Every super knows how to get things done, either quietly or by a vote of the green committee or membership. Most know they are not going to take something to a vote unless its going to pass. Some have to deal with powerful presidents. Others can't blink without approval. Every situation is different.
Olympic is a huge bureaucratic mess. The club has something like 8,000 members. There are different types of memberships and many different committees. There are no equity memberships, thus no votes by the memberships on these type issues. Furthermore, and this is a huge problem, Olympic has a new president every year, 2 or 3 new board members - every year, 2 to 4 new green committee members - every year and a new chairman of the green committee every 4 years. So the lack of continuity is ripe for abuse and this is the problem.
So every year I would talk with the new president, board members and green committee members and explain we have to get rid of this architect. People come in and the super would say, we are using Bill Love as our architect and most just shrug their shoulders. Well WHO THE HELL is Bill Love, nobody ever asked the question and all just go with the flow. Nobody ever rocked the boat.
Another way he worked the system was in the course of the last few years, we hosted the US Junior Am and the US Amatuer. Now we have the US Open in 2012. The super has used those tournaments as reasons why we needed to do the work and in many instances, said it's what the USGA wants, especially the new tees.
So I don't know if I would say he was rogue, he just works the system to the max and took advantage of the structure. Lastly, I will say he is the nicest guy in the world, soft spoken and seemed to talk very quietly and calmly. It's just his work stinks.