David's Anthem Journal

As The Board Election Approaches…

 

With the filing deadline for this year’s SCA Board of Directors election still two days off, writers on the Goodman/Arendt forum are tearing their hair out over who they think has filed, or will be filing, to run for one of the three available seats.

One writer has gone so far as to virtually guarantee a nasty election process, not surprising in view of her own personal nastiness.

My permanent message at the top of the blog home page says unequivocally that we will be political from time to time.

That time is almost here, but there is no need to inveigh on the race, or specific candidates, prior to the opening of the starting gate.

To answer a question I’ve received frequently in recent days, I plan once again to offer each candidate the opportunity to record a video message to my readers.

In addition, Channel 99 is resuming the practice of recording candidate videos, though I will allow candidates more time than Channel 99 will give them to express their views.

Most candidates show respect for my more than 3,100 readers by recording videos for this blog, but some have not chosen to accept the offer in the past.

Though I can’t prove cause and effect, I can tell you that no candidate who has declined to record a video for this blog has ever been elected to the Board. Who knows, perhaps that will change this year if one or more candidates decline the offer.

All I can do, as the campaign process proceeds, is bring you such information as the candidates wish to share with you, and in time to make my own recommendations. In the end, you must consider the information you have or acquire and make the decisions you think will best serve Sun City Anthem.

 

Board Candidate Filing Period is Open

 

 

The filing period is now open for Sun City Anthem members wishing to run for one of the three available seats on the Board of Directors.

The deadline for filing as a candidate is 4:00 p.m. on Friday, February 17.

The Election Committee will conduct an informational session for prospective candidates at its 9:00 a.m. meeting on Tuesday, January 31 in Anthem Center.

If you wish to file as a candidate, please contact Lily Cardenas at 614-5815 or Skyler Jewell at 618-5805.

While wrestling with some difficult challenges, the directors serving on the 2011-2012 Board have demonstrated an extraordinary ability to work together in a cooperative manner, even when expressing passionate disagreement from time to time. They have set a positive tone we can only hope will encourage worthy Board candidates to seek to join them.

Here is a valuable statement that was part of a document distributed to prospective candidates by the Election Committee back in 2006:

What Makes an Effective Board Member?

Because we are very different from each other, there is no single answer to this question. In fact, it could be said that the very diversity of backgrounds and experience possessed by individual Board members is what makes for a dynamic, effective Board.

The most important quality is probably the ability to get along with others, and to be collegial and non-confrontational in dealing with fellow Board members, committees, Association staff and residents.

To meet the fiduciary responsibility, the ability to read and understand financial statements is important.

While the official requirements to run as a candidate are basic, it may benefit you if you have lived in Sun City Anthem long enough to have become involved on one or more levels in community life through club activities, attendance at Board and committee meetings, membership on a committee, etc.

 

Thank You From The New Directors Plus One

 

Dear Readers: The four new Sun City Anthem directors –Jim Long, Mike Carey, Bella Meese and Wade Terry- have sent me messages of appreciation for sharing with our readers. In addition, Mike Waterhouse, who came very close to being elected, has provided a personal message for you.

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Message from Jim Long

 

Let me start by thanking the voters who chose me to be one of their directors. I will make every effort to live up to your confidence in me.

I next want to thank the people who invited me to events in their homes to discuss my ideas with their neighbors and friends. I also want to thank the friends who contributed money, support, encouragement, and friendship.

Finally, I want to thank the other candidates for the way they conducted their campaigns. While we disagreed on many issues, we were always civil and polite to each other. I hope that the candidates’ success in keeping the focus on the issues will provide a model for future discussions of community issues.

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Message from Bella Meese

 

Many thanks to the residents for their vote of confidence and for allowing me to serve on the Sun City Anthem Board of Directors. I look forward to working with not only my colleagues on the Board, but with all the residents.

As I promised during the campaign “we must not only work for the residents in all that we do but we must also work with the residents in doing so.” You will see my efforts as a Board member concentrated in the areas I promised to promote as a candidate: open and more communication with the residents, supporting and encouraging our volunteers and networking with the outside agencies that impact our lifestyle here in Sun City Anthem.

