Arizona ‘City’ With Escaped Llamas Isn’t Actually a Municipality
Sun "City," Arizona Tim Roberts Photography / Shutterstock.com
Sun City doesn’t have a mayor and there’s no local government. But there’s a Sheriff’s Posse and plenty of residents in orange safety vests.
It was hard not to be transfixed on live television or Internet livestream news coverage of Thursday’s escaped llama drama in suburban Phoenix. The locality where the captivating animal pursuit played out was Sun City, a master-planned retirement community of more than 35,000 people.
With a population of that size, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Sun City was actually a city.
But make no mistake: Sun City is in no way a municipality.
Sun City, which started out as six model homes on Jan. 1, 1960, has no mayor. There aren’t any councilmembers.
While there are recreation centers and even a Sun Cities history museum, there are no local government agencies. Sun City Inc. is largely self-governed.
According to Sun City’s history backgrounder on the community’s website:
The community remains unincorporated and has always depended on its own residents for required services. . . . Residents elect boards of directors to oversee the community’s leadership organizations—the Recreation Centers of Sun City, Inc. and the Sun City Home Owners Association. As other needs for services arose over the years, Sun City residents have been quick to organize and find solutions. The Sun City PRIDES keep the streets clean and tidy. The Sheriff’s Posse of Sun City helps the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office patrol the community’s streets and plays a major role in maintaining low crime rates.
Speaking of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Posse, the Feb. 25 cover story of the Sun City Independent newspaper has a story about a Posse recruitment meeting on March 3.
One can only hope that llama capture best practices will be discussed for future such incidents where Posse members are needed to be called to action at a moment’s notice.
Same goes for the 300 or so Sun City PRIDES, or Proud Residents Independently Donating Essential Services—“men and women clad in orange safety vests go about the business of sweeping, raking and disposing of tons of debris that accumulates on Sun City’s 210 miles of streets, parkways and medians.”
If you were watching live coverage of the llama chase and wondering where all the people wearing orange safety vests came from, it’s a safe bet that they were PRIDES members.