<< Previous   of   Next >>

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Stories

• Seniors wrest vote pledge from center 2/8/08

CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Seniors make play for power

Court request and slate of officers in plan

By Chris Fyall
Enterprise editor

For eight years, retired schoolteacher Bob Jones has been active at the South County Senior Center.

Now, that activity level might take a big leap. After years directing the center’s Sound Singers choir, Jones might become president of the center’s board of directors.

Members of the center on Dec. 19 filed a request for judgment in Snohomish County Superior Court which would grant them the right to vote for the board’s officers, and they’ve said Jones — who has chaired committees for the state’s retired teachers union — would be their choice for president.

The suit also asks the center to release its membership list, which the center’s directors have failed to do for months.

If the seniors get the vote, they may also elect Merilyn Beck, also a Sound Singer, to the vice presidency, said Rose Cantwell, who has helped lead the fight for the vote.

“I would like the animosity between the membership and whatever board there is to be resolved as soon as possible,” Jones said Dec. 28. “I would like to see the center return to being operated in a friendly and lucrative manner.”

That might be a ways off.

The board scheduled a closed-door meeting for Jan. 3, after the Enterprise deadline, to discuss the myriad issues that have plagued the center for months, said interim co-executive director Jane Jones, who also sits on the board and is not related to Bob Jones.

An agenda for the meeting wasn’t available even to board members by press time. Jones said she didn’t know if the center’s attorney would be invited.

Members of the center have been in revolt since the board’s Oct. 17 decision to fire popular executive director Farrell Fleming, a move which still hasn’t been explained in public. During a meeting which preceded Fleming’s dismissal, members said they felt the issue had already been decided, but they were told to shut up by current board president John Wagner.

Since October, the membership’s pursuit of the vote has been blocked by the center’s board — which currently elects its own officers.

“This center was started by business people and people in the community,” Jane Jones said. “I don’t know if anybody cares about the history, but that’s why we are governed (by community leaders instead of the members).”

Business leaders add stability to the center, she said. They understand the responsibility of the position.

But, the seniors care more about the current state of the center than its history, membership leaders said.

The center needs officers who are more in tune with the membership itself, Cantwell said.

The membership’s officer slate also includes Madeline Hughes, who would stand for treasurer, and Evelyn Wellington, who would stand for secretary.

If Bob Jones were elected, he would like to see Fleming reinstated, he said. He’d also like to see fired program manager Kathy McNulty return to her post.

“The feasibility of those things? I have no idea,” said Bob Jones, noting that former board member Hallie Olson started serving as the center’s new executive director Jan. 1.

Fleming began serving as executive director of Senior Services of Island County on Jan. 1. (See related story).

“I just hope that everything can be resolved as soon as possible and in the right way,” he said.

Neither McNulty nor Fleming were available for comment. Olson has said she looks forward to starting, and meeting with whoever had issues with the center and wanted to meet with her.

If Bob Jones’ goal is to resolve the issues, though, he has an ally in Jane Jones, she said.

“We are trying to resolve the issues before us,” she said. “We don’t want to escalate this. We want to resolve everything. We always have.

“And we’re trying to resolve the issues. But, we’re also trying to run the center and take care of business. We need some time to work things out.”