The Recreation Centers of Sun City West Governing Board has adopted a “strategic plan.”

The cost to prepare this document is presently unknown, but was likely thousands of dollars, including consultant and staff costs. If the general manager and governing board did their jobs as set forth in the existing governing documents, most operations problems would be resolved. Given that implementation will require a lot of additional funding from the resident owners, I consider this most disingenuous behavior by both the governing board and general manager. Much ado is made in the strategic plan about openness, transparency, resident input, etc. They should have started with this.

This document is filled with flowery language but has no process identified to quantitatively measure the success or failure of any governing principle or action items with respect to tangible bottom line results. I suspect much of the language was cut and pasted from other documents as much of it does not fit association operations. 

Examples of the rambling platitudes called “governing principles” and my comments:

“Foster collaborative partnerships to maximize resources and serve members effectively.” What partnerships and resources? Existing governing board documents clearly state association functions are to maintain facilities and common spaces, provide room for club activities, operate the golf courses, etc. for the community’s benefit. The vague nature and unidentified partnerships and resources make me think this is from a similar document and put in place without any thought or understanding of the association structure. Board documents define the association’s functions and resources.

“Strengthen and protect existing revenue sources while exploring diversified options to adapt to changing economic conditions.” The association’s existing revenue sources are fixed in governing board documents. Additional fees are authorized for membership in chartered clubs and activities such as golf bowling etc. RCSCW is a nonprofit corporation that has limited ability to raise money or it risks losing its nonprofit status. “Diversified options” must mean fee increases, and it’s likely this statement was also cut and pasted.  

“Streamline the delivery of community services by implementing operational efficiencies identifying costs of services, and performance measurements.” Other than the federal government, I have never seen an organization less efficient in providing services than SCW, which has 38% fewer residents than Sun City. RCSCW has a third more employees than Sun City, which has eight recreation centers to our four. A good measurement of efficiency for this governing principle would be to compare the total costs associated with Sun City recreation center management at with Sun City West. Does anyone really think this comparison will be made and that the association will implement operational efficiencies by identifying costs of services and updating performance measurements accordingly? If it did so the overstaffing of these facilities would be identified and need to be corrected. To my knowledge, the association has never demonstrated any interest in restructuring to streamline operations or reduce costs. I don’t expect that to change.

“Empower and engage employees through ownership of their roles and provision of resources to deliver effective and efficient customer service … Cultivate a professional and accountable work environment with mentoring, professional development, advancement, and job satisfaction opportunities.” This is typical language I have seen repeatedly in similar documents. Association employees enjoy competitive wages and great benefits. I presume annual employee reviews are conducted to discuss both achievements and areas that need improvement. What else is required? 

“Support diverse recreational and leisure activities that serve a wide range of abilities, ages, and interests … Continuously evaluate and update recreational amenities to meet evolving community needs.” These association functions are clearly mandated in the governing board documents, and existing committees continually review these matters.  The only explanation for this is that whoever prepared this did not read or understand the existing governing documents, and the reviewers did not correct this obvious redundancy.

In the document’s remaining sections, there are action items with due dates and responsibilities assigned to various association staff. Some of these are good ideas; however, experience has shown me that none of these may ever be accomplished or deemed successful because there are no measurable outcomes identified, thus, no accountability required. It appears the entire process as well as staff and management is “off the hook.” A proper planning document should state desired outcomes —  i.e. what and how much by when — but I don’t see anything that can be measured against current conditions, so how can meaningful and objective analysis be undertaken?

In my opinion, association personnel responsible for these action items may need to hire consultants or additional full-time staff to assist with preparation of documents to meet their deadlines. Since most of the objectives are vague and subject to interpretation, anything can be said, factual or not. This is supposed to be an annual ongoing program; just imagine the wasted staff time, consultant time and funding necessary to support this effort as opposed to doing what is already provided in governing board documents.

The community may get nothing from this but increased costs. There may be no improvements in operation or efficiency of the bureaucracy that Sun City West has become. If the strategic plan is implemented as written, I predict membership fees could increase 10% to 15% per year to support staff and consultant time. This is stated in the operating policy: “The Governing Board and the General Manager commit to making sure that staff have the time and resources to complete the projects in the plan.”

If no action is taken by the membership, we will have no one to blame but ourselves for annual fees I fear could be as high as $1,000 per person. I urge members to write a letter to the governing board president and general manager to express your concern and dissatisfaction.

The best possible outcome would be to petition the board to stop this program. To do so, 1,000 signatures are required; talk about having the deck stacked against resident owners!  The other remedy would be to recall all governing board members who voted for this, as well as a petition to remove the general manager.   

For improvements in operations and efficiency, the DOGE has identified waste, fraud and abuse in the federal budget. I wonder if a similar objective study was undertaken in Sun City West as a whole what might be identified as financial waste on unnecessary programs and personnel that add no value to efficient operations? Sun City West’s population has not grown for many years but staffing, particularly for managers, has increased. All resident owners should ponder whether this expansion in employment has improved association functions or activity.  Further, will additions to staff to implement the vague and unmeasured activities set forth in the strategic plan make it better?  

Bureaucracies left unchecked eventually become self-serving with little regard to costs or outcomes. I have seen this myself having worked in public bureaucracies for about half of my working career. Sun City West is just a microcosm of the federal government.

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