The Case of the Disappearing Villa Neighborhood Reserves

Ron, it’s time I offered a sincere “Thank You” from the Villa home owners. Many people in Sun City Anthem do not understand what happened to The Villa home owners, and what all the fuss is about. Some don’t seem to care, even though we are all neighbors. A few people (like David Berman), have even called us “complainers”, and labeled us unfairly.

Speaking for The Villa Home Owners, this whole mess has been an ordeal that NO person living here in Sun City Anthem should have to bear. The fact that we are only 162 in number should not give license to those few people who criticize, especially those who could have prevented this sordid event from even happening.
You have demonstrated that you care for every citizen living in Sun City Anthem, and that you have the integrity to seek out the facts, and publish the truth. Your articles on construction problems, and other things we all face living here, are proof of your commitment to make things a little better for Sun City Anthem residents, and we all owe you a debt of gratitude.

As for The Villa Owners, all I can offer is a “thank you”. Thank you for digging out the facts, and for having the dedication to publishing the truth. I can not even offer you a FREE DINNER AT GREEN VALLEY RANCH, but please know that a lot of people are very grateful to you. You are the type of person that makes Sun City Anthem a great place to live.

Norman McCullough
Spokesman For The Villa Home Owners
In Sun City Anthem

Here is yet another curious fact. Favil West (the previous board president) and Kay Dwyer (a sitting member of the current board), both said they consulted with an attorney before signing “The Villa Agreement” that limited the Villa owners funds. The funds were so limited that the Villas could not all be painted this year as called for in the reserve studies of 2000 and 2006. That’s called “deferred maintenance” in reserve jargon.

Now Kay Dwyer refuses to name this mysterious attorney. We know she and Favil did not consult the association’s attorney John Leach, so why do you suppose she will not divulge the name of the attorney she claims to have consulted?

Imagine how embarrassed the board members would be if there actually WAS NO SUCH ATTORNEY! Some thing to ponder about?

Here is another curious fact for the readers to consider. I happened to “Google” the address of Diversified Facility Services (the reserve study specialist that the association has charged with the responsibility of our entire multi-million dollar reserve study).

As it turns out, DFS is a “home business” conducted from a residence in Laguna Niguel, California. The address of DFS (23971 Frigate Drive- 92677), indicates it is smack in the center of a subdivision similar to our own beautiful area.

Not that there is any thing wrong with that. I’m almost positive that DFS has all the necessary licenses and permits, but it is very curious that the board of directors would choose to hire a “home business” from California to handle the extremely complicated reserve study for SCA. After all, it now has come to light that the 2006 reserve study (neighborhood section), has a few “errors” in it according to the task force that is currently conducting the “look back” needed. It makes me wonder if there are any other “errors” in the section dedicated to the association’s reserves.

The board could have chosen a local firm (or at least one in Nevada), to do our reserve study, but they instead chose DFS in California. I wonder if they took bids, or reviewed the qualifications of any other Reserve Study Company when they made their choice? Anybody know?

Let me preface this statement by saying that although I have been in one business or another of my own most of my adult life, when it comes to heavy duty finances such as this, I hire experts. I assume that is why the State mandates certification is needed to do these reserves. However, I tend to be a very logical person and logic tells me that “a new broom sweeps clean”. Logic also tells me that you cannot get correct numbers when you are starting out with an incorrect base. Does anyone who has been working on this study or this “look back” study know for a fact that the starting figures given us by Del Webb were correct? I question how, with all due respect to the people involved, how anyone can be handed their own work and be asked to review it and find errors or omissions. What if they do find some, and don’t want to admit there were any, they have been put in a very uncomfortable position? Why wasn’t a NEW company chosen that would start from scratch?
I have no doubt, had that been the case, you would have seen a much better attitude from the residents of the Villas, possibly even an agreement to abide by those findings of THAT FRESH look back study. EVEYONE would have to agree it would not, and could not have been tainted by anyone, since it was being done by an outside source with nothing to hide, nothing to gain and certainly nothing to cover up. Wouldn’t this have been the LOGICAL SOLUTION?