Editorial Policy for Election Season
From now until the election on Nov. 6, the Sun Newspapers will adhere to the following editorial policy for Letters to the Editor and guest editorials. Any letters or guest editorials that are political in nature, candidate endorsements or election related will be posted online, but they will not be published in the print editions. Letters and editorials will be posted online only after the author has been verified and under no circumstances should they contain any libelous statements. The Sun reserves the right to edit any submission. Editorial submissions should be limited to 400-500 words. Letters and editorial submissions can be sent to editor@sunnews.org for consideration. Alternatively, advertising for political content can be purchased by contacting Senior Account Executive Donna Leedy at donna@sunnews.org. Thank you.
Leisure World’s toxic lawn care
I live in Leisure World and am very concerned that our animals are being exposed to toxic pesticides that are being applied to our lawns.
Our dogs are getting sick. Symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, and severe allergic reactions are common among our four legged friends. My dog is only 5 years old and has permanent gallbladder and liver damage from the toxins. Additionally, when the gardeners spray while residents are in the area unprotected, we are being exposed to toxins as well. This practice introduces the potential for liability and puts our community at risk.
We have 16 mutual presidents making independent decisions about products for lawn care. When I walk my dog I have no way of knowing what has been used on the lawn. No spraying notification schedules are published and nothing is flagged. This needs to change. The mutual presidents should work together to develop a list of products to be used consistently from one mutual to another. Obviously, I would like the choices to be non-toxic since there are so many good options available today.
I would urge every Leisure World resident to contact your president to voice your support to move this process along. Let them know you do not want toxic pesticides used on our lawns. I trust the community will rally behind protecting our pets and ourselves from unnecessary harm.
Vicki Burdman
Seal Beach
Regarding McGaugh principal’s online post
Regarding the McGaugh Principal’s post on Facebook, I believe she has the right to free speech, as we all do. I don’t know how her Facebook posting became public knowledge, but it did. That said, I believe she was wrong to have put up the post.
As the Principal of an elementary school, one of her responsibilities is–or at least should be – modeling appropriate behavior. I see her statement as “bullying,” a pervasive problem both in our schools and our society. It is my opinion that the schools must stop bullyng behavior; it is the only hope we have to be able to develop a society that treats all people civilly.
For an elementary school principal to publicly display bullying is antithetical to what a principal should be doing to help form a civil environment in the schools and in society.
Susan Philips
Seal Beach
Hard work is not enough
I would like to respond to a Letter from former GRF Board Director, published on August 30. In the letter she described the work of Directors as a hard volunteers’ job without pay. Yes, hard work is necessary, but just as important is being smart about the work you are doing. I was very surprised, when Director, representing my Mutual 12, describing here hard work, reported that she attended for a year 133 meetings, and the next year she almost doubled the number. As a result of her “hardworking” were completely destroyed the Governing foundation of GRF – Policies, which for more than fifty years were carefully crafted and Amended, Rescind or Rewrite, when necessary. Now nobody even knows what is in the Policies, but it’s well fit in CEO’s uncontrolled spending agenda. Good illustration how it works will describe what happened on January 23, 2018 Board meeting.
The Agenda included request to approve spending $10,000 for “St. Andrews South, Landscape Architectural Services”. At the time of discussion Mutual 1 Director asked “Why there are no bids for $10,000 spending?” Vice-President’s immediately respond was “We don’t need 3 bids for contracts under $25,000.” I checked the related Policies and found that $10,000 spending projects require Bids. Of course the Board approved the request. Knowing that it is well protected by the “Yes” Board, the Administration continue to push projects without bids. Even a Paving project “Phase 3 (St. Andrews North)” of $982,920 awarded without required bids.
Another example. Finance Committee spent 20 hours (5 Special meetings) to read 700 pages of “2016 Reserve Study.” And when they finished reading in April, it became clear that Committee did unnecessary job – the Study should be approved at least 30 days prior to start of the fiscal year, and $25,000 were lost. When came to the Committee next, “2017 Reserve Study,” it became clear that Directors, volunteers did not receive needed training and even did not know about existence of California governing document “Reserve Study Guidelines for Homeowners Association Budgets,” but they were ready to review and approve the more than 15 million dollars spending document.
And one more example of “hardworking.” On July 26, 2016 Board meeting in Agenda was include Item “Rescind Policy 5023-30. GRF Department Organization Chart.”
In my comments at the beginning of the meeting I told (quote): “Your vote ‘Yes’ will complete transfer the power to control GRF Management Structure from the Board, as it should be, to CEO. Rescind Policy 5023-30 will Transfer the GRF Administration into Property Management Company and the CEO will decide which new Departments to add, which new Management Position should be created.” This will contradict ruling in 20 Court Cases, including California Court of Appeal, which cost shareholders/members more than 2 million dollars. When the Policy was at the table, one Board Director asked a question: “How GRF members will know Management structure, if the Policy will be Rescind?” The answer came immediately – “It will be on the Website.” It from beginning was clear that this is a misleading information, but it will work – the Board voted “Yes.”
Now Directors being itself concerned the way they are voting, and in Minutes appeared phrase “After brief discussion,” which means No discussion.
Mark Pogrebinsky
Leisure World
Beautifully written article
I just read your beautifully written article in the Sun News on suicide. You brought tears to my eyes. You are so brave to have written the article and I admire you for it.
We all have dark times (yes, even me!) and sometime, in all our lives, we need help.
I fervently hope this article will bring hope to those who read it and know “yes, I can get through this. I’ll talk to someone.”
Esther Kenyon
Thank you for the Crime Log
I wanted to thank the Sun newspaper for the new and improved crime log. I like how it has reverted back to the way it used to be. And, as an added bonus, I find the response time information to be very informative.
Sincerely,
David Kalish
Leisure World monthly assessment
In the course of six months, we have received two “friendly reminder” letters from GRF A/O for a missed payment. In each case, we went to A/O to find out which payment was missing and took our bank statement as proof that payment was in fact made. Checking with our Credit Union, payment was made on time, electronic transfer completed but check had not cleared. Same story each case.
How and why does this happen? GRF A/O was sorry and suggested that perhaps check was lost in mail. How do electronic checks get lost in mail? Who knows! However, what we do know is that our Credit Union made the payment on time, GRF is blameless and we have to pay the late fee.
Interesting that in all of our years of electronic payments through our Credit Union, there have only been two mistakes and those were with GRF. However, we now have stopped that payment process and will instead use “Direct Debit” authorizing GRF A/O to debit our checking account for future payments. Oh, and of course, we were required to sign a disclaimer that we hereby agree to hold GRF “blameless” for any errors commission or omission that may occur during the course of this transaction.
To date, we have paid two late fees and we don’t believe that was right. Are we just at their mercy?
Alice and David Goecke
Seal Beach
