The Developer has taken back the reins at two major entities in The Villages – the golf division and The Villages Daily Sun.
The Developer is once again the employer at the championship golf courses, after handing off that responsibility about a decade ago to Golf Management Solutions, a limited liability corporation formed by Ken and Timothy Creely.
GMS employees were reportedly told they would have to go through orientation to remain on the job. However, it is interesting to note “The Villages Golf & Country Club Team” is inviting job applications on golfthevillages.com for “a variety of positions available,” including “indoors, outdoors, front line, and behind the scenes” jobs.
The Villages Daily Sun
At a recent meeting at the The Villages Daily Sun, it was announced that the Developer was taking back the roughly 300 employees at the newspaper.
The Daily Sun employees were separated in 2012 into a private media management company, Villages Media Management Inc., headed by longtime Daily Sun Publisher Philip J. Markward. He served as the employer of the workers who produced the newspaper, while Mark Morse, Jennifer Parr and Tracy Mathews continued to own the newspaper’s masthead and printing press.
At the recent Daily Sun announcement, employees were reportedly reassured that “nothing would change.” The meeting was said to have been attended by Kelsea Morse Manly, Villages director of operations and daughter of Mark Morse, and Ryan McCabe, operations manager for The Villages and husband of Paige Boone McCabe, daughter of Jennifer Parr.
The reason for the Developer’s decision to take back direct control over the newspaper’s employees is not clear, but this year for the first time, the Daily Sun’s publisher’s statement showed a dip in circulation.
The newspaper is also involved in the criminal prosecution of a former circulation department employee accused of theft. The former employee’s attorney recently won a significant legal battle, and a judge has ordered the Daily Sun to turn over her personnel file as well as subscription information dating back to 2015.
You can read the judge’s order at this link: Villages Media Court Order
