At its February 12 meeting, the SCA Election Committee distributed a document outlining the procedures that will be followed at the Candidate Forums/Debates in Freedom Hall on March 3, March 9, March 31 and April 6, with all events scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m. and conclude at 9:00 p.m.
The order in which candidates speak will be drawn by lot and will then proceed on a rotational basis in order to not give any candidate an advantage over any other.
The format for the events includes a combination of pre-assigned questions, random questions drawn from a container, rebuttals, a second round of randomly drawn questions, additional rebuttals, and then a wrap-up with each candidate allowed to either make a closing statement or rebut a previously addressed random question.
Here are the pre-assigned questions for each Forum/Debate:
March 3: Why do you feel you are better qualified for a position on the Board than some of the other candidates?
March 9: What do you see as the most serious problem or issue presently facing SCA? If elected, how will you address this issue?
March 31: Which SCA standing committees, service groups or other volunteer positions have you served on here or within the general community of Henderson?
April 6: What is your plan for the future of the SCA community? How do you plan to make this happen?
Each candidate will have up to 2 minutes to answer the pre-assigned question and each random question addressed to that candidate. In each round of rebuttals, candidates will be allowed to address any one previously asked question.
Other matters coming out of this meeting:
Responding to an inquiry, apparently by an unnamed candidate or candidate's representative, Election Committee Chair Lorraine Kennett said candidates will not be permitted to purchase advertisements in the Spirit magazine. She said it would be Association policy not to allow such paid ads because the Spirit is already being used for the candidates' composite 50-word statements and because the Association pays for the mailing of the candidates' fliers.
Board member Bob Frank expressed his objection to Board members being subject to the same limitations as the general resident population relative to attending the February 24 and 25 Candidate Meet & Eat events. He said that as a Board member, he should be entitled to attend both sessions instead of being limited to one or the other as all other residents are limited. The Committee replied that space is at a premium and that status as a Board member should confer no special privilege for this event.
Clearly referring to David Berman, Bob Frank asked if the Election Committee has jurisdiction to hear complaints about anyone "attacking" a candidate on the basis of what the candidate states in his campaign flier. "Can a complaint be filed against a blogger for doing this," he asked? Chairperson Kennett replied that what a blogger writes is a private matter over which the Committee has no jurisdiction. -- This reporter was not surprised at the Committee's position on this, as the Election Committee did not claim any jurisdiction over the serious breach committed by Board member Frank's spouse when she suggested to the same candidate that the candidate have his outside consultant register as the candidate's wife to gain access to the SCA community website, which would then allow the consultant to illegally harvest the personal information of our residents from the online address book for campaign purposes.
An additional matter discussed by the Election Committee was that of procuring new ballot boxes for use in this and future elections. The sense of the Committee was that the Woodchips Club had virtually doubled the price it originally was going to charge for building the ballot boxes as requested by the Committee. With the Committee not being able to afford the higher fee, Kennett announced that a resident, Richard Einsiedel, had volunteered to construct the boxes with assistance from the spouses of two Committee members.
Ken Anderson of the Woodchips Club wrote me as follows: "I'm sure you are aware that there are significant operating expenses and equipment reserve requirements which dictate that we accumulate funds above and beyond the contribution of member dues. Many of the members give freely of their time to raise funds to support the club in the endeavor. We custom build wood products of various designs for the community. We have established a labor rate of $10 per hour which compares very favorably to standard shop rates of $85 to $100 per hour at cabinet shops throughout the LV Valley."
Andersen also provided me with the following February 13 letter addressed to me by Gary Fox, Membership Director and Special Projects Manager for Woodchips:
Mr. Berman,
The Woodchips is a Chartered club comprised of approximately 150 Sun City Anthem residents, who enjoy pursuing the hobby of fine woodworking. The range of skills at building projects is as varied as our population, but all enjoy their time in the shop and learning from each other.
The facilities and equipment were provided to the club by the developer, for the enjoyment of the residents and with the understanding that the club shall be responsible for the maintenance and replacement of the tools and equipment.
In order to maintain the equipment properly and ensure the continued safe enjoyment of the woodshop, some of our members will do requested projects for Anthem residents or by bidding a project for our management company. These projects are strictly on an individual voluntary basis and any and all proceeds raised by these “Special Projects” go to the Club treasury.
We were saddened to learn that the Elections Committee was unhappy with our bid to build four ballot boxes for the association. It is indeed unfortunate that the Woodchips could not utilize our skills to provide a quality ballot box that would match the decorum and quality of our beautiful facilities.
Here is what took place from our perspective. At the initial meeting with Rich Baker, who provided a sketch and asked for a better solution than was currently implemented, he stated that the budget was $150 per unit which we indicated that would not be a reasonable assumption. He asked that we design a prototype and provide a bid. We did that and submitted a letter to the committee stating that the cost would be $300 per unit. In subsequent discussion with Mrs. Howard, she indicated that lesser quality materials could be utilized and the included ballot basket would be unnecessary. That would indeed lower the cost but still would not meet the budgeted figure. We inquired where or how the budget had been determined and assured her that contrary to what she thought, no one from the Woodchips Club had provided a prior bid to the Elections Committee for anything at any price.
We can speculate that someone might estimate that the cost of the materials could reach $150 per unit, but that is purely speculation on our part. We wanted to build a box that was similar to the trash receptacles that we built for $345 each, currently in use throughout the Independence Center.
It is indeed unfortunate that Mrs. Howard feels that the Woodchips are somehow abusing the association and the homeowners. We feel that we serve a much needed service to the association and provide high quality wooden products to our neighbors at costs far below what is available elsewhere.
The Woodchips applaud the Election Committee for their dedication to a fair and just election process and their frugal appropriation of association funds, but in this case, their communications were misdirected and therefore their expectations were not fulfilled.
Respectfully,
Gary E. Fox
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