But be assured that I will actively participate in all areas of responsibility that the Board oversees. We are a large and diverse community and as a result of our size, we will experience differing opinions on a variety of subjects. I believe it is not only possible, but necessary for us to engage in civil and constructive dialogue in order to arrive at conclusions and take actions that will best serve our residents. I also believe that working in the best interest of those who spoke negatively about us as candidates should be just as important as supporting the interests of our most ardent supporters.

I am both honored and excited about my two-year term ahead. I want to especially thank all of you who hosted coffees for me and for introducing me to your friends, neighbors and fellow club members. And thank you, too, for all who took the time to attend the Coffees, the Forums and Candidate Club Events, and to the Blog hosts, David Berman, Rana Goodman and Ron Johnson for their endorsements. Thank you all again for the opportunity to serve on our Board of Directors and I look forward to hearing your ideas and concerns.

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Message from Mike Carey

 

I am extremely grateful to all who supported my campaign to represent Sun City Anthem.  Now my work really begins, and I will make every effort to earn your confidence and trust over the next two years.

There are difficult decisions to be made in the near future and I will strive to represent the best interest of the entire Sun City Anthem family as a member of the board of directors.

Wish me luck in serving Sun City Anthem.

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Message from Wade Terry

 

Hello Everyone,

Thank you everyone!  Your help, support, and vote humble me.  I am particularly appreciative of those who held coffees, supported the Association Forums, Anthem View Breakfast with Candidates, the Men's Club, Current Events Club, Pet Club, and all the others who welcomed us around the community.

I am excited to be a part of the new Board, for I believe we Board Members may differ on issues but are one as to process.  I am confident you will find a more open, more resident friendly, and more participatory Board.  There are many skills and experiences among us that may be utilized to help make Sun City Anthem an even better place to live.

Again, I want to thank all of you for your help and support. And I want to let you know I do remember what I said or promised to work on at the coffees, forums, and in the flyers.  I look forward to getting started on doing what I said.

Thank you!

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Message from Mike Waterhouse

 

First, I once again want to congratulate the new Board members. They ran excellent campaigns. And thanks, David, for this invitation and opportunity to express my great appreciation and final thoughts to all the wonderful people I met and communicated with in the just concluded SCA Board election campaign. I also deeply appreciate those who placed their trust in me with a vote, especially given my limited SCA tenure.

The campaign itself was perhaps a laboratory example of how good campaigns for elected office can and should run, with a positive focus on the issues and an emphasis on listening to as many diverse ideas as possible on the needs and strengths of the community.

I was also particularly impressed with a remark by winner Bella Meese in one of her campaign summations on the lessons we all learned in the campaign. She wrote, “I also believe that working in the best interest of those who spoke negatively about us as candidates should be just as important as supporting the interests of our most ardent supporters.”

We need to continue to work to bring this community together by building trust and confidence with all of our member stakeholders. I believe all Board members, no matter what their individual perspectives on specific agendas, need to keep this as their focus. I believe that all of the newly elected members have this capability and I’m confident that they will apply it throughout their terms. Each member of the community must feel welcome to attend meetings and share their ideas on the best way forward.

A final public appeal, if I may, on one critical issue that I believe should attract all of our attentions. I would respectfully ask as many of you as possible to consider volunteering for the SCA Community Patrol. This valuable service has suffered losses in the last year and it is at a critical juncture for its future role in the community. The best way forward is to have as many of us as possible contributing to some service with the patrol, be it driving, biking, walking, or dispatching. We serve all our interests when we serve on the patrol and we make a great statement of shared community involvement at the same time.

Thank you.

Thoughts on the Election

 

Congratulations to Jim Long, Mike Carey, Bella Meese and Wade Terry on their election to the Sun City Anthem Board of Directors.

I am pleased to have endorsed these four fine candidates, adding to the tradition of success for all 18 candidates I have endorsed since starting this blog in 2006.

