Thoughts About The Election

Good Candidates, Tough Decisions

As I write this, we’re only about 48 hours away from the start of voting in the Board of Directors election. Three of the seven candidates will be elected to fill the available open seats on the Board.

When things are going well, I’m a great believer in valuing continuity, and I believe the past year has been one in which things have gone pretty well.

During a period when costs are rising everywhere, our annual assessments, usually referred to as our dues, actually went down a bit.

In the person of Jessica Smukal, hired away from Anthem Country Club, we have a general manager who has adapted to the challenges of the position and is showing excellent leadership.

While still laboring under the limitations of its expensive lease in downtown Henderson, Masterpiece Cuisine has been responsive to resident input and has, as predicted, gradually improved and expanded its offerings, emerging especially as a popular social gathering place in late afternoons and early evenings, as well as now a venue to enjoy healthy lunches. There is much more to come, I’m certain, and it’s very encouraging that subsidizing this important amenity at a level only about one fifth of what the previous operator cost SCA places it within a comfortable range of affordability.

Under such circumstances, I believe incumbency should be rewarded, which brings me to incumbent candidates Donna Griffith, Michelle Sharples and Forrest Quinn.

A long-time SCA homeowner, Donna served for a number of years on SCA’s important Architectural Review Committee (ARC), including as its chair. Due in large part to Donna’s commitment to helping homeowners get to “yes” on their proposed projects, well over 90 percent of design approval requests that come before ARC are eventually approved.

On the Board, after first being selected as its secretary, the respect Donna has earned from her fellow directors led to them selecting her to fill unexpected officer vacancies, first as president and currently as vice president.

She also played a key role in recruiting Jessica Smukal as general manager, as well as demonstrating great leadership in building the volunteer structure that led to bringing in Masterpiece Cuisine.

Donna works hard, is respectful of her fellow residents at all times, and is among the most accessible directors when it comes to listening to constituents and responding in a timely manner.

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One of the things SCA has always lacked, despite paying lip service to the concept, is a strategic plan that will guide us into the future, a dire need for a community approaching 30 years of existence.

Michelle Sharples is a smart businesswoman who brings a courteous but no-nonsense approach to the job. If re-elected, she will be a leader in developing a strategic plan for our community, a project she has already begun working on.

While the term “strategic plan” might be an abstract to you and cause your eyes to glaze over, having such a plan is vital to assuring that Sun City Anthem remains among the nation’s highest-rated HOAs. It will offer a blueprint for maintaining our lifestyle and home values, helping to assure that the dollars you pay to live here are wisely spent. And of great importance, it will establish goals and guidelines that will assure that future SCA boards will have milestones to follow without trying to reinvent the wheel.

Michelle Sharples is clearly worthy of your consideration for reelection.

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Forrest Quinn has long been a source of the business background and financial expertise critical to the operations of our Association. He served for years on the Finance Committee, was chair of the Audit Committee, and has given seven years of service on the SCA Board of Directors, including five years as treasurer.

As he says on his campaign literature, Forrest, a retired CPA, has an intimate understanding of budgeting, financial statements, reserves, audits and contracts at a practical level.

Lately, Forrest has been a minority voice in a Board deliberation related to how certain incoming funds are accounted for on SCA’s balance sheet. Whether his arguments prevail is beside the point, because contributions from a person with his background are helping to assure that all aspects and pitfalls of actions that affect our community will be fully aired and considered. We don’t elect directors to be yes men. We elect them to be thoughtful, to always keep the welfare of SCA in mind, and to act on what their conscience and the law tell them to do.

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Barry Rubinson served for four years on the Board and, after taking a break, is asking us to return him to office. Barry’s gregarious personality does not mask the fact that he has a record of accomplishments on the Board.

His crowning achievement was taking a lead role in the convoluted process to renovate Freedom Hall into a performance venue that competes with the best quality auditoriums on the Strip, assuring that top-quality talent will want to perform here.

Barry served as vice president of the Board and, prior to that, was chair of the Facilities & Landscape Committee, along with being an ardent advocate for Masterpiece Cuisine. He has 50 years of of experience as a computer engineer, manager, and chief technology officer. just a few of the credentials you’ll find in his campaign flyer. He definitely deserves your consideration.

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Nona Tobin has been a revelation to this reporter. Though she was elected to an earlier Board and removed due to circumstances beyond her control, she has persevered and, over the past two years and at great personal expense to herself, has evolved into a resident expert in the burgeoning, fast-moving field of artificial intelligence.

Nona’s work has the end goal of showing how a large-scale HOA, specifically Sun City Anthem, can achieve enormous cost savings and resident benefits by incorporating AI into its operations.

You will be hearing more about this before long as I share news about Nona’s work with you. And I’m especially encouraged by her commitment to continuing with her AI journey whether she is elected to this Board or not. Right now, however, she is a serious candidate who deserves your attention.

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Brian Donahue is a previous Board member who left out of frustration before his term ended, but he seeks to return to the Board and has ideas he wants to see implemented. Among them —and this was a serious discussion point at this week’s always-well-attended men’s group forum at Village Pub— is a proposal to raise the floor of the sunken area in the restaurant so that it is level with the rest of the floor, removes the hazard of having to navigate the stairs, and becomes more functional for other uses.

I didn’t know Brian well before this election period and I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to get to know him better.

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As you may have noticed, all of the six candidates I’ve referenced above are incumbent Board members seeking reelection or have past Board experience.

When it comes to “new” candidates running for the first time, it is important, I believe, that those candidates effectively introduce themselves to the community through their involvement in the campaign and, of great importance, through showing respect for the process.

Unfortunately, candidate Chris Campbell, lucky number one on the ballot, has not afforded me —or you— the opportunity to engage with him during the campaign.

I have had only one in-person conversation with him, followed by a brief email exchange related to my invitation to record a video conversation.

He is the only candidate who elected not to record a video conversation with me, though he didn’t actually notify me that he would be passing on the opportunity despite my attempts to reach him on the subject.

He wasn’t present at the official Election Committee-sponsored Candidate Forum, but his daughter did deliver his opening comment and staffed an attractive table at the subsequent meet-and-greet event.

He didn’t participate in the March 17 annual candidate event at Village Pub, and an organizer of the event told me Mr. Campbell didn’t even respond to the invitation to participate.

What this means is that Mr. Campbell has not submitted himself to any public appearance at which he would have the opportunity to share his views and answer questions.

My understanding is that he has lived in SCA for three years or less, certainly not a disqualifying factor, but I couldn’t find anyone who is aware of any participation he’s had in the community through club memberships or volunteerism.

All of this goes into the mix for you to decide who is worthy of your vote.