Mr. Silver;
I relocated here in Sun City eleven years ago after a forty-five year business career, expecting "The Good Life" lifestyle just like the majority of the residents did. My wife and I purchased our retirement home here in Sun City to enjoy the Amenities, Social and Recreational Activities, not to take up a new career in politics. In the more than ten years I have lived in Sun City there has been a lot of changes that includes Higher Dues, Assessments and a loss of many of the Amenities and Services due to the lack of a positive vision or business plan. When a homeowner purchases a home governed by an HOA, the CC&Rs are imbedded in your property deed. Leadership's responsibility is to protect the assets of our Association, including By-Laws, CC&R's, Amenities and Lifestyles; a homeowner is a partner in this common interest community and deserves these protections provided by this community's governing documents.
Suppression of idea's and communications promotes apathy; supreme leadership (cabal) seems to thrive on apathy and will destroy our Sun City Community. During the 2009 BoD's election I attempted to point out common sense changes:
- BUSINESS PLAN: What is a business plan and why do I need one? A business plan precisely defines your business, identifies your goals, and serves as your firm's resume. Its basic components include a current and pro forma balance sheet, an income statement, and a cash flow analysis. It helps you allocate resources properly, handle unforeseen complications, and make the right decisions. As it provides specific and organized information about your company and how you will repay borrowed money, a good business plan is a crucial part of any loan package. Additionally, it can tell your sales personnel, suppliers, and others about your operations and goals. (Without a Business Plan Golf had a 1.6 mil LOSS last year) by the way the Status Quo Candidates say this is acceptable! (The so called Business Plans presented by Mr. Winkle at the January, 2009 Budget & Business Plan meeting possessed none of these qualities)
- COMMUNICATIONS: the Board must be open & transparent with the Sun City homeowners by releasing all attorney opinions especially those that are used making changes to our CC&R's/By-Laws; these are the governing documents of our Sun City Community.
- THE GOOD LIFE lifestyle: the Association's purpose is, with reasonable governance and rules, to provide for the care and maintenance of the facilities in a cost effective manner, and to create an atmosphere which encourages new and old residents to maintain the active lifestyle they have sought by moving to the community.
I have posted my views on Sun City Summerlin-BLOG; http://daksplace.blogspot.com/
Electioneering by the cabal: http://daksplace.blogspot.com/2009/01/electioneering.html
Suppression of information: http://daksplace.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-resistance-to-common-sense-changes.html,
Mr. Silver, FYI: I have found your past postings factual and logical not being negative or incorrect as the cabal suggests. Thank you and the others who are not self-serving like this cabal. If I can be of any assistance to our community in future do not hesitate to give me a call.
Dwain Kramzar
702.838.5049
| Dear readers.
It is my opinion that in Sun City Summerlin, (SCS) a Common Interest Community (CIC) of 7,781 units we have had for many years, a cabal, which as per definition, is a number of people united in some close design, usually to promote their private views and interests.
As such, the SCS CIC since the management was taken over from the developer steadily become a community where the cabal has managed to gain more and more control over the approximate 12,500 persons in this age restricted community where the average age is now around 74 years.
Operating in the background,, the cabal which includes primarily a real estate salesperson who has had the audacity to promote in her Newsletter strong advice on who the community members should be voting for as SC Board Directors. Very recently, she made a strong recommendation for a LV City Councilman position. I believe that, as in the case of Frank Beers, who is a member of the cabal, his attempts to promote his very worthy and capable son Senator Bob Beers to the Governorship of Nevada, his and her attempts at being "kingmakers" created a 'backlash'.
Others in the cabal such as Stan Bjonerud have been very active in getting control of the communications within SC via a "private chat line" and the publication of the following Village Voice, which like his chat line does not leave room for any contradictory statements -- see his sign off statement at the end. Many members of his private chat line have been banished for writing something he disagreed with. Hello there, Stan. Is this not the United States of America? Do you need a copy of the Constitution?
Anyhow, this SC member for 13 years desires to use this chat line owned by Bob Robey, a member of the SC BOD and administrated by Donald Gelbman, as a means to express my opinions on the following. My comments will be interspersed in a different font and underlined for clarity.
