by Jay Root — posted May 21, 2013

INDIO, Calif. — The slick brochure advertising homes in the Sun City Shadow Hills neighborhood near Palm Springs has escapist senior fantasy written all over it.

“Get Ready For The Next Great Chapter Of Your Life,” it says.

On the cover, a lush green expanse of golf course fairway cuts through two shimmering lakes and ends at what looks like a Spanish village, where uniform clay roofs sit on top of white building facades, offering a perfect color transition between the Bermuda grass in the foreground and the desert mountain landscape behind it.

But there is trouble beneath the utopic veneer: Many of the 55-and-up “active adults” who live here have become disillusioned with the homeowners association and the property managers who run it. They worry about how their nearly $9 million in annual dues money is being spent, complain about financial conflicts of interest, and say they collectively are getting gouged by fees and fines without the kind of transparency.  Read more