Log in

PORA task force calls on community

Advocacy is priority of organization

Posted 7/14/20

PORA officials formed a new task force June 24 to recruit members of the community who want to be involved with advocacy for Sun City West.

You must be a member to read this story.

Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.


Already have an account? Log in to continue.

Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here

Otherwise, follow the link below to join.

To Our Valued Readers –

Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.

For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.

Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.

Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.

Sincerely,
Charlene Bisson, Publisher, Independent Newsmedia

Please log in to continue

Log in
I am anchor

PORA task force calls on community

Advocacy is priority of organization

Posted

PORA officials formed a new task force June 24 to recruit members of the community who want to be involved with advocacy for Sun City West.

Chairman of the task force for the PORA Board of Directors is Larry Anderson, who met with the group June 30 to discuss goals and plans to get members of the community involved with the board and committees.

“PORA’s advocacy for Sun City West is both on a grand scale and a targeted scale,” said Cynthia Young, who handles media relations for PORA, 13815 Camino del Sol. “Creating a task force allows the board to reach out to a broader constituency and bring awareness of PORA’s dynamic role in the community. The task force members can spotlight all of the varied interests and involvements held by current board members and there are many activities and committees going on behind the scenes that are very interesting and exciting.”

Mr. Anderson said the best way to support the community is to be involved in the quasi-government of the community.

“This task force was formed to secure members for the board to wrap up the rest of the year, given the virus scenarios we have had to deal with not have seats filled,” he said. “We met and talked about what the responsibilities are for members of the board and figured out what we can do to find candidates to volunteer for the board.”

The task force is made up of five members, including board members Robert Miller and Kate King, as well as two people not affiliated with the board — Lyn Konstant and Barbara Horton.

“Lyn was a former board member and Barbara runs TORCH and has connections to them,” Mr. Anderson said. “We got those people involved because we felt they could outreach to try to and get candidates and have the access to people.”

The goal of the task force has two parts. The first is to fill the empty positions that currently exist and the second is to ensure when elections come around next March there are plenty of candidates, according to Mr. Anderson.

“We want to appoint two new members to finish off this year as we are currently working as a non-complete board,” he added.

Mr. Anderson said the task force addressed ensuring the community of Sun City West truly understands what PORA is.

“We are an unincorporated area; that means there is no city government or staff to address the needs of the community, so PORA is the entity that acts as the vehicle of community needs to address and resolve them,” he explained. “We do that with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and have a strong relationships with the Sun City Home Owners Association on mutual community concerns and we will provide a solid single voice on issues relative to Sun City West people. We have a growing relationship with local area school districts to help with community information.”

PORA also serves in other capacities.

“The real deal is doing responsibilities of managing affairs and accounts and establishing policies and the other duties, like dealing with committees and committee memberships, and between the two of those it takes a lot of time and our goal is to make sure board members know there is a time commitment they have to be aware of,” Mr. Anderson explained.

But, he said it can be tailored to fit the board members’ needs. The hope is community members who are remotely interested in filling the gap can learn what PORA does and fill in this time around, with plans to run for the next election if it is a fit.

“Another goal of the task force is to figure out how we can mentor or encourage people to serve as members of the board in the future and the best way is to become a member of the committee and see how it works,” Mr. Anderson said.

Qualifications for the board include becoming a member of PORA, have an interest and commitment to Sun City West and PORA, and willingness to commit time and energy. Mr. Anderson said the task force is looking for people who have a background working in other community aspects, such as churches or agencies in a leadership capacity; anything that can be helpful to PORA.

For community members interested in filling out an application or learning more, the PORA website, porascw.org/, is a resource to get the process started. Per the website, part of the application includes a summary of who each applicant is and why the board is something of interest.

Reporter Jennifer Jimenez can be reached at jjimenez@newszap.com or follow her on Twitter @SCW_Independent.