An Open Letter to the Residents of Sun City Anthem

As members of the New Tradition Team, we are sending this to David's Anthem Journal, Anthem Opinions, Anthem Today, and SCA View for publication on your respective blogs.

Thank you.

An Open Letter to Sun City Anthem

Residents

from

The New Tradition Team

As we enter a period that the ballots for the Sun City Anthem Board election will have been be mailed, we would like to make a few comments regarding our campaign.

For the past few of weeks, we have refused to lower ourselves to the tactics employed by a blogger who condemns all of us at each opportunity available to him.

His publications about us have been vicious, unkind, and untruthful; so much so, that the time has come to address that form of campaigning.

We have been asked so many times:

Are those allegations true?

Why aren't you fighting back?

Why are you taking such abuse?

Perhaps now is the time to answer those questions.

Let us start by saying that we believe that a senior community is supposed to care about one another, not berate others for the mere purpose of winning election to a homeowners association Board.

That is why we call ourselves "The New Tradition Team".

That "new tradition" encompasses a "new" attitude of peace, understanding, and an era of open communication where homeowners will be allowed to present their concerns and ideas in an atmosphere of listening and caring about those we would like to represent.

We believe that does not exist at the current time; that playing politics and using the most abusive forms of rhetoric, should not be characteristic of a retirement community; and certainly accomplishes little other than alienating its residents rather than bringing them together.

We might have differences with other candidates, but those differences should not affect a simple common goal, the betterment of a community in which all of us reside.

That "new tradition" in our minds should be a positive experience, one represented by likable and qualified people whose past is reflective of the future.

All five of us, Rana Goodman, Barry Goldstein, Karen Hadrick, Bill Odelson, and Larry Mayer, have pasts we are proud of, filled with relevant experience.

None of us have ever been accused of dishonesty or dirty political tricks in order to accomplish anything in our lives, yet because of a blogger whose past has been littered with so many things of which he accuses us, we are now being looked at in the lowest of terms by him and those individuals who judge us solely by his damning words, with a dark view of just about everything.

Four of us have had successful self-employed careers while another has had years of effective property management.

Barry Goldstein ?

Barry's knowledge of financial matters have proven he is an honest man, even to the extent of receiving abuse from some for literally saving Sun City Anthem from potential financial ruin through litigation while being on a Finance committee and discovering a former restaurant operator had not continued his liability coverage.  No one has ever accused him of dishonesty.

Rana Goodman ?

Rana is a Las Vegas pioneer. She's been here since she was a child.  Other than a successful business career, no one has given as much of her personal life to the betterment of Las Vegas seniors.  Her guardianship efforts changed Nevada laws that allow all of us to be relieved of the fear of being subjected to financial predators as we age.

That dedication to community service began with her parents who arrived from Europe in 1953 to a small western cowboy town named Las Vegas; parents who worked tirelessly to establish the first Jewish Temple in that city's history.  Rana's stories about her selling B'nai Brith girl's raffle tickets to casino leaders, are legendary.  She was President of another Las Vegas Homeowners Association for five years before relocating to Sun City Anthem in 2003.

Larry Mayer?

Larry's love of animals allowed him to make a career of it !

How ?

By successfully owning three pet shops in the Pittsburgh area competing with giants in that industry.

Larry was the only self-employed small businessman who was chosen by a Pennsylvania governmental commission to draft the Dog Laws in that state.  He employed many kids over his career who year after year, would return from their educations, and ask to get their part-time jobs back to help them pay their college expenses.

Bill Odelson?

Bill's perhaps the most "down to earth" and "savvy" businessman whose style makes him one of the most likable individuals you will ever meet.  There is no "BS" with Bill Odelson.

He's done it all in the food industry; was the President of a a Shopping Mall for 15 years representing the interests of business tenants, and has negotiated numerous leases along the way, ending his career as a small self-employed businessman for years until his retirement.

Karen Hadrick?

Want an audit?  Want an examination of line item expenses to ensure fiscal responsibility?  Need a person who knows how to vet something of importance or examine the details that many of us are "too busy" to do?

Karen's your person to do it.

It was Karen Hadrick's dedication as a Sun City Anthem resident who discovered the many "freebies" associated with a lease agreement with a former prospective tenant including a bankruptcy, that caused the individual to abandon his quest to receive a restaurant deal, a deal that ALL of the current Board members chose to ignore, AND continue their desire to offer the same "freebies" to any subsequent operator TO THIS DAY.

This is FULLY SUPPORTED BY THE OTHER CANDIDATES, without limiting any amount or time period from property owner funds.

We can go on and on, but let's end this with some information you have been given by a blogger that is UNTRUE.

