What do Sun City’s current and future leaders think are the biggest issues facing the community? What do they think about a current controversial issue – the out-sourcing of accounting and financial functions to First Service Residential?
These two questions highlighted a 2015 election candidate forum September 21 sponsored by the Neighborhood Advisory Council in Drendel Ballroom. Karen Kennedy, president of the NAC., presided over the event. It was attended by 70 community residents, many of them were reps representing Sun City’s 42 neighborhoods.
The five candidates will be elected by acclamation in January, because there is no competition for the five open seats on the 2016 association governing board.
The five are: Bonnie Bayser, board president; Linda Davis, board vice president; Ken Andersen, appointed to the board early this year to fill a vacancy; Bill Berendt, former board president and recent finance advisory committee member; and newcomer Steve Bytnar.
Bayser is a registered nurse with a background in hospital administration and is on the boards of several area fire protection districts. Davis was a schoolteacher for 34 years and developed a teacher training program. Bytnar worked in production management for the Chicago Tribune and has a computer and systems repair background. Berendt served in a variety of financial management positions for major corporations. Andersen served in a variety of management positions for two major corporations.
This September 21, a forum was held two days before the September 23 announcement that Deanna Loughran was selected as the next Sun City executive director effective October 12.
After the candidates described their career backgrounds and Sun City activities, they were asked to describe the biggest challenges facing the community now. Here are their responses, in sound bite style:
Bytnar: We need to monitor the out-sourcing carefully, establish good relationships with our new executive director, and maintain the community’s lifestyle at the lowest possible cost.
Andersen: We need to manage our community as a business, with budgets, expenses, income, financial reserves, and a bottom line of financial viability.
Berendt: There is a need to re-establish a strong financial review process, and to strengthen our system of advisory committee support to the board. We need a policy manual for finances in an association, and need a training program for board members who don’t have financial experience or backgrounds, to help them get comfortable with how we maintain our financial viability.
Davis: We need to adjust our thinking about our changing environment, and reach out to the new residents coming in. We have an expanding range of ages in our community, from newcomers in the their 60s, to some of the long-termers who are in their 80s.
Bayser: We need to establish a database management program for the community, to take proper care of our facilities and resources.
Here is what they said about the out-sourcing earlier this year of accounting functions to FSR:
Davis: The ad hoc committee is studying this activity and we are waiting for their report on how it is going. Bayser: We made the right decisions about this matter considering the circumstances we faced late last year. Bytnar: We don’t have all the facts yet, but we need staff control of our finances.
Andersen: The ad hoc committee will evaluate this move and their report will be the next step in this process.
Berendt: I opposed the out-sourcing action by the board last year. I am not opposed to out-sourcing per se, but it has to be done the right way. We’ll see what the ad hoc committee says. We need to develop an enterprise system, in which all management issues, including this out-sourcing, are coordinated into a single database program.
The seven-member ad hoc out-sourcing review committee includes board members Andersen, Bill Bendick, and Dennis O’Leary, plus residents Sandy Frost, Bob Wainscott, Bob McGouey, and David Shotic.
