Despite many months of turmoil and protests, the 1,200 members of the South County Senior Center still did not, at press time, have the right to vote for their board members, a fact which has drawn criticism from Edmonds politicians.
Two days before a scheduled vote which could grant the vote, on Aug. 18, Edmonds’ City Council pressured the board majority by threatening to modify, or revoke, the center’s expiring lease.
Officials want to keep a senior center on Edmonds’ waterfront, they said, but are not sure the current leadership should run it.
The current lease expires Jan. 1, 2009, and offers the center’s prized waterfront building to the center for a token $10 a year.
The current non-profit, South County Senior Center Incorporated, has operated the center since the center’s inception nearly 40 years ago.
“Either this non-profit gets its house in order, or somebody else is going to be operating this senior center in Edmonds,” said Councilmember Deanna Dawson, an executive director for Snohomish County who oversees the center as the director of county human services.
Others were equally harsh.
Councilmember Dave Orvis has little sympathy for the board majority, he said.
“I am willing, if necessary, to throw this non-profit out and bring a new non-profit in, and we will fund them,” Orvis said.
About 100 seniors attended the Aug. 18 city council meeting to listen to a planned discussion about the center and its lease, which was scheduled for an automatic November renewal.
The automatic part of that renewal now seems unlikely.
Councilmember Steve Bernheim criticized the center’s leadership for not paying its $10 annual rent, not filing annual financial reports with the city and for “inviting questions” about the satisfaction of the seniors it serves.
Since October 2007, seniors at the center have pressed for the right to vote. In October, popular executive director Farrell Fleming was dismissed without explanation.
Fleming has since been rehired as the executive director for Senior Services of Island County.
It is possible the vote will be granted soon. A proposal that would allow for a wider membership vote was scheduled for the Aug. 20 board meeting.
Nevertheless, it was unclear if the board’s dominant majority — derided by opponents as ‘the old guard’ — would attempt to block it.
For years, the board appointed its own members. But a lawsuit filed by seven members of the center in late 2007 forced a limited vote for board officers in March.
Since then, new board president Rose Cantwell, who was elected with 80 percent of the vote, has led an insurgent board minority against the stubborn majority.
Cantwell has acknowledged the difficulty in dealing with the majority.
“I think (past board president, and ‘old guard’ member Steve) Stout is trying to think of ways to keep the members from voting,” Cantwell said Aug. 18.
While politicians stressed that the future of a senior center is secure in Edmonds, the future of this senior center might be in question.
That’s something the senior center cannot ignore, said executive director Hallie Olson, who was hired in January. Olson does not sit on the board, and is not involved in the raging dispute, she said.
But she attended the Aug. 18 meeting, and heard the city’s criticism and the call for changes, Olson said.
She said the center pays whatever bills it gets invoices for, and has the financial documents Bernheim requested publicly, but the city has never requested them.
Still, the political problems are real ones, she said.
“This problem has festered for too long. It is time to resolve the business of the senior center,” Olson said Aug. 19. “The city made it very clear how they want this to proceed. It would be foolish to ignore that.”
Reporter Chris Fyall: 425-673-6525 or cfyall@heraldnet.com
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