Bernard Silver 0000000000000000000 Village Voice Meet the BOARD and Executive Director
Issue 24, June 12, 2009 by the Editor The Residents' Forum Hosted Meet the Board and Executive Director with Q & A Wednesday evening at Desert Vista. The following were present and told about their respective Committee activities: Pat Cullen, Allan Baer, Ken Caroccia, Jim Akers, Dave Steinman and President, Richard Post and Ron Winkel. I fail to understand why they couldn't do all of this at regular Board Meetings
Baer - IT is looking at purchasing a paperless system to reduce the offsite file storage rental fees and looking at develop a program so we can obtain our Guest Passes on line. I do not understand this as we have a full time Director of the Information Technology Dpt and i would like to believe that he has the technical ability and business acumen to present a finished product with the attendant costs and cost savings without any help from a committee.
Caroccia – The work to replace the under layment of the DV roof has been accomplished as has the shower room tile at the Pinnacle. ¡¤ Ken also Chairs with BJ Martens as Co-Chair the new Community Preparedness Committee (CPC). More volunteers for this important function are needed. ¡¤ The community walls are currently being repainted and the strip will be a darker beige color. ¡¤ The Desert Vista pool sanitation is now salt instead of chlorine which should eliminate skin rash and swim suit longevity.
Cullen – CCOC is upgrading procedures to simplify our guidelines and make them more understandable. ¡¤ The new Fitness Advisory Council has been formed and will advise on fitness activities, the pools and various classes.
Steinman – ARC has instituted more color choice selections for our houses. ¡¤ David assisted in obtaining a $2,000 grant from the City for the CPC radio purchases. ¡¤ Per new State law you can now have black solar panels and place a TV dish anywhere. ¡¤ The Fire Station City budget is approved and construction should begin early next year with completion near the end of 2010. ¡¤ Contact the City if your sidewalk is breaking or cracked as they will replace panels for $150. Akers – The agreement with the Southern Nevada Golf Association should bring more golf play to our courses from these 13,000 members. What is the current estimated total Golf Revenue and Expense from this currently member subsidized business? ¡¤ Golf play is down because of the economic conditions, but we are doing better than most local courses. The Harrah's hotel promotion deal (income of about $80,000) is now gone because of the decrease in tourists. Recently, ownership of one of the local developments with three golf courses changed and the new owner decided to close one of the three courses. I doubt if the new owner was burdened with a management system that couldn't successfully operate a Lemonade Stand without a subsidy. ¡¤ The Summit Restaurant will be opening MTW&T on September 1 with the Chef's Pantry 3 year lease. It will be closed for their catering events on FS&S. Chef's Panty will be given a ½ page in the Link for advertising. ¡¤ The Highlander Restaurant will reopen as the "Tavern at the Falls" after refurbishing on either July 5th or 6th. Post – Residents will be notified 60 days in advance of their annual assessment to choose to pay this through a monthly automatic bank deduction or continues with the annual payment. If they do not select to pay this monthly, they will have to wait a year because it takes time to setup this system with the bank. ¡¤ A question was asked about the designated smoking area at the outdoor pool at DV. Post replied that he had received a complaint the previous evening about this area and smoke from this area drifting over the pool. It was being investigated. I have been a non-smoker since 1963 and I know that one can become sensitive to smoke, however, I believe that smoking in the open is a right that should not be denied under these circumstances as the air is subject to constant movement. It is relatively easy for a very sensitive sniffer to move if offended.
Winkel – We have a wonderful and stable Staff, a far cry from the 25% turnover experience years ago. Our operating budget, just under $14.0 million, is similar to Boulder City to put our operation in prospective to a small city. Yes, we do have some excellent staff members, but with that stated, we do also have a poorly engineered management system that was inherited from the developer. Also note that whereas in many prior years, when employment was high in this area, many employees could move on for higher compensation. That hasn't been the situation for several years and change is obviously not imminent. ¡¤ Dues have increased only $30 per homeowner over the past four years which is exceptional considering that inflation has increased over $200 per homeowner during this period. It is worth noting that because of inadequate internal accounting and reviews by top Administration and the Finance Committee a $1,400,000 error was not discovered until about 18 months after the close of the Account Year. This error created a need to attribute more funds from Annual Dues to Reserves and when the error of the "found money" was discovered we had a built in cushion. The facts are relatively clear that over the time period since the members have taken the management from the developer, the Association has a cumulative loss from the Golf plus the Food & Beverage Operations in the area of $13,000,000 and our Annual Losses from these operations has been around $1,800,000 to $2,200,00. why such a large spread? Because whereas it is relatively easy to discover the Golf Revenue data, it is very difficult to determine the accuracy of the attribution of expenses against these two businesses. This 2010 Annual budget has a decrease of several hundred thousand dollars of golf course landscape expenses which have been shited. The reason being that the grass is not part of the Golf courses. would anybody want to bet that many golf balls impact this transferred area? This is plain manipulation to provide the appearance that the operation of three severely underutilized golf courses is less of a burden to the 93% members who not play golf. ¡¤ Ron told the audience that about 1,400 residents have subscribed to "eNews" which promulgates announcements and information from the Association to the residents. Several ask how to subscribe. This information is shown in the Link which directs you to the SCSCAI Website –Right hand column. If you have not explored our Website at: http://www.suncity-summerlin.com/ you should as it contains information about our community, restaurants and golf courses. May complain about communications in this community yet considerable information is readily available through the above Internet sources. ¡¤ The Link charges advertisers 3 months in advance because it takes 1 ½ months to prepare the next issue and several advertisers have did paid their bill.
