SCHOA board adopts moving forward theme

The recurring theme of moving forward punctuated the Sun City Home Owners Association board of directors first regular meeting Tuesday since the appointment of four members,

The first of the major changes, and one that has been discussed since the director resignations in May, was to restructure the management positions. The board decided in a series of special meetings to create two management positions to replace the executive director, an administration department manager and a compliance department manager.

The board chose long-time compliance director Bill Szentmiklosi to head the new Compliance Department, and his duties will be largely unchanged. All compliance issues will now be under his supervision, however, a change the board said it believes will pay noticeable dividends.

"It used to be that Bill would handle a compliance issue up to a certain point, then hand it off to the executive director," said Director Bill Pearson. "Now he can see the cases through all the way to the end, and we've already seen big improvements in the process."

Pearson said even though the entire compliance committee had to be replaced, the department is doing well.

The other new position announced was the administration manager, who will be in charge of SCHOA's day-to-day business. That position was filled by Jeannine Fredreck, who previously worked for SCHOA in the compliance department.

"We did a search for the position and we received 48 applications, but in the end the right candidate was right under our noses," said board President Walt Patterson. "Jeannine is going to do very well for us."

The board also discussed ways to restore the community's faith in SCHOA and how the membership numbers might be increased. The decision was made to send a letter to all new homeowners, retroactive to Feb. 1, explaining what SCHOA is and offering a free six-month membership.

"If we can introduce them to us, show them what we do, then they'll stay with us," said director Ben Roloff. "We have to begin the process of restoring the good faith of the people of Sun City, and we have to be proactive about it."

Jeff Dempsey may be reached at 623-876-2531 or jdempsey@yourwestvalley.com.