Speaking at its Feb. 29 general meeting, Matthew D’Luzansky, general manager for the Recreation Centers of Sun City, contradicted statements made by Board President Kat Fimmel Feb. 21, at a meeting of the Duffeeland Dog Park Club.

At the club’s meeting, Fimmel stated several times that “the RCSC is not closing the dog park.”

However, at the board of directors’ meeting, D’Luzansky said, “I have an obligation to act when something could really damage the organization... I have two dogs of my own and I use the park. I don’t want to shut the park. I don’t want to shut it, but if it becomes a liability to the organization, I will, unless I’m told otherwise.”

D’Luzansky has been spurred to action at the park due to an increasing number of incident reports, including one serious incident of a man using a stun gun on another person’s dog when it got to close to his. The incident is under investigation by the RCSC. Most of the reports, however, are for simple rules violations, such as not cleaning up after the dog, requiring Maricopa County license tags to ensure dogs are vaccinated, prohibiting female dogs in heat and feeding canines in the park. Many of these rules are also Maricopa County laws.

Bill Agy, club president, admitted it has done a poor job for months enforcing the park’s rules, but having a monitor at the park in the heat for 13 hours was unrealistic. He implored the club’s members at the meeting to do a better job following the rules and notifying him or other club board members of violations so they could act on them.

He said the club is taking action in that direction. However, he pointed out that by the RCSC’s own bylaws and policies, it is an unmonitored park and is advertised as such to prospective residents as an amenity to living in Sun City.

According to the Duffeeland Dog Park page on the RCSC website, “This off-leash dog park, owned and operated by RCSC, serves as a social gathering spot for dog lovers and their canine friends. This unmonitored facility is for RCSC Cardholders and their invited guests only. Use of this facility is at your own risk. In order to keep the park clean and enjoyable for all users and the neighboring properties, several rules and regulations have been established which members of the Duffeeland Dog Park Club help to ensure that these are enforced.”

The paragraph is also on the form residents must submit to get tokens from the RCSC to allow entry into the dog park, which also includes a list of rules visitors to the park are expected to follow along with a waiver releasing the RCSC and the park of any risk or legal liability for injuries, damages or loss to actions incurring on its grounds.

The club was informed they had until the board of directors’ meeting to propose a draft for monitor requirements and if no action was taken the park would close Feb. 29. An extension was granted by the board Feb. 29 to give the club additional time to provide a “revised and more complete action plan” as requested. The deadline was set as April 1.

The club will definitely respond prior to the deadline, Agy said, and his current draft proposal currently includes provisions to better enforce the rules and regulations, focus on one of the dog park rules in each monthly newsletter, remind visitors to use their key fob to enter the park to ensure only Sun City residents are using it, remind visitors to clean up after their dogs and to help keep it clean and changing the incident reporting processes to that the club is more aware of what is happening in the park. Incident reports are currently sent directly to the RCSC.

He said he hopes that by making residents file incident reports to the club first and then the club reporting the incident to the RCSC that the club officers are more informed. Currently, they do not see the reports and are told by the RCSC that they can not view them and are therefore essentially blinded to violations.

“This new process will at last let the board know who our repeat offenders are so we can take action against them, such as limiting their access or banning them,” Agy said. “As it is now, we don’t even know who the offenders are.”