Jim, Mike, Bella and Wade are not the only winners, of course. The residents of Sun City Anthem came up big, as once again they have opted for a group of quality leaders to represent them and help take our community forward.

One candidate urged us to “reject cooperation, not confrontation,” but you chose to favor those who want to address our issues and concerns through a collegial, collective process, not through belligerence and false accusations of corruption and “gross negligence.”

Since being elected to the Board by our voters in 2007, Bob and Kay Frank have now lost three elections between them.

 

  

 

Bob was clearly a man of …

 

 

If we look at the voting statistics for the past three annual elections, the participation of our homeowners in the Board elections has remained remarkably consistent.

These are the percentages of homeowners who sent in ballots the past three years:

2009: 39.8%

2010: 37.5%

2011: 40% (39.99)

It appears that the shortened campaigning and voting period did not have an adverse effect on voter participation.

To be sure, the 2011 election produced some surprises, which may be related in part to ballot position.

Appearing in ballot position number 1, Jim Long was the leader, with 1,780 votes

Appearing at the bottom of the ballot, in position 7, Wade Terry was last among the four elected directors. This surprised me because Terry was an especially aggressive and creative candidate.

Bob Frank and Carl Weinstein finished 6th and 7th respectively as I expected, but with higher percentages than they received in my informal blog poll. This was not a surprise if one accepts the premise that the majority of my readers most likely supported the positions I took on candidates, whereas support for Frank and Weinstein would be somewhat greater in the community at large.

I was surprised at the third-place finish of Bella Meese, the only candidate endorsed by all community bloggers and the only woman in the race. Bella finished first in my poll, and some things are just hard to explain.

In fact, the finishing positions of Long and Carey were reversed from what they were in our poll, where they finished in almost a tie for third and fourth.

Without factoring in rejected ballots, a final number I do not yet have:

Jim Long was named on 66% of the ballots.

Mike Carey on 59.8%.

Bella Meese on 56.7%.

Wade Terry on 51.7%.

The above winners were the only candidates named on more than 50% of the ballots.

Mike Waterhouse: 48.2%.

Bob Frank: 31.7%.

Carl Weinstein: 29.2%.

If you compare fourth-place finisher Wade Terry’s 1,395 vote total to the 854 received by Bob Frank, it is significant to note that Terry’s name appeared on 63% more ballots than did Frank’s name.

Mike Waterhouse deserves much praise for both his fifth-place finish, with exactly 1,300 votes, and the fine way he joined the four winners in conducting a positive campaign. As the relative newcomer in the race, with far less name recognition than Frank and Weinstein, Waterhouse made a great impression on many. In fact, as I Iistened to feedback from many in the community, I sensed that Mike was coming on strong and may have done even better if the campaign had lasted another week or two. It is no disgrace for this qualified candidate to have missed by only 95 votes.

We have not seen the last of Mike Waterhouse!

In the postmortems of others, it is amusing to see a gentleman named Arendt belittling Wade Terry’s fourth-place finish on the ground that he was my preferred candidate. In fact, I equally preferred ALL the candidates I endorsed, but Arendt seems to base his ridiculous conclusion on the indisputable fact that more of Terry’s campaign materials were published on this blog than for any other candidate.

Well, readers, my promise was to publish all campaign materials five candidates –and even Bob Frank if he had chosen to do so- asked me to post. It is a simple, easy-to-verify fact that Terry generated a greater volume of material than any of the others, so he wound up with more blog space.

That’s just Mr.Arendt’s sour grapes rising to the surface once again.

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Now the hard work really begins for the 2011-2012 Board which includes a new majority of four directors. There are several important issues that remain open for resolution, and it should be a year that is both challenging and rewarding. One thing I detect is that the new directors don’t seem inclined to lobby for gambling in our restaurant.

 

 

 

Board Election Results: Long, Carey, Meese and Terry Join the Board

 

Here are the results of the 2011 Sun City Anthem Board of Directors election, announced just before 7 pm this evening (May 2).

