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Sun City Center – Question: When is an election involving several candidates not a competition but still a hot ballot?
Answer: When three possible directors have declared for three seats on the community association board and there’s money at stake.
This is the situation here as the annual CA directors election approaches on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, November 30, December1, and 2. In keeping with rotation of the three-year terms, three seats at the helm of the SCC CA are open for filling either by either newcomers or incumbents
Two directors — Howie Griffin and Patrick Long — are stepping down.
Two newcomers — Chuck Collett and Martin Hurwitz — are interested in stepping into their slots. A third — Ann Marie Leblanc — is seeking re-election to a second term. Without any additional competition for the seats, the three are shoo-ins.
However, the ballot presented to CA members during the three election days also contains a money issue – whether to increase annual dues by four dollars; from $252 to $256 for 2010, putting $1 of the increase into a hurricane insurance fund as protection against future storm losses to community association properties.
As association members consider the proposed dues hike – a matter that has generated strong sentiments in the past – the three candidates stand ready to apply their expertise and experience to managing the CA’s business.
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| Collett |
Chuck Collett
Collett brings to the directors’ table both specific legal expertise and experience in operating a $22 million business enterprise. Before relocating to SCC as a full-time resident in 2008, he was a practicing lawyer there for many years, including eight years as a county attorney dealing with legislative, land use and zoning issues.
It was as part of his private practice that he became involved in a case related to the sale of boat slips in marinas, he said, and then recognized the feasibility of such commercial endeavors. Ultimately, he formed and managed for 10 years his own enterprise that had some 300 employees, owned slips in seven marinas and annually grossed as much as $22 million. He did not, however, own a boat. “I knew too many other people who did,” he noted.
Collett’s experience also includes service on a community association board in a 4,500-home development in Pennsylvania.
Looking ahead from the SCC perspective, he observed “these are challenging times, dynamic times” in which many residents have sustained financial losses, the developer, WCI, is in the process of withdrawing from the community and, simultaneously, serious issues such as beautification maintenance and a closed golf course confront the community. It is such challenges that prompted him to seek a board seat, he added. “I believe a number of good things can come out of looking at different ways to deal with the issues,” he asserted, “my skill sets include the ability to ask the right questions, I’m only 65 and I plan to be here a long time.”
He and his wife, Kristine, live on the south side of the community.
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| Hurwitz |
Martin Hurwitz
A native Floridian, reared in Miami, Hurwitz’ career has spanned both extensive military service and work in the public sector. In all situations, his expertise has been in managing the numbers – big numbers.
He initially joined the U.S. Army as a young man just out of college, served a tour and then mustered out. Recognizing his facility in accounting, he completed the education necessary for the C.P.A. designation and was licensed in Florida. He also was recruited by the Army – again. This time, he would spend 20 years in uniform, rising to the rank of lt. colonel. “Lt. colonels do all the work, you know,” he noted with a chuckle.
And part of that work was in the Pentagon where, as an army financial program director, he developed and executed a $1.4 billion budget related to daily, world-wide operations of his chosen military branch. Before assignment to Washington, Hurwitz was a missile battalion commander responsible for housing, feeding and training 800 soldiers as well as an installation comptroller overseeing the finances of the military’s version of a small city.
Upon retirement, he joined the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, eventually in charge, with the help of a 30-person staff, of accounting, budgeting, purchasing and payroll for the $100 million, 2,000-person law enforcement agency. It became a 15-year commitment.
Hurwitz and his wife, Sandra, settled into SCC four years ago on the north side and he has volunteered for a wide range of community service from the security patrol to community planning to his property owners’ association to the Jewish Congregation of SCC.
As a CA director, Hurwitz said he wants to establish that the organization budget is complete and reflects accurately how funds are being spent. Describing himself as a “traditionalist,” he also indicated his approach to problem solving involves analyzing the issue, assessing the options, creating and then implementing a plan aimed at resolution.
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| Leblanc |
Ann Marie Leblanc
A native of Michigan, Leblanc as an incumbent director and current board vice president offers the learning experiences of a first term as well as a lifetime of dealing equitably with many different personalities both in business and at home.
After obtaining a degree in English and journalism, she taught those subjects on the high school level before marrying and beginning a family. She had two children of her own and then, upon marrying a second time, gained eight more to create a blended family of 10. Those 10 have produced 22 grandchildren and two great grands, at this point, she said. “We’ve had as many as 60 members of the family around the pool here at one time.” Leblanc added.
The incumbent director also honed the skills of compromise and conciliation in the world of commerce, working for some years as a customer relations manager with a large travel company whose business included providing charter passenger aircraft. When a plane was supposed to be in one location but was late and then could not get back to an earlier destination on time, passengers at both ends could become unhappy, producing plenty of ruffled feathers to be smoothed, she said. “I had opportunities to use my communications skills,” she added.
She and husband, Ray, relocated to SCC eight years ago, after being advised she would not like the community. At home in the Caloosa area on the north side, they have no regrets, she indicated.
In her second term, she said, she will focus on planning the community’s year-long 50th anniversary celebration set to kick off in May, 2011, as SCC embarks on its second half century. And there’s the yet unresolved suggestion of “dual memberships” in the CA that would allow retirees from other nearby communities participation in community features which she took up early in her first term. It’s a contentious issue, she acknowledged, but the overriding objective has to be “whatever is best for this community.”
Ballots for CA members will be available in the Atrium during morning hours on November 30 and December 1. The election continues throughout the day on December 2 in Community Hall.
© 2009 Melody Jameson
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