Dear Editor
Our vote is the only way we can stop the Rossmoor Community Service District’s deceptive and authoritarian approach to governing that has been a hallmark of the service district under the revolving leadership of Tony DeMarco, Michael Maynard, and Jeffrey Barke.
A glaring example of DeMarco’s poor leadership and subterfuge played out when he steamrolled over previous commitments for capital improvements at Rossmoor Park dating back to 2019 and 2020 (canopy and playground) and gave Pickleball priority, placing it steps away from homes in a small neighborhood park, against all sound reasoning.
First and foremost, at public hearings, the community was told for months that PB courts would be built with state grant money. There was never any grant money – in fact, PB was never even budgeted for – but DeMarco, along with Maynard & Barke, broke their promise to the community and voted to proceed with PB anyway.
Director DeMarco, displaying a stunning lack of due diligence, determined that noise, traffic and congestion weren’t a problem because he didn’t personally witness problems to that effect. In fact, there were many factors to consider regarding impact to the community; parking/traffic/safety along Hedwig/Foster, which sees 6,000 vehicles a day; no measuring of days/hours of peak play, number of players, resident vs nonresident activity, walk-ons vs paid, and any sort of concrete financial analysis.
The board did hire a sound consultant, but because the consultant’s study was limited to a single snapshot in time, and the “sound study” did not provide full data as to decibel levels – no doubt because the RCSD didn’t want to pay for a more thorough study – the RCSD purchased a $50 decibel reader from Staples and had an untrained park employee record the decibel level of PB at various times, declaring, in technical speak, “It’s hard to measure, but it’s not that loud.”
Director DeMarco then VOTED TO RESURFACE THE BASKETBALL AND TENNIS COURTS 2 – 4 YEARS EARLIER THAN NECESSARY because it was the only way they could paint the surface of PB courts under the guise of “doing it all at once.”
The deception continued when the Budget Committee, chaired by DeMarco & Maynard, created a $50,000 budget allocation out of thin air a few weeks before the PB vote, ultimately spending almost twice that, and all without effective sound mitigation.
DeMarco refused to recognize that dozens of PB courts are within a 2-mile radius, but, rather, because a minority of Rossmoor residents were too burdened to travel 1 or 2 miles outside of Rossmoor, he felt placing PB, literally, just steps from homes was warranted – despite every reputable sound consultant’s advice that residential homes should be no closer than 300 to 500 feet from PB. Director DeMarco compared his vision of Rossmoor Park to Lexington Park in Cypress, which has a parking lot with 244 parking spots, while Rossmoor Park has no parking lot at all.
DeMarco invited neighbors around the park to voice their complaints as the only way they’ll know if PB is intrusive, and then when dozens of complaints came pouring in, DeMarco decided they were irrelevant because a lot of them were from the same people (as in the park neighbors and tennis players using the courts).
Director DeMarco ignored the advice of a local real estate economist who said homes that close to PB courts could result in loss of value, saying he just didn’t believe it.
This has never been about whether PB is a fun, family-friendly, healthy sport. Everyone agrees it is. It’s about responsible leadership, transparency, and commitment to the community as a whole. PB never belonged in a small residential park so close to homes, and every bit of objective data from across the country made that clear to Directors DeMarco, Maynard & Barke, and they did not care.
Although this comment focused mostly on Rossmoor Park and PB, it is emblematic of irresponsibility that may affect other areas of RCSD’s supervision and, hence, affects potentially many other Rossmoor residents in the future.
Respectfully,
Michele Fieldson
Rossmoor