¡¤ Golf continues to lose money despite the exceptional Staff work done to reduce golf course expenses and the major turf reduction program which has helped offset the continued and substantial water rate increase. We are marketing our courses aggressively and doing far better than most other courses. Unfortunately because of the general decline in nationwide golf play, and in particular in Las Vegas with the drop in tourist visits, there is not much more to do to offset the losses. Closing a course is not an economic option as Association losses would actually increase because of the loss of golf revenue which amounts to $5.0 million per year. I do not know where Bjonerud came up with this $5.0 million per year. This FY Budget for the three golf courses shows Revenue of $4,048,331 and losses of $1,553,897 (Ref: Summary Budget dated 4/8/2009. I find no comfort in being in a class, or a business where it is known that Revenue is decreasing and Expenses are increasing. If one operator can determine the validity of closing one of three courses then it calls into question this statement by Bjonerud. It should be clear that not all of the Revenue from a closed course would disappear --- many of the 7% resident golfers would migrate to the other two courses. We would need less golf carts, less water, fertilizer, and operating machinery. I challenge Bjonerud to have his statement backed up by an outside independent Cost Analyst. This man just does not make sense to me.
Why a few negative folks continue to fallaciously flog this issue, particularly to the outside Press, is beyond comprehension as our Management has and is doing a fine job operating our courses efficiently and instituting efforts to attract more players. There is nothing fallacious in stating facts and disputing mis information. The bottom of the line, so to speak, is that the highest paid employee, licenced by the State of Nevada has failed to reduce the cumulative losses from two businesses that do not serve the general interests of 93% of the non golfers. Although he is in my opinion supposed to be capable of reining in the losses, he obviously has to take his orders fro the Board of Directors that along with the cabal, do not appear ready to face the facts that Golf is an activity that continues to decline in popularity. And, yes, there is a golf course Business Plan as there is with every Association Department. If there is a cogent BUSINESS PLAN for these two businesses that have been and continue to be a major drain on this CIC then it should be shown to all on the SC Member web site. It should include clearly defined goals versus a time line with clear decisions presented on alternatives. What for example would we do if water and electricirity costs increase another 20% while resident members decrease to 6% and Golf Revenues decrease by 10% or alternatively, Golf Lossses increase by 20%?
Baer - The golf courses were surveyed and areas not actually golf course related were transferred along with their approximately $300,000 cost per year to general landscaping. This is a fair approach as golf was paying for non golf course areas. This now gives us an honest picture of golf operations. From the above referenced Budget Summary dated 4/8/2009, the Budgeted Landscape increased by $436,385 from the prior year $1,333,993. In the most recent 12 months it was $1,239,140. What have we learned from Wall Street Managment? Anyhow, it should be clear that if my above opinions are completely wrong the Stan Bjonerud should be delighted to show how wrong I am. I'll wait for a response but not hold my breath. One of my strongest convictions in my professional life as an engineer, project manager, and businessman for myself has been a determination to at least listen to others and to act in a manner whereby I could look in a mirror while shaving and not be ashamed of my actions because they were less than honest and forthright. As you read below, Bjonerud only wants to write about "facts as he sees them".
To subscribe/unsubscribe and/or submit comment or questions contact the Editor: Stan Bjonerud: 838-6280, sbj4@cox.net This private publication is not for debate of an issue – only the facts as the Editor sees them. This publication is not affiliated with the Sun City Summerlin Community Association, Inc. (SCSCAI) or any of the chartered clubs affiliated with SCSCAI, nor does it receive funds from them. |
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