Questions for Leisure World Shareholders
If a developer was planning a 6,600 apartment community today, would the developer divide the community into 16 sections and make each section its own corporation?
Is there another community the size of Leisure World Seal Beach that is managed by 18 volunteers?
If the answer is no, why?
For the first 40 years of its existence, Leisure World had professional management as required by HUD.
Who decided it was better for Leisure World to be managed by volunteers? Was a study done to show that it is better to use volunteers versus professional managers?
Is it more cost effective and efficient to have volunteers manage a large community with a $22 million a year budget or would professionals do a better job? How would you find the answer to this question?
Do you know the difference in having an opinion about something vs having facts that support a position? If you think Leisure World is well managed, what facts do you have to support that position?
Is thinking that Leisure World is well managed the same as knowing that it is well managed? Where are the facts?
We shareholders are the owners of Leisure World. We should have the best management available for the money we are spending.
What can we do to assure that our money is spent wisely and our assets protected?
In 2008 the GRF Board lost a lawsuit and an appeal and $1.5 million of our money trying to avoid compliance with the Davis-Stirling Act which is a state law that requires more financial transparency than that Board was willing to provide to shareholders. Because they lost, this issue does not need to be re-litigated. The GRF Board must comply with the Davis-Stirling Act.
Shareholders need an evaluation of the Leisure World financial and management practices. Do they meet industry standards? This is not something that can be done by the GRF Board or management staff.
This can only be done by industry professionals who have both the experience and the expertise to compare our community to others and make recommendations for changes if warranted.
Ask your Mutual GRF Representative why such an evaluation has not been done and why they have not not asked for this to be done to assure that our management is the very best possible.
We deserve answers to these questions.
Anne Walshe
Leisure World
Reading suggestions for understanding LW
Thank you to the Sun News for letting the SUN SHINE on facts in Leisure World.
The Mark Pogrebinsky’s letter “budget overcharges its Leisure World residents” and Anne Walshe’s letter “church is forced out of Leisure World,” are very factual and on point.
There are two great books written by two separate authors that are very MUCH about what is going on and on in Leisure World.
The first book titled “1984 by George Orwell and written in 1949.
He writes that every individual would be monitored ceaselessly by means of the tele screen … “Big Brother is watching.”
This book sounds the alarm against the abusive nature of authoritarian governments and even more so for its penetrating analysis of the psychology of power and the ways that manipulations of language and history can be used as mechanism of control.
The second book is titled: “Recessional” written in 1994 by James A Michener. It centers on life in a fictional retirement home and hospice.
The book educates as it tells a series of interconnected stories that collectively paint a larger picture of life in the retirement industry, both from a business point of view and from that of the residents themselves as they seek meaning and companionship in the twilight of their lives.
The facts are that “Big Brother” in Leisure World includes the employees, the Sixteen (16) Mutual Corporations Board of Directors and the Golden Rain Board of Directors as well as their attorney or law firms.
But if we read LW Weekly there is an ad on the front page for Finbars Italian Restaurant which includes their menu. How can it be that Finbars is allowed to use Leisure World Clubhouse 1, but the Church is forced out of the Clubhouses?
And how much is Finbars paying to use that Clubhouse? When the Leisure World residents are being overcharged?
There is a saying: “giv’em a little bit of power and they feel power FULL.”
Perhaps this is what is happening with the “Big Brother” group in Leisure World.
Thanks again for allowing the facts out and letting the SUN SHINE on what is going on in Leisure World.
Carol Franz, Ph.D.
Leisure World