The names of the four newly elected directors are in red, and the vote totals appear beside each candidate’s name.

Jim Long – 1,780

Mike Carey – 1,613

Bella Meese – 1,583

Wade Terry – 1,395

Mike Waterhouse – 1,300

Bob Frank – 854

Carl Weinstein – 788

Bob Frank: Paranoia on Parade

 

From an online dictionary:

Paranoia: An unfounded or exaggerated distrust of others, sometimes reaching delusional proportions. Paranoid individuals constantly suspect the motives of those around them, and believe that certain groups of individuals, or people in general, are “out to get them.”

As I’ve observed Bob Frank in the years since 2006 when I came to know him, I think I’ve finally put my finger on what it is that makes him so different from perhaps 99 percent of our Sun City Anthem residents.

Most of us accept the premise that goodness, not evil, is the most fundamental defining element of human nature. You will find this to be the dominant concept in the “good vs. evil” dichotomy, going all the way back to Mencius, a leading follower of Confucianism, who postulated that goodness is at the core of human nature.

This is how we conduct ourselves in our daily lives. We assume that those whose paths cross ours are good-hearted, well-meaning people who want only the best for themselves and for us. Because of this initial trust that we give to others and receive back from them, we are able to make many friends whose own interactions with us enrich our lives and, as in the case of this community, bring us the joys of friendship, camaraderie, and working together toward common goals.

In some cases, we are disappointed when those in whom we place our trust disappoint us or turn out to be something different from who we thought they were.

But even then, the relationship begins with trust, and that trust has to be violated in order for us to see that not everyone is as well-intentioned as we would wish.

I don’t believe Bob Frank sees things that way. In his world, anyone who does not share his views on a variety of subjects is accused by him of, among other things, having ulterior motives; being “grossly negligent;” committing criminal acts; stupidity; incompetency; and much more.

Bob’s comments about our current Board election process, made during Member Comment Period at the April 28 Board meeting, showed his paranoia in full flower.

His comments about the things he believes place SCA at risk for not having a fair election seemed to imply that our paid management and/or current Board members have an interest in manipulating the outcome so that he and perhaps others will be prevented from securing enough votes to win election.

He suggested that “someone” could hold up the outer envelope, in which the inner envelopes containing the ballot is enclosed, and be able to see the ballots –with the names chosen for election- through the two envelopes.

When I asked Bob after the Board meeting how anyone could see the actual ballots through two envelopes, his reply was that it is possible if a flashlight is used when holding up the outer envelope.

So now we have the image of a nefarious agent, who wants to keep Bob Frank from winning election, holding up the envelopes in front of a flashlight and somehow disposing of envelopes containing ballots with the “wrong” candidate names on them.

Mr. Frank also challenged the quality of the locks on the ballot boxes, which he asserts can easily be tampered with after the recreation centers close at night, and he has hinted on several occasions that management has the means to make selected ballot envelopes “disappear.”

He is careful to say he is not alleging that actual fraud has been committed, but he is worried about it because of his implied belief that current and outgoing Board members and management personnel will do anything to keep him from winning his election.

Last year the complaints were that SCA used a third party to handle the election process, so apparently you can’t win with Mr. Frank.

On another occasion, Bob Frank has written of his belief that people with nefarious motives could “stuff” the ballot boxes with envelopes from homeowners who have not actually voted.

Bob may not understand why it is impossible to do this.

Each outer envelope sent to homeowners contains the name of an owner and the street address of the owner to whom the ballot package was mailed. But the outer envelope ALSO contains a unique, computer generated code that has to be matched up with a master list of the codes and the addresses the packages were mailed to before the returned ballots will be accepted.

The computer-generated code is not related to the voter’s name, address and SCA Member ID Number in any way, and there is no discernible pattern to the codes.

