Reinventing Government

I was lucky to work for one of the most innovating cities in the San Francisco Peninsula. Ed Everett the city manager of Redwood City was a strong believer and practitioner of the “Reinventing Government” concept articulated by David Osborne and Ted Gabler in their 1992 book, “Reinventing Government”.  This concept applies the business customer service model to government. Citizens are seen as customers, and the government administrator's mission is to be responsive to their customers and achieve a high level of customer satisfaction for the services they provide to the community.

As a result, in Redwood City, all managers were evaluated according to the level of customer satisfaction achieved by each one of the services they managed. The City residents were given the opportunity to evaluate the services at the time the services were provided, and by a customer service survey at the end of the year.

This simple but powerful concept of seeing residents as customers and setting the governing body’s mission to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction could easily be applied in our community.  A good example of the need to implement this concept is in our failing Shadows Restaurant, which had a financial loss in 2012 of $468,000 and as of the end of October 2013, the financial loss amounted to $343,000.

The Shadows Restaurant is not only loosing money but also the support of the Shadow Hills community, with many residents choosing to eat somewhere else because of their dissatisfaction with the restaurant services.

PCM, the Shadow Hills HOA management company gets paid $36,000 a year for managing the restaurant and is failing to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction, as the recent on-line survey I recently initiated shows. You can see the results of the Shadows Restaurant by using this link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=F2JfVYHmoRnF3n8NXMo5FhoJjAfWUHVOZX1nESpWyq4_3d 

The Shadows restaurant only achieves 21.9% customer satisfaction, which in Redwood City it would have serious consequences for the manager responsible for providing that service, including the loss of employment.

The HOA Board is not holding PCM accountable for the failing restaurant and instead they rushed to renew PCM’s contract before the new HOA Board is seated in March, 2014.  The new contract to manage the Shadows Restaurant is basically the same, PCM will continue to be paid $36,000 a year, with the only difference that if the financial losses continue, then, they will only get paid $18,000; but it fails to contain any customer satisfaction of financial stability goals or measures.

If elected to the Board, I will press for hiring a professional Food & Beverage Service provider, that will be be accountable directly to the Board, and be responsible for minimizing or eliminating the financial losses, and providing a high level of customer satisfaction, like most other country clubs do.

Our Community’s Lifestyle

Now that Pulte is vacating the last seat on the HOA Board, I believe it is time for change. It is time to restore common sense, accountability and fiscal responsibility, and the only way things are going to change in our community, is if the community elects candidates that are committed to change.

But, change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time, and that is the reason I decided to run for the Board.

I believe it is very important to have diversity on the Board, so we can have true representation of our diverse community. Diversity of representation brings diversity of thought, ideas, and new perspectives, leading to better decisions and more innovation and creativity.

We all bought our homes in this special Del Webb community attracted by the lifestyle and the opportunity to be part of a community that allows us to live life to the fullest, to discover sides of ourselves, we never knew existed, and to connect with a true community and relate to our neighbors, in a more meaningful way, by meeting like-minded people with shared interests, common backgrounds, and similar values.

Now that Pulte is vacating the last seat they had rights to, the Board of Directors will be represented by community residents, who will take the reins, and make decisions that will determine the future of our community.

All of the residents, will have a hand in shaping the identity and lifestyle of our community, because everyone plays a part, everyone brings something special to make our community unique.

In addition to being a community of golf players, we are a community of tennis and pickle ball players, table tennis, billiards and other sports, Performing Arts, Creative Arts, Games, Entertainment and Social Club members, dog owners and many more and each of our clubs needs to be supported and their voices heard, to be able to continue shaping and improving the unique lifestyle that makes our community special, and keeps us happy and living longer, by remaining active.

With your support and your vote I will dedicate myself to bring the change we need in our community, to bring fiscal responsibility, so we can all enjoy our wonderful golden years together, in harmony.

Another Reason I Decided to Run for the Board

Another main reason I decided to interrupt my treasured retirement to run for the HOA Board, is the systematic over-charging and accumulation of our annual assessments, contrary and in violation of IRS Ruling 70-604, that requires excess revenues to be returned to the property owners, either in a rebate or by lessening the assessment the following year, otherwise the excess revenues are subject to taxation.

Revenue Ruling 70-604 states that the sole authorized activity of the HOA is the assessment of the homeowners for the purposes of managing, operating, maintaining and replacing the common elements of the association. It also mandates that a meeting be held each year to let the homeowners decide whether to return any excess assessment to themselves or to have the excess applied against the following year’s assessments.

Let’s take a look at the excess revenues collected since the arrival of PCM, the Association Management Company that Pulte contracted with in 2008 to manage our Association:

  In 2007, the monthly dues under Pulte’s management of our association were $198. In 2008, immediately after Pulte contracted with PCM to manage our Association, the monthly assessment was raised to $214, generating 1 million dollars in excess revenues in 2008 and 2009. Please note that in the years 2008 to 2009, the HOA Board was under Pulte’s control.

In 2010, PCM and the HOA Board, which for the first time had a majority of elected residents, raised the monthly assessment to $237 unnecessarily, generating even higher amounts in excess revenues, with the trend continuing through 2012, even though in February 2011, the California Department of Real Estate recommended the dues to be at $208, instead of $237.

The creation of a “Slush Fund” by HOA management companies such as PCM is not particular to our community; in fact, there is a well documented case of Sun City Anthem, in Nevada, which suffered of the same malady and which they overcame after a community struggle similar to the one we’re experiencing in our community. Please use the following links for details of their struggle:

http://anthemopinions.blogspot.com/2013/04/time-to-close-book-on-tax-issue.html

http://www.anthemvoice.org/taxes_issue.html

It is very alarming when you realize your are being “gypped”, and being that I’m a child of the 60’s, my immediate reaction is: “I’m not going to take it anymore, someone has to do something about it”.

Joan Dzuro and Judi Kleckner, who have been aware of these issues for some time, and run for the HOA Board last year, convinced me to join their quest to restore fiscal responsibility in our community, and stop the excessive accumulation of our monies.

Because of the pressure the HOA Board has received from the concerned community members, our dues have been reduced to a more reasonable level. But the next step, we need to take is to return the slush fund accumulated over the last 5 years to whom it belongs, the homeowners of our community.

Joan Dzuro, Judi Kleckner and I, are committed to bringing fiscal responsibility to our community and explore the option of a self-managed association, like our sister community, Sun City Palm Desert.

Manny Rosas,

“Working to create a community we can all be proud of”