Increased MTF of $18,000 for new buyers also coming next year

By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Wednesday, October 1 (3:00 p.m.): Even with a larger employee wage increase for 2026, a lower price for the Comcast cable/internet package than originally budgeted will help lower the RWC monthly coupon amount in 2026 ‒ $351.51 per month per manor, down $3.01 from $354.52 being paid monthly this year.

That coupon decrease was perhaps the key takeaway with the approval Thursday of a $28.1 million RWC 2026 operations budget. That number is slightly less than 1 percent lower than the 2025 operations budget.

The Board on Thursday also approved the 2026 Rossmoor Property Management (formerly MOD) budget at $12.24 million, about 4.4% higher than last year. As with the RWC operating budget, the RPM budget was refigured to include a 2.5% employee wage increase in 2026, instead of the previously approved 2% jump.

The lower RWC coupon amount was made possible by a few things. One of them was the RWC Board’s August move of the annual RWC Facility and Property Maintenance budget ‒ along with the current balance of about $486,000 in the Facility Maintenance Expense Operating Fund ‒ from the RWC operating fund to its capital fund. That maintenance budget covers projects that qualify more as repairs or general maintenance ‒ examples include slurry seal treatments on streets, painting or staining, utility maintenance and tree maintenance. Rossmoor General Manager Jeff Matheson said Thursday that these expenses more naturally qualify as capital expenses than as operating expenses.

Complementary to that move was an action approved on Thursday ‒ to raise the Membership Transfer Fee (MTF) from the current $13,500 to $18,000 starting in April. The Board also suggested and approved annual increases of $1,000 thereafter.

Money generated by the MTF, paid by first-time buyers of Rossmoor manors and functionally considered part of the price of buying into Rossmoor, pays for major capital projects in Rossmoor, including buildings, major infrastructure projects and significant equipment purchases. Raising the MTF is expected to help cover the estimated $850,000 from the above-described Facility and Property Maintenance budget.

Matheson said the $18,000 MTF and annual $1,000 increase should give Rossmoor not only enough capital funds to ensure all major capital projects over the next 10 years are sufficiently funded but also provide a cash cushion of at least $2 million every year.

Also contributing to the lower 2026 RWC coupon was the Board’s August vote to drop Rossmoor’s earthquake insurance, $5 million worth, from January 2026 through May 2027, saving Rossmoor $342,731.

The five largest individual department budgets for 2026 are, in order, Unallocated/General Services, Public Safety/Securitas, Custodial Services, Recreation and Golf courses. Of those, only two had higher budgets than a year ago: Public Safety (up 1.4%) and Recreation (up 6%).

Most of the specifics of the RWC and RPM 2026 budgets, departmental and overall, were hashed out at a two-day combined RWC Board and Finance Committee meeting Sept. 9 and 10, and in subsequent committee meetings. (View the minutes from that meeting at https://tinyurl.com/rwc-budget-min) That left discussion at Thursday’s meeting focused mostly on the MTF.

Some Board members had felt a jump to $18,000 was too much; Adrian Byram had originally suggested $16,000. Susan Hildreth, who said she favored the $16,500 fee proposed by the Finance Committee, was one of two Board members who voted against $18,000 (although she supported an annual $1,000 increase). Roy Yang also voted no, saying eliminating budget waste could recover significant cash, making a big MTF increase unnecessary.

Board members also concluded that “sales impact” and “sticker shock” of a one-time $18,000 MTF would have a smaller negative impact on Rossmoor homebuyers (and sellers) than the positive effects of a small-but-ongoing reduction in the monthly coupon. The $18,000 MTF, Board member Dwight Walker said, “will cover what we need to cover to reduce the coupon.”

Byram ended up backing the $18,000 jump. “We all spend $20,000 to $30,000 a year to live here,” given the RWC and RPM portions of the coupon and other costs, Byram said. An $18,000 MTF, he added, “isn’t that impactful.”

‘An important first impression’

The Board voted 8-1 Thursday to spend almost $16,000 to refurbish the Rossmoor “monument” directional sign at the corner of Tice Valley Boulevard and Rossmoor Parkway, the biggest change being to add the words “Walnut Creek” under Rossmoor.

That addition will reflect ongoing marketing efforts that have seen “Golden Rain Foundation” replaced by “Rossmoor Walnut Creek.”

The words “Walnut Creek,” Board member Janet Seldon said, are needed on the sign because the community part of the city of Walnut Creek and the two nearby areas are unincorporated parts of the county. Making it clear Rossmoor is in Walnut Creek, she said, “is useful information.”

Walker took it a step further, calling the specificity “essential.” “The connection with the City of Walnut Creek denotes ‘premier,’” he said.

Ted Bentley said a general “spiffing up” of the sign will help make “an important first impression” to potential new residents.

The “no” vote was cast by Byram, who didn’t think the expense was justified. “I just don’t think people really see that sign, quite frankly,” he said.

Rotary Club variance

The Board on Thursday opted not to act on a request by the Rossmoor Rotary Club to get a variance to the current Rossmoor club membership guidelines that limit non-resident membership in any club to 20%. Instead, the Board sent the request back for consideration by the RWC Policy Committee at its next meeting, in October.

Matheson, who noted current club membership is more than 80% Rossmoor residents, said the variance would allow more businesses to be members, a key aspect of many Rotary clubs. Rossmoor is home to only one non-RWC commercial operation (Creekside Grill and Bar) but works with many outside vendors. Perhaps a six-month variance, Susan Hildreth said, would allow time to develop a “broader approach to the issue.”

Rethinking Rossmoor’s websites

Board members praised a presentation Director of Communications Ann Peterson gave Thursday about efforts to upgrade the Rossmoor.com and MyRossmoor.com websites (see related story in this issue), concentrating on MyRossmoor, the residents’ website, which will undergo significant upgrades to make it more useful to Rossmoor residents.

Peterson had given a similar presentation three days earlier to the reconvened Marketing Task Force, whose members had urged making Rossmoor.com devoted entirely to marketing Rossmoor Walnut Creek to potential homebuyers and real estate agents.

“It’s a huge improvement over what we’ve got today,” Byram said.

The new and improved versions of both websites are expected to be rolled out in February.