Next Monday we should have a fairly smooth ballot-counting process because of the program that matched the unique outer codes to the master list, in effect pre-validating the integrity of the returned envelopes. Then the outer ballot envelopes will be opened in full view of anyone who chooses to view the process in the Delaware Room. The outer envelopes will be separated from the plain inner envelopes containing the actual ballots, a procedure that will prevent anyone from knowing how any owner cast his/her votes. The ballots will be tabulated and the results made available immediately after the candidates or their representatives are notified of the outcome.

Writer and educator Margaret Wheatley has written thusly:

An important value is that we assume good intent. Instead of developing a story about another’s motivation, we try to stop the storyline from developing, and simply assume that there must be a good reason why they just did something hurtful or foolish. It takes mindfulness to stop the stream of judgments that pour from our lips, but when we can stop them, we’ve been well rewarded. People’s motives usually are good, even when they look hurtful or stupid. And if we pause long enough to ask them what they intended, there’s another benefit--we develop a better relationship with them. Working together becomes easier.

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Postscript: I reported above on Bob Frank’s claim that someone with ill intentions could hold up the outer and inner ballot envelopes to a flashlight and be able to discern the contents of one’s ballot.

I asked Bob about this at the conclusion of the April 28 Board meeting, and here is the pertinent part of how he described our conversation in a posting to the Rana Goodman forum:

In spite of my many serious allegations, Berman only asked me why I thought the ballot package could be viewed through two sealed envelopes. I said because anyone can use a bright flashlight shining through most completed ballot packages and see the location of the votes in the ballots.

I asked him if he had checked my claim, and he said "no".

It may be significant that he claimed to have not tested my allegation of unacceptable ballot materials, and that he did not complain about any of my long list of other major allegations of election system vulnerabilities. Perhaps he and Roz know that all of my allegations of election security holes are 100% accurate?

It is important for my readers to understand that I had to practically beg Bob to stop and discuss the question with me, as he initially said he wanted no conversation whatsoever. I did want to ask about his other claims, but he refused to stay and have that conversation. THAT is the part he left out of his post on the Goodman forum.

Board Candidate Wade Terry’s Final Message of the Week

 

Hello Everyone,

The message this week is – Get out the vote. Traditionally only 35 to 40% of our households vote in the Board Election. They vote early but it is not even a majority of the residents.

Many of you are my supporters and have already voted. I am very grateful to you for that. I was lamenting to a friend earlier this week about how scheduled coffees had been cancelled, the hosts saying that the invitees were calling to say they had already voted – and their vote was for me. Great!

My friend reminded me of the low voter turnout historically and said, “If they won’t come to you – you have to go where they are.” Well DUH. So I tried it this afternoon. I took my Wademobile, the blue golf cart with the big signs on it and went hunting for voters. To my surprise the first four people I met had not voted and were not too familiar with me. Thankfully I think I converted them and some others. Look at my poster above to see who else has returned to vote just in time.

So, except for some previous commitments such as attending the Ombudsman’s Training Classes for potential board members on Friday --- you might see the Wademobile traveling the neighborhoods and me knocking on doors to make sure we get a better turnout and that residents who do not know me get the chance to know me better.

Here is where you come in. Please take a few minutes and call five friends or neighbors and remind them this is the last week to vote. If you are a supporter please let them know you are supporting me and recommend they vote for me before the polls close at 8am Monday morning.

Thank you again for your support,

Wade Terry

 

Mr. Frank, Enough With Your Lies Already!

 

Board candidate Bob Frank just can’t seem to break his habit of responding to my articles with lies, distortions and made-up “facts.”

In responding to my criticism of him regarding the golf course issue, he writes as follows:

…the typically deceptive political piece on David’s Anthem Journal about what to do about the SCA-area golf courses failing to pay on their loans, being in receivership, and apparently on their way to bankruptcy/new ownership.

Let’s see what the Truth Meter has to say about Mr. Frank’s comment:

 

 

I made no remarks whatsoever about the courses being in receivership, or even speculating on it. I also made no remarks whatsoever about the courses being on their way to bankruptcy and/or new ownership. If it happens, I’ll report it, but for Mr. Frank to attempt to deceive his readers by suggesting I wrote anything about it is another one of his lies that he expects you to buy like so much snake oil.

