From
Former
Sun City Anthem Finance Committee Chairman Asks Questions of 2016 Board
Candidates
(but we want your input as well)
We received a detailed
email from Forrest Quinn, the former head of the Sun
City Anthem Finance Committee, asking us to pose several questions to the Board
Candidates...
We'd like them to
respond, but we would also like to hear your thoughts as
well.
It's with great pleasure
that we would like to brings these concerns to the Sun City Anthem community in
order that the electorate may cast their Board ballots in an intelligent
manner.
From
Mr. Quinn....
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My name is Forrest
Quinn.
I am a Certified Public Accountant
(CPA).
I also earned a Masters of Business
Administration (MBA) in Finance.
I was on SCA’s Finance Committee for
nearly three years.
Base on my experience, the questions
below will focus the board election debate to SCA’s main issues for 2016.
They should be addressed by both
board candidates and board members:
Should SCA Board Members Be
Disciplined for Misconduct?
How should SCA’s
governing documents be changed to censure, discipline, demote, or remove board
members who fail to follow NRS 116, SCA’s Board Policy Manual or Board
Resolutions?
What is Being Done and What Should Be Done, to Mitigate the
Liberty Center Damages?
Has FSR’s payroll (which SCA reimburses) been reduced to
reflect the reduction in service? If so, how much money is the community
saving per week, or per month?
Should/Has FRS’s monthly management fee been
reduced/suspended due to the reduction in services?
How Will You Evaluate
Employee Performance?
Within a
year or so, SCA’s new employees will be expecting pay raises and/or bonuses.
How will you determine if they did an unsatisfactory job, an adequate job, or an
excellent job?
Will pay
raises be granted for increasing the number of bus trips, organizing more
parking lot sales, cleaner bathrooms…. Just how will employee performance be
determined?
How Will
You Measure SCA’s Performance After
Transition?
A
business can measurement performance by: Its percentage increase in sales, an
increase in profit, a cost reduction, its return-on-assets, its
return-on-equity, etc.
As a non-profit entity, other than lowering costs, none
of these business metrics are particularly suitable for SCA.
What
performance goals will you set and how will progress toward those goals be
measured?
On April 1st, 2017, you will look back and say:
“Transition was a success(failure)
because….?
What is
the Future Role of SCA’s Finance
Committee?
Should
the Finance Committee be an independent body like SCA’s Audit Committee,
providing independent analysis and opinions to the SCA’s community?
Or,
Should
the Finance Committee remain under the control of SCA’s board?
(Unfortunately, to the detriment to the community, the FC’s
original, useful and insightful work is often suppressed, censured, trashed
and/or ignored by SCA’s board).
Did SCA have Surplus
Cash on 12/31/15?
In the
three years from 12/31/12 to 12/31/15, SCA’s year-end cash balance has doubled
from $1,334,000 to $2,726,000. This is an increase of $1,392,000, or nearly
$195/home.
How has SCA changed since 2012 so that SCA now requires twice as
much cash-on-hand?
Assuming We Can’t
Change its Use, How Much of a Subsidy Should a Restaurant Vendor Receive from
SCA?
I use
“subsidy” in the sense that a vendor pays less than SCA’s full cost to maintain
the restaurant.
I estimate SCA’s cost ranges between $160,000 to $200,000 per
year (See Note 1 below).
As I recall, Café V’s (then Vic’s) original lease was
$48,000 /year plus utilities, so they paid about $90,000/year against SCA’s
total costs.
Under my definition, Café V received a $70,000 to $110,000
“subsidy”.
Based on
our experience, it is unlikely any vendor can pay SCA’s full cost to maintain
this space.
Any future vendor will likely require either a direct and/or
indirect subsidy.
Should SCA’s annual subsidy to a restaurant be:
$0 (zero)/year
$50,000/year ($7.00/home)
$100,000/year
($14.00/home)
$150,000/year
($21.00/home)
$200,000/year
($28.00/home)
$200,000+/year
For
example, if SCA grants a $14/home subsidy, would a restaurant provide residents
with more than a $14/home return in value?
Any alternative
use will require a “subsidy” for utilities, reserve contributions, janitorial
services, R&M, insurance, etc. This could easily be $80,000 to $100,000 per
year.
Note #1 SCA’s Cost to Maintain the Restaurant Space
SCA’s
accounts are not well organized, so SCA’s total cost is difficult to determine.
My estimated cost includes $80,000 to $100,000/year of Reserve Fund
contributions, $40,000/year in utilities, $15,000/year of Property Tax,
$5,000/year in Service Agreements, $20,000/year in Repairs & Maintenance
plus unknown amounts for Insurance, Janitorial Services and Other.
Even if the
Restaurant remains closed, many of these costs will
remain.
________________________
Anthem Opinions would like to send our sincere thanks to Mr. Quinn for
his concerns and thought provoking questions and
comments.
Got a question?
Comment?
Send it to us at:
MORE QUESTIONS FOR THE BOARD CANDIDATES
1) Why is the mold problem not covered by insurance?
If I have a leak in my roof at home, all the costs to fix it and the problems it caused are covered by my home owners insurance.
2) Are the board members bonded?
Seems like the question of the money spent for the busses for Hillary's talk has just been dropped.
3) When they had meetings about Vics, most of us wanted to have a place more like a Village Pub, Winchells, Del Mar Deli.
We ended up with a supposed "fine dining" which we don't need. Would be nice to have a restaurant that we could drop in and even pick up something to take home for dinner.
4) If we are paying health insurance for the GM and her entire family, are we not required to do that for the rest of the employees?
5) We have not been instructed where to send our dues for the next quarter. Any idea if it goes to Sun City or to FSR?
6) Are we planning to carpet the tile by the card players so people will not fall anymore?
We have had a number of accidents and someone will really get hurt soon since we don't have enough room for the tables. If they carpet this area, it will give us more room and people won't fall. This is all because they won't move the pool tables.
Thanks for your blog. It is the best.
I got my signs for Forrest, Barry and Steve put in my yard yesterday.
Hope we can get some changes with our board.
What a wonderful working document to guide SCA forward.
Somehow this MUST be embraced by the Finance Committee and Boards.
It is clear thinking in the best interest SCA residents whose money it is that the Board spends wisely or squanders all to often.
No more Bella Bucks, No more Bella Bucks, No more Bella Bucks!