First, we are NOT "Dick Arendt's Team".  Dick is just one of approximately 50 people on our campaign team.

All of us are our own people, and Dick Arendt is not an enemy of the community; he's a person who loves it without concern as to personal glory or health.

Dick's help has been invaluable with the Anthem Opinions blog.

Anthem Opinions has been the only avenue that has allowed our message to be conveyed to the community by referring all residents to ask honest and relevant questions of US, not him.

The New Tradition Team web site was established to hear honest answers to good questions, on which we can be judged in the future to our actions if elected.

Dick Arendt has never in any way told any of us to be dishonest, and has never condoned any act that would endanger the community.

Those who criticize him are those who do not know him. If any of you go outside the community, you would see how many individuals in the entertainment and political community, and news media, like and respect him for what he has brought Sun City Anthem, yet he never seeks any individual formal recognition as does another blogger.

He does not call or write intimidating emails to individuals as does the other blogger.

Without Anthem Opinions, no one in the community would be aware of so many issues that have cleverly been hidden by those in power over the years; and for that, we thank him, not condemn him.

We may not agree with him at times, but we respect him for what he represents, a desire for honesty and integrity he believes is lacking in many areas of our association.

He never receives any credit for his entertainment, history, Mr. Fix-It, tips, safety, gardening, or sports information, only being criticized by another blogger for bringing concerns to a community that  blogger refuses to disclose.

Secondly, we ask you to look closely at those who have endorsed us.

In all cases they are individuals who are or were members of the business, legal, and political community in which we served.

The endorsements you will see from the other candidates include no such endorsements.  All include those from the political system they have embraced year after year that have allowed Sun City Anthem to topple from being the #1 ranked Senior community in the nation to being completely eliminated from the Top 55 list by a national publication.

Finally, while another blogger constantly looks at our campaign negatively, none of his chosen candidates have done anything to make you aware of their positions other than defending the status quo through emails sent by their supporters who have done nothing other than defend actions they refuse to acknowledge have been the result of acts that the "system" they embrace, have committed.

Ask yourself, if their manner of operation was so perfect as they pretend it to be, would there be such dissension in our community?

Have any established a site in which you can ask questions?

No !

Have any of them them ever been self-employed?

No !

Have any of them done anything that would indicate their desires to service a community other than maintaining the status quo that the current administration has been responsible for that include but are not limited to:

Overbearing Compliance Regulations?

Secretive restaurant deals that would obligate homeowners to unforeseen expenses in the future?

Examining all operating expenses to ensure efficiency and financial responsibility ?

A contract with a C.O.O. that no one has any idea as to its duration or terms?

Allowing Legal Expenses to skyrocket?

Refusing to reconcile differences with the Foundation Assisting Seniors?

No !

Instead they justify these actions.

In conclusion, when you cast your election ballot, we ask all of you to look at the facts as they are, not in the manner in which the poison pen of a blogger who has now been proven to include disguising damning commentary in the name of others that has been authored by himself, and serves no purpose other than alienating so many of us in our community; a person who, in the past, has recommended others and he himself, have been named to the HOA Hall of Shame by a local TV broadcaster.

We further ask all of you to look carefully at damning emails that have been sent to residents by various former Board members and/or current Committee members who like the blogger, realize that our election would result in an examination of their activities, examinations that has long been needed.

These are the same individuals who created the problems we have made you aware of, never admit they exist, never admit they are responsible for them, and will continue to create them if allowed to do so.

What they all do is this:

Criticize any person who brings such issues to your attention, referring to them as "problems" to a community rather than embracing their concerns.

That attitude must and will stop, if we are elected.

This is perhaps the most vital election in the history of Sun City Anthem.

Why do we say that?

2019 represents a guide to any person who believes they can make a difference. 

If the past is allowed to continue, it will show any future honest efforts will be for naught.

Few if any will step forward to run for any office because they would realize that doing so and disagreeing with current leadership will bring them and their families undeserving ridicule and attacks on their character, and looked upon by others who have never met them with insult after insult.

And that is wrong, morally wrong, so wrong that it does not belong in a civilized senior society.

Is that to be the epitaph of Sun City Anthem ?  

Only you can decide.

Thank you for listening.

We promise that our high moral and ethical standards of campaigning will remain for one reason:

That's who we are!

Moral and ethical individuals without selfish motives who wish to restore "old honorable values" to a community on which our past personal and business lives have demonstrated, bringing a "New Tradition" of pride and recognition to the Las Vegas community and other senior communities in the entire country.

We humbly ask for your vote in order to allow us to keep our promises to you.

Rana Goodman

Karen Hadrick

Barry Goldstein

Larry Mayer

Bill Odelson

The New Tradition Team

Ballot Positions

1-3-8-9-10