Mr. Frank further writes:

Remember how the 2006 Board, led by Favil West and David Berman, refused to do anything substantive to help members deal with the developer’s massive home plumbing problems involving Kitec, Rehau and Wirsbo?

Now THAT’s an intriguing statement for Bob Frank to make, so let’s see how the Truth Meter rates it:

 

 

Unfortunately for Mr. Frank’s cartoonish version of history, the first SCA public references to Kitec, Rehau, Wirsbo, etc., arose in the fall of 2006, as documented by articles on this blog. I left the Board in July of that year, several months before the plumbing issues surfaced in Sun City Anthem. While experts in the Las Vegas Valley, and even developers, may have been aware of the problems prior to that time, they did not go onto the SCA radar screen until around then. And it was certainly not a Favil West/David Berman-led Board. Once Favil succeeded in having his own sponsored candidates elected to the Board that spring, I was no longer a Board officer.

In his cockeyed rebuttal to my article, which primarily chronicles the excellent research of Board candidate Wade Terry, Mr. Frank asks a number of questions, but as usual he provides no suggested answers.

This is typical of Bob Frank’s inability to take any projects from start to finish while on the Board. He left his colleagues to do the heavy lifting because he was too busy filing complaints with outside authorities and was too busy, as he might have put it, rejecting cooperation.

Big lies, little lies, here a lie, there a lie, it’s all the same to Bob Frank.

Click below for a brief musical tribute to Bob Frank:

Musical Tribute

 

 

 

A Difference Between Candidates

 

With many Board candidates staking out similar positions with regard to what they might do if elected, it is not always easy to detect differences among them. For example, they all promise more user-friendliness, more respect at meetings, improved communications, etc.

Candidate Bob Frank stands out in stark contrast, not a bad thing if you share his belief that our leaders are corrupt, practice rampant cronyism, etc.

It is beyond amusing to see how Mr. Frank works hard to tie ANY perceived issue to a failure of the Association, the management company, the Board of Directors, or all of the above.

No one is more adept at attempting to put a square peg into a round hole.

 

 

Let’s compare how two Board candidates addressed the recent news, first published here, that a lender has filed a default notice against the owner of the golf courses in Sun City Anthem.

The golf courses are privately owned by Revere Golf, LLC, and managed for that company by Troon Golf.

Other than the existence of an Association Golf Course Advisory Committee, which deals with course management on concerns such as landscaping, course maintenance, etc., this is a privately owned amenity that has no financial relationship with SCA, other than offering preferred rates to our residents.

But Bob Frank manages to tie together the original Anthem developer, the Association, and even what he calls “the unity people.”

It is a a true feat of verbal legerdemain.

Mr. Frank writes (excerpted):

I have sometime worried that some of the unity people who still seem to favor Del Webb/Pulte interests over owner interests may not care if the courses fail. This might be to enable their developer friends to make some quick profits on the auctioned properties. I doubt that, but if it was true, it might help explain why current and past boards have done nothing to try to help avoid the pending bankruptcies of the golf courses.

I believe all current board members and candidates should be asked by the community to commit to rejecting the past policies of doing nothing.

The generous amount of open space, panoramic views, and perceived lack of crowded conditions in SCA is a major part of why people chose to live here. Filling up that space with maybe one or two thousand more “units” (who knows what styles they might be) is likely to be bad for everyone.

That last sentence by Mr. Frank is typical of his standard strategy of inciting residents with phony arguments that raise the specter of a bogey man that doesn’t exist.

Bob is conjuring up a vision of a failed golf course being replaced by thousands of new homes.

Bob faults numerous parties for not doing anything, but he suggests absolutely nothing for a specific solution.

One can only hope that he doesn’t expect Sun City Anthem to spend any of our homeowners’ dues money on a save-the-golf-courses project.

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One Board candidate –Wade Terry, who is a golfer- did the type of research that one would expect of a person with the skills and disposition to be an Association director.

