Dear Dwight Esau:
I was dismayed that our board filed legal action against you. My feeling is you are entitled to do what you did. Both as a member of Del Webb and a news reporter with reporter legal protection.
Unfortunately, our board believes they are a corporation group. They are not. They are a part of an association; their positions are elected. Not all retirees want to be a part of such a board. Often times, persons get elected when no one wants to run! We wind up with questionable board members who make strange decisions like filing an action against you without consulting the Del Webb membership through the voting process. Shame on them.
I believe the residents should call on a vote to impeach the board as well as the management group.
Yours truly,
Richard S. Dahl
Sun City resident
My name is Raymond Charlette and I live in Sun City Neighborhood 22. I have and will continue to attend (95% of the year) the monthly CAM board meetings. This, along with the Lifestyle Magazine (which I deliver) and the Sun Day News, are the only way I find out what is going on in the Sun City activities. I rely on their communication.
We donât have a computer to look up what is happening. I leave other commitments when the COW and meet and greet meetings happen.
I have respected the board for the most part. However, I question them for not allowing a resident and a news reporter for the Sun Day, Dwight Esau, to report on the meetings he attends.
I donât know who is advising the board, but it certainly is not the correct one to do so. I have said many times to Bonnie, Linda, and others on the board how much we, and others without computers, rely on transparency and other communication.
Dwight, I hope you can keep on updating us.
Raymond Charlette
Neighborhood 22
Ps. Love your newspaper.
In my opinion, it was clearly a mistake by the boardâs leadership to get our new executive director, Deanna Loughran, involved in a turf war, with her recent open letter to the residents on October 29. The ignored elephant in the room was irresponsibly created by the boardâs leadership in October of 2014 with its outsourcing of our accounting functions and in which Deanna has had no involvement or history. Deanna Loughranâs communiquĂ© lacked any specifics or clarifications of the boardâs objections to the current or past Sun Day Newspaper articles. It only offered generalized objections to unsubstantiated or supposedly inaccurate press comments.
Sorry, but the boardâs leadership should be embarrassed by their current actions and attacks on the freedom of expression. If the board believes that the published information is incorrect, it has the opportunity to request specific corrections and or clarification.
The bottom line in this challenged press issue is not that it is accurate but that there is an ongoing frustration with the boardâs leadership and its decision to proceed with outsourcing of the associations accounting/ financial reporting responsibility to FSR without respecting the established expertise and recommendations of the existing Finance Advisory Committee which chartered a positive course for the community in the last decade.
The decision to assign accounting/finance responsibility plus a fee to FSR is based on an assumption and a hope to demonstrate a $126,000 annual saving in operation cost in year one based on Lauren Leeâs recommendation to the board in October of 2014. One would reasonably conclude that after a year we should know the cost benefits or loss projections associated with this plan to outsource our financial services. However, we are told we will not know the results until the end of this year! Convenient timing with the turnover of the boardâs officers.
Al Drogosz
Neighborhood 32
Do you have long time friends who live very far away? Do you miss them and wish you could catch up? Have you thought about calling them but time gets away from you?
I do. Judy was in my wedding 27 years ago. We worked together, lived in the same high rise building in downtown Chicago and were very close. Now she lives in Buffalo, New York and I am in Huntley, Illinois. It has been years since we have seen each other. I miss her and our in-depth conversations. It would be nice if we could keep in touch and stay connected.
So we have a âwine dateâ This is a specific planned time Judy and I set aside every couple of months to chat. Of course, you can just try to call your friends but they might be busy, walking out the door, in the middle of something important, or it might just be bad timing.
Our date is planned in advance. We set this up by e-mail or with a very quick phone call. âIâll call you 3 weeks from now at 5 on Thursday evening.â We have our wine, and sometimes a snack of cheese and crackers, or nuts, and we solve all the problems of the world in an hour. Â
Of course, there is Skype and Facetime, but the phone wine date is great. You donât have to dress up or clean your house. You just pick up or answer your phone at the pre-set time and spend your hour enjoying the company of a good friend.
Stormy weather? Donât want to drive? No problem. A wine date is the perfect way to visit in the winter when you canât get out.
Donât drink wine? You can substitute coffee, tea or a soft drink. The main focus is on spending time reconnecting with your friend despite the distance.
Give it a try.
Mary Kozy
Sun City resident
