David Berman's Report on the November Board Meeting and RMI Contract Negotiations, Source: Board Meeting Wrap-Up, 11/27/09
"Board President Jack Troia said that a public workshop will be held on December 8th to discuss issues related to negotiating a renewal of the RMI management contract. During Member Comment, resident Nelson Orth referred to a series of Nevada Administrative Code and Nevada Revised Statutes provisions that I presume relate to Mr. Orth’s belief that the contract must be put out for bid, though others have stated that HOAs are entitled to negotiate renewals of existing service contracts without starting a new bidding process.
Responding to Mr. Orth’s comments, resident Jack Silas reviewed the circumstances that led up to the selection of RMI to become Sun City Anthem’s management company. Noting that he was part of a three-person search team that recommended RMI after an exhaustive search and consideration of numerous management companies consuming more than 200 man hours, Silas expressed his view that there is no need to start such a process all over again after RMI had been so far ahead of any other companies in the results his team had arrived at."
"Reporter’s [David Berman's] Comments: One or more writers on other blogs have stated firmly that Board President Troia should not be the sole person to negotiate a contract renewal with RMI. While I would not want to see a process that involves seven Board members sitting around a table with RMI, arguing from their individual perspectives, I would expect that whether the negotiator is Troia or a team of Board members, the negotiating terms would reflect the consensus views of the Board, not just the views of one or two Board members.
In addition, after watching the evolution of SCA’s relationship with RMI, as that company became more and more effective in response to the community’s needs, I would suggest that grave risks would be associated with a wholesale change in management companies. For one thing, we have nearly 60 RMI employees serving us, and a provision in the management agreement prohibits Sun City Anthem from hiring or “otherwise engaging” any of those employees for six months after termination of the agreement, excepting only those who were employed by Del Webb Management Company and working in the Association when the original agreement with RMI was entered into. This means that we would lose almost all of the employees who currently work for us through RMI. In such a case, the disruptive effect on our Association would be incalculable."