Westerly Creek block captain Kristi McDonald was eager to begin all of her duties as new block captain. Duties include organizing the block party, forwarding SUN emails, attaining neighborhood watch signage, as well as many other tasks (I assume). McDonald proudly accepts the important position her peers have put her in, however, she is somewhat disappointed that the MCA doesn’t understand how key the Stapleton Block Captain position is. “The MCA only allots one security officer per block captain,” complained McDonald. “So, my 24 hour security is limited to the abilities of one man being able to protect me if someone wanted to take a shot at me. That seems pretty low. I mean, what does the President get?”
The Stapleton MCA budgets enough money through the year for each block captain to have one 24 hour security detail. “Of course, we would love to provide each block captain more security,” says MCA President Liza Kampstra. “But, we have a lot of other things going on with pools, and schools, and town centers. We just can’t afford to double or triple our budget for block captain security.” McDonald doesn’t think that is acceptable. “I think two would work, just because if one goes down, you have another one there,” said McDonald. “But now, if my guy falls asleep on the job, and someone wants to take me down, I am pretty much screwed.”
Kampstra says that the private security company, TSI, is a great company, and the security detail is highly competent. “These guys take their duties very seriously,” says Kampstra. “More importantly, we have never had a single incident in the 10 years of having block captains. No one has ever made a threat to a block captain, and there has never been any violence against them. So, at this point, extra security just isn’t warranted.” McDonald feels that Kampstra’s view is pretty reactionary. “What’s it going to take to have them realize we need more security?” asks Kampstra. “I think just one block captain getting sucker-punched is too many. What’s the MCA’s number? Five? Ten? Twenty? Hopefully, we will never find out, which is why as block captain, I will be pushing hard for more block captain security detail.” ]]>