my_weblog/files/blues.mp3




Looking Forward
Many of the issues that have been raised and commented on in recent issues of the
SC Information Newsletter will be discussed and perhaps decided at the upcoming SCTX Board on March 23rd. It is hoped that residents that have views on issues to be discussed will attend and perhaps voice their constructive comments.

Maintained Landscaped Homes—this issue has now been thoroughly discussed and action should be forthcoming—only the details remain.
Many of the problems of this program seem to be rooted in the lack of separation of Developer responsibility and CA obligation. It is hoped that the Resident Board members will consider developing management processes for the CA to avoid future potential interest conflicts. Given that several hundred homes are now included in this program and as many as 800-900 more are proposed by the Developer, it is perhaps prudent for the SCTX Board to consider establishing on ongoing Resident [landscape maintenance] Committee to monitor this program.

Restaurant Outsourcing—Many residents favored leasing one or both of the Restaurants as a method of eliminating losses or subsidies. But the CA [before the F&B committee was formed] chose to invite only a few Restaurant Management companies to bid on Food and Beverage operations. Lack of information regarding the CA’s pre-bid methodology; and the F&B committee’s approach to the issue, evaluation process and ultimate recommendation to the Board has spawned much conversation and speculation within the Community. Just a little Transparency would have helped this process. The SC Information Newsletter is eagerly awaiting whatever information the Board is willing to provide.

Election Policy-- in January, selecting Resident Board member candidates by the Nominating Committee was changed to an open election process supervised by the Elections Committee. Any Resident that has lived in SCTX for one year or more and is in good standing can run for the Resident Board position. If a candidate does not receive fifty percent of the vote, a run off will be scheduled to establish a majority vote. We compliment the Board for opening up the election process. We remain hopeful that additional Resident Board members will be added to the current Developer controlled Board in the near future.
For the current one CA Board opening, Candidate filing will be from April 1 to April 15. May 5 has been set as election date. Absentee balloting will be April 24 through April 29.

Amenities—The Developer has “charged” the CA and the Property and Grounds Committee to survey the residents as to their amenity desires after 2006. The charge letter states “Some residents have stated they desire to know “our amenity formula” right now to ensure the level of amenities is not short-changed.” It is true that many residents do believe that there should be a more than a verbal assurance that “ the level of amenities is not short-changed.”
While all residents welcome an opportunity to offer opinion on whether they prefer pickle ball to soft ball, many residents believe the real issue is whether there is a firm intention to provide for the added population comparable amenities on a timely basis.
Local Pulte management has been queried by letter as to the Corporation’s receptivity to providing a written commitment to provide comparable amenities for the additional 2500 homes and those amenities be phased in so as to minimize overcrowding of existing amenities. The response was not encouraging; it was stated “Del Webb has been planning amenities for active adult communities for 44 years, and we stand behind our brand…..” That is fine, but Pulte bought out Del Webb in 2001, and the new Management announced that SCTX would be capped at 5000 homes and they would sell the Northern properties. That has turned out not quite true but plans often change with different corporate leadership.
Many Sun City residents have experienced their company philosophy and culture change drastically when they were merged or purchased by a larger company. Pulte and the old Del Webb are clearly different companies with different business approaches to development. One needs only to drive through the neighborhoods adjoining or play the respective golf courses of White Wing and Legacy to visually see some of the differences. Tee box relocations on WW are being considered because of closeness homes to fairways. Next week, the Developer will be asking City Council permission to build nearly third of the homes for DW2500 on smaller than the City standard sized lots. It is hoped the Amenities are not downsized as well.
In 2002, a commitment regarding Amenities was made for the 5000 homes —why the reluctance now? Until a few months ago, current residents knew exactly the amount of Amenities that would available for their use. Now, sales to new residents will be predicated upon existing amenities and a promise of “some” more to come. If comparable amenities do not materialize, the losers will be the current residents.

Paradoxically [to the current approach], the 2002 commitment was made prior to any resident surveys. A number of 88,000 square feet of building space [located on 70.6 acres] was referenced—half that—44,000 is a number to remember. It will be an early barometer of whether the Developer’s verbal statements regarding the “same level” and “similar dollars” are being met.
The Corporate statement on the Pulte/Del Webb SCTX web that: “We reserve the right to modify or discontinue plans for the amenities in our communities” suggest that business prudence would dictate a need for a written commitment regarding amenities. We ask that the Resident Board members weigh in on this issue—Do you believe it is in the best interest of residents to rely solely upon verbal assurances regarding future amenities?

Newsletter Objective
Our goal is to foster transparent discussions and actions regarding the issues confronting our Community Association. We welcome an open dialogue regarding the actions proposed and why they are proposed. And, we would very much appreciate additional input from the many residents that have offered ideas, concepts and details about how to address issues confronting the Community Association. We welcome comment on the problems outlined as well as the solutions—both positive and negative [hopefully constructive].

Our Mission
Our mission is to make Sun City Texas a community with a solid financial base with an active adult environment. If you support our mission please forward this email to your neighbors and friends. If your neighbors or friends do not have access to the internet, make them a hard copy. Only with your support will we be successful with proposed actions. If you wish to have your name added or deleted from the email data base, email jackstro@verizon.net

Future newsletters will focus on the financial aspects of Operations, Future Plans and how different approaches may be utilized to address poor financial results. For additional information and past [Archived] newsletters see:

http://scinform.blogspot.com/

Sun City Residents Make Sun City Great