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Opinion

Pearson: RCSC board action erodes confidence of Sun City residents

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In the winter of 1979, the Del E Webb Development Corporation finished Sun City and moved to Sun City West.

The election in November marked the first year the community would stand on its own. They had subsidized us along the way. Not any longer.

There were a dozen candidates for three board seats. That year (1980) would prove to be the most contentious time in the Recreation Centers of Sun City’s history. The newspaper articles from that year are amazing. The 12 candidates had solid platforms on moving forward or maintaining the status quo. All were committed to making Sun City a great place to live.

The top three candidates received almost 11,000 votes between them. Staggering by today’s standards. The election, however, was the least of the storm that ensued. During the year we saw a recall petition filed against the president and vice-president, lawsuits over changes to the bylaws, locked-door regularly scheduled board meetings (because the rancor bordered on fisticuffs) and a constant barrage of public opinion letters to the editor. It was so ugly that the editor of the paper penned a column headed “Paradise Lost.”

Oddly, we survived it all. Lots of bruised egos both between the nine board members and throughout the community. To be honest, in retrospect, the community may have been better from it. The turmoil forced those living here to pay attention and become part of the solution.

That is part of the beauty of Sun City. When we buy here, we not only buy a house, but an ownership in a concept of governance found almost nowhere else in the country. Sun City is that special, that unique. Sadly, over the years, our documents have been changed. Many of the rights and privileges in our documents have been altered. They’ve done so under the guise of “protecting us.” I guess, protecting us from ourselves. That is truly pathetic.

The one right we maintained was to elect our board candidates — just like they did in 1980. Unfortunately, in each of the last two years, the board of directors has seen fit to fire board members they didn’t like or agree with. In 2020, the director fired elected to move out of Sun City.

This past month, the board voted to “boot” (Rusty’s word in the story headline and appropriately so) Karen McAdam from the current board of directors position she was elected to by us. As usual, they hide behind the executive session language.

What we do know is she was arguing the importance of having pickleball courts in Phase 1. She never once spoke out against the Mountain View theater project. She did talk about the fact the fastest growing sport in age restricted communities needed two venues; one in the north end, one in the south end. Hardly a dereliction of duty.

She also made a point, which was well grounded in logic, that by waving the third reading of the motion regarding the project was wrong. The whole point of three readings is to give the community an opportunity to speak out. I guess being called out wasn’t what they wanted to have happen because the next day she was fired.

I look back on 1980 and not one board member was fired, though the general manager was. As ugly as it got, the solution was never to fire another board member. How distressing is it to see those rights embedded in our documents be dismantled by thin-skinned boards who can’t handle disagreements.

Reinstate Karen; self-governance isn’t about you making that kind of a decision for us.