As someone who knows the courses well, Wade notes that they are built on land used as part of the drainage system for our community. “If you were to go onto the courses during our rains,” he says, “you would see that many areas flood. It would take an incredible infrastructure change to allow anything to be built on most of the course layouts.”

But to expand his research, Terry exchanged communications with Laura Bratcher, Planner for the City of Henderson Community Development Department.

Ms. Bratcher provided the following information to Wade:

The zoning designation for the Revere Golf Course is PS (Public/Semi-Public), and the golf course was approved through a Conditional Use Permit.

In order for the PS designation on the Revere Golf Course to be changed for single-family homes, the following would be required:

 

• A Comprehensive Plan Amendment to LDR (Low Density Residential).
   
• An amendment to the Anthem Master Plan to change the designation to LDR.
   
• A Zone Change amendment to designation RS-6.
   
• All of the above to be approved by the City Council.

Wade Terry concludes: “Can you imagine any developer wanting to take on the task of the zoning in a community that would obviously be hostile to this change? Can you imagine the task of infrastructure changes, or the task of building and selling houses in this or the foreseeable economy for housing in this market? There is simply too much better land available.”

Wade also points out that you will find, in the Governing Documents area of the SCA website, a 2002 document called “Operating and Maintenance Restrictions,” which pertains to the golf courses and which Bob Frank seems not to be aware of. Among other things, this document guarantees SCA golfers favorable golf rates until at least the year 2022. But more importantly, if you read it carefully, it seems to say that the land cannot be used for anything but golf, and the restrictions in this regard are granted in perpetuity.

There is the clear difference between two candidates. One would once again seek to incite residents by pandering to their fears without any documentation to back him up. The other goes out and does the research in order to understand the issue and share his findings with the community.

 

Nelson Orth: Caught Taking The Low Road

Resident Nelson Orth, who has the dubious distinction of faring very poorly in two previous runs for the Board, has decided to take the low road by casting unwarranted aspersions on Board candidate Mike Carey.

Mr. Orth’s case against Carey has two elements:

One challenges Carey’s statement that he was involved with the resident committee that planned for the construction of Independence Center.

While it is true that Mike Carey forgot the name of the ad hoc committee he served on for that purpose more than eight years ago, calling it the Independence Center Design Committee instead of its correct name, which was the Recreational Amenities Committee, Orth’s insinuation is clearly a challenge to Carey’s claim that he had anything to do with the planning for Building 2, which became known as Independence Center only when it was ready for opening.

Fortunately for Mike Carey and unfortunately for Nelson Orth, some of us keep records. In my case, since I was the Communications Chair for the Recreational Amenities Committee, I published a monthly newsletter for the community, giving our residents updates on the Committee’s progress. The newsletters were distributed with the Spirit magazine mailings.

What you see below is an image of the very first of these newsletters, published on November 1, 2002. You will notice the red arrow I have inserted, pointing to Mike Carey’s name as a member of what we called the Core Committee.

 

 

And because the print is rather small to read, here is the relevant portion of the newsletter, enlarged to show Mike Carey’s name.

 

 

Here’s how it works with Nelson Orth: He fancies himself an adept researcher, so if he can’t find something, then in his eyes it does not exist.

Sorry, Mr. Orth. You goofed!

Orth’s second claim is simply ludicrous on its face. Unable to contest Mike Carey’s statement that he served on the Finance Committee in the years 2001-2003, he falsely suggests that this service does not count because it was the developer’s committee, not an SCA committee.

That is wrong! While it is true that Del Webb had majority control of the Board of Directors until transition to resident control in 2005, the developer’s control was exercised with a very light hand, and the developer NEVER rejected a committee nominee suggested by the minority of resident Board members.

So what Mr. Orth would have you believe, apparently, is that EVERY committee member in the years 1999 to May, 2005, was a pawn of the developer. What a shame to see so many dedicated volunteers thrown onto the trash heap of SCA history by Nelson Orth!

This is what morally bankrupt people will do when the facts aren’t going their way.