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Board Vote Draws Reaction

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 25, 2009

As you may know by the report in last week's Sun, the Sun City Center Board of Directors has refused to fund the golf course study proposed by a board-appointed task force.

I am disappointed to report I am a member of the CA board. The vote was five to three against spending $15,000 to (as task force member Martin Hurwitz pointed out) "determine the value of the Sandpiper and North Lakes golf courses and the viability of operating them." Hurwitz in a letter to The Sun on Feb. 11, said that the task force worked for three months, "spent countless hours establishing the criteria for the study the board said it wanted designed. The task force members were assured that funding had been identified to conduct the study in 2009."

On the day that letter was published, CA Board Vice President, Ann Marie Leblanc, Secretary Don Schings, veteran board members Patrick Long and Howie Griffin and new board member Woody Nelson torpedoed it.

New board members Anne Cross and Al Alderman and I voted for the task force proposal.

The gist of the opposition, although some of the speeches were not fully understandable, was to "wait and see." Those in favor, as you've heard me say before, want to be prepared for the demise of WCI or WCI's offering to sell or give all or part of the golf package to the CA. How in the world can you even think about those golf courses unless you know whether they are viable?

Treasurer Neil Rothfeld said, in counterpoint to my saying WCI could go down fast, that he thought it would be spread out over a long period of time. Neil is a fine CFO for Sun City Center, but in this instance, I would rather take the word of SCC resident Ed Jacobs, an attorney whose practice has included bankruptcy. Jacobs feels the creditors and the bankruptcy court judge would move very, very rapidly to dismember WCI and get rid of its assets. (Jacobs, by the way, took me to task for saying he was a "retired" attorney. He is not. He is still active and as anyone who knows him will attest, there is nothing retiring in his makeup.)

The Lord alone knows how much the board has spent on the softball field, the tennis courts and other entertainments which attract far fewer CA members than the golf courses. The board authorized, and the membership approved, a million dollar fitness center. We are now planning a new spa, we authorized more money for the softball field, and we build pickle ball courts and so on into the night. The board cut back on club funding for this year, but let's face it, there are probably close to 20 percent of the CA membership who are golfers to one degree or another and that's by far and away the largest participation sport here. Not to mention the 400 or so houses (not counting Renaissance) whose owners paid a premium to live on the golf courses.

And, for those who think it would be nice to turn the North Lakes course into a park, think about this: It would cost between $350,000 and $500,000 of our dollars (think big assessments here) a year to maintain a park. And the county wouldn't want it because it would be expensive to maintain -- and even if the county would take it, the site would then be open to everyone from everywhere.

In any event, the task force study is dead for the moment, laid to rest by the Ostrich Factor. It is, as you know, the habit of the ostrich to stick his head in the sand when anything out of the ordinary happens.
Hurwitz is right in two measures: First, "conducting the study will (would have) cost each CA member just over $1 from dues they have already paid. The board should not hesitate to spend that miniscule amount to provide the people to whom it is responsible truthful information." And secondly, that, "discarding the efforts of the people (the board) asked to do something for them (is) a breach of faith. Surely people will think twice before responding to future board requests for volunteer work."

Bob Black is a journalist and a member of the Sun City Center Community Association Board of Directors.

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