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On the County and State level, Florida is almost as crooked as Maryland. Corruption is pervasive throughout the system - from the precinct level (yes, even in SCC) right up to the state level. Even the Republicans are crooked! For Sun City Center, the governance problems stem more from incompetence and egos, than from corruption. Each SCC resident is a member of the Community Association (CA), which owns all of the common facilities. The CA is administered by a nine-member Board of Directors, which is elected by the residents. As candidates, they promise to do the will of the people. Once elected, they feel that they have been anointed by the Father, Son and Holy Ghost to pursue their own agendas and the residents be damned! We have a very nice library here which does a brisk business. Several years ago, the CA Board decided that outsiders (like those of Kings Point which is adjacent to SCC) should pay $12 for a yearly library card. The argument for the fee had some validity since they can use our library, but we cannot use theirs. On the other hand, many of these outsiders had contributed generously to the library during its annual fund drive. A grass-roots effort was organized to hold a referendum on the fee to let the CA Board know the sense of the community. The CA Board refused to allow our facilities to be used for such a vote, so... The ballots were printed in the newspaper. Then we drove behind the old Winn-Dixie store, showed our CA cards and deposited our ballot in a box. The results were that 80-90% were against the fee, indicating a feeling that our library should be free to all. Even knowing the results of the referendum, the CA Board still went ahead and imposed the fee. So much for the will of the people... Recently, the $12 fee was revoked because of all the ill-will it has created. The point is that at the time, the Board went ahead and imposed the fee knowing full well that it was not what the residents wanted. Actually, one could anticipate such behavior based on the fact that most of the CA Board members were business owners, managers or responsible engineers before retiring. In these positions they were used to making unilateral decisions, instead of listening to and being a representative of the people. Now, they fail to perceive the difference between being a boss and being a representative. By virtue of having thus been anointed by the Holy Trinity, the CA Board loves to micro-manage everything! Case in point: Give a CA Board member a piece of paper, a tee-square and a sharp pencil, and suddenly, he becomes Frank Lloyd Wright. An awning was needed for the Community Hall. So they came up with this plan that it should be low enough that tour buses and delivery trucks can't clear it (duh!) and it is to extend halfway across the road with supports going down into concrete piers in the middle of the road (duh!). One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that such a design leaves something to be desired. But, oh well... A City Manager was hired a couple of years ago at great expense. He was unable to function because the CA Board was unwilling to relinquish its control. When he asked for a job description, they fired him! Now the CA Board uses a management firm, which seems to act mainly as an accounting firm. According to published reports, the accounting practices used by the CA Board and the management firm leave something to be desired. For example, the opening balance for one year doesn't always equal the closing balance from the previous year, expenses are not always posted to the proper accounts (which makes tracking difficult), reserves aren't handled very precisely, etc. I'm sure that this is just incompetence, rather than corruption aimed at personal gain. The CA Board tends to waste money, not only on projects of dubious value, but on lawyers who will support their decisions. This has been perceived by the residents, and consequently, all of the recent dues increases have been voted down. Actually, I understand that this sort of game goes on in almost all retirement communities where the residents own the facilities. A neighbor who lived in a nearby RV park (before moving to SCC) told me that the same sort of thing went on there, though on a smaller scale. Another friend told me that he had visited Sun City, Arizona. Had their newspaper not said Arizona, he would have thought it was a Sun City Center, Florida paper - based on all of the articles and letters about how incompetently the city was being run. Be forewarned: If you plan to live here and are easily upset by such shenanigans, bring your Prozac and/or Maalox! Now then, having said all this really mean stuff... Probably ninety-five percent of what the Community Association does is good and does require doing. I'm thankful that there are people here who are willing to spend the time to see that things get done. They spend an awlful lot of time doing this volunteer work. And they do get harassed by the membership at meetings, by phone-calls and even by people who have web-pages (like this one). Much of the criticism is uncalled for, but not all... |