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You Can Earn The Right To Complain

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 11, 2009

The CA Board Workshop, which took place Feb. 4 was enlightening.

About 25 Community Association members crowded into the boardroom to speak about several things, but most of them were there because the Golf Course Task Force report was being put on the agenda for Feb. 11.

A vote of the board will be necessary to authorize the study proposed by the task force.

You should be there for the discussion and vote on Feb. 11 if you have an interest in your home values and the future of Sun City Center.

The most interesting thing about the meeting is these workshops rarely garner more than one or two members of the community.

John Bowker, arguably the most active observer and reporter in SCC, is always there and usually Bob Deutel, former CA director and treasurer is in the audience.

Would there were more Bowkers and Deutels! Ignoring what the board does and complaining about it later is not acceptable.
Mea Culpa
During the meeting, it was brought up that this department had misquoted a WCI representative in saying the North Lakes and Sandpiper golf courses were profitable. Actually, what was said was they were "viable." Further, there was a comment to the effect that what WCI was referring to was all SCC golf courses, including Caloosa Greens and Renaissance.

I had asked the question at a meeting between the board and some WCI officials. It was fairly obvious (to me, at least) that the question referred only to North Lakes and Sandpiper. This was the subject under discussion at the time. As to the "profitable" versus "viable" controversy, I plead guilty as charged, but do not find much difference in the words. If the golf courses are "viable," then one would assume they are making money, but probably not as much as WCI would like. And, as a matter of fact, that's what WCI said at the time: It's not making as much as it would like. It's quibbling and quibbling should be left to lawyers.

At the meeting, former CA Director Janet Wilson waved a sheaf of papers at the board and said the papers explained much of what should be known about the golf courses and the CA Board's relationships with them. These were historical and legal documents she said. When asked by Director Anne Cross whether she would share them with the Board, she said "No!" This is not the first time she has done this. If these papers are pertinent to anything, then I find it unconscionable for her, as a resident and former director, to withhold them and I told her so.

Task Force Study

What is coming before the Board on Feb. 11 is the report of the task force proposing we hire a vetted company to do a study on the value of the property, condition of the infrastructure and the cost of operations for the North Lakes and Sandpiper courses.

This is not a vote to buy the courses; this is not even in the neighborhood of such a vote which would have to go to a referendum of every resident anyway.

We all know that WCI has fallen upon hard and perilous times. It has just filed its September 2008 numbers with the Bankruptcy Court.

CA treasurer Neil Rothfeld feels that if the creditors force WCI into Chapter 7 (liquidation) it will be over a period of time. Ed Jacobs, a retired attorney and SCC resident, feels (from his experience in Bankruptcy Courts) the judge will make WCI move fast and get the creditors paid what comes out of liquidation and be done with the matter.

It is, as I've said before, the latter that concerns many of us. We need to know, and we need to know soon, the information the task force study can give us. (Want to read the report? It's in the CA Library.)

We need to know because the CA has the right of first refusal if those courses are offered for sale or voluntarily given to us by WCI in order to generate some sort of tax write off. And, as noted above, the Bankruptcy Court could move fast.

Be prepared! I learned it in the Boy Scouts and it most assuredly applies to your Community Association today.

Bob Black is a journalist and member of the Sun City Center Community Association board of directors.

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