“THE JESUS NUT” & MANAGING EXPECTATIONS!
When I was a young Lieutenant stationed in Germany I would at times fly in helicopters as part of a training mission. The pilots were Air Cavalry and nearly all of them had had experience in Viet Nam. They educated me as to the assembly of the aircraft. They referred to a specific part that held the rotor blades to the helicopter as ” THE JESUS NUT”. Because if that went bad we were going down. This story reminds me of how SCA is organized and operated.
The pilot of the craft is the HOA Board of Directors implementing the policy/mission of the governing documents as to governance. The Chief Operating Officer, Sandy Seddon, is “The Jesus Nut” as EVERYTHING goes through her, And if the nut goes bad so does the mission. And you the homeowners are the taxpayers that pay for everything. It’s not a perfect analogy so please work with me.
Some board members discovered that THE NUT is defective and needs to initiate a replacement solution. Not all agree. But it cannot replace THE NUT while flying and some board members are trying to mitigate rather than landing for repair. So such is the dilemma. Operations must continue. And because the current board won’t formulate a plan to pull the trigger on replacing THE NUT , the board is in chaos.
Board members are trying to work the issues bypassing THE NUT by rolling up their sleeves and becoming worker bees in a salvage operation. Again this board majority is part of the problem as they got us into this mess and won’t face reality. THE NUT has a contract. The board is violating that contract if it
unilaterally mitigates. And so there are potential legal consequences. This current board majority could make matters worse.
The upcoming election is critical to SCA’s well being. A new board majority is needed to pull the trigger and replace THE NUT. If a new board majority is not elected, expect the helicopter to operate in a diminished capacity and pray. But if elected, the new board majority will face the same dilemma. So it could get bumpy. Pending issues while all of this unfolds include:
1. Payroll Bloat
2. Change of Legal Counsel
3. Current maintenance and capital needs e.g. tennis courts, pickleball project ,air conditioners and more. Cleaning up old projects and ensuring sound oversight of new ones.
4. Restaurant performance.
5. Main Reserves management/Reserve Study implications
6. 2025 Budget
One step at a time however. We must get JOHN MARSHALL, BEN LEIBSON and FORREST QUINN elected to have a chance to fix these issues as a continuation of the current board majority spells certain disaster for homeowners. This current board majority could be digging a bigger hole. Ballots are mailed in 10 days. Please use your best efforts to get people to vote and submit their ballots by return mail or via the drop boxes at each center building.
Until next time…. Robert