Issaquah Valley Senior Center member David Kappler filed a temporary restraining order on behalf of all senior center members against IVS Board President Craig Hansen and Vice President Carmen Llewellyn on Friday.
Hansen and Llewellyn are scheduled to appear in court for a hearing on Dec. 23 at the King County Superior Court in Seattle.
Kappler, who is a former Issaquah City Councilmember, said that he and the other senior center members chose to serve Hansen and Llewellyn the order to force them to comply with state law as IVS prepares to dissolve at the end of the year. The seniors hope to ensure that a meeting of the general membership is held and to prevent the board from getting rid of material items that belong to the senior center.
“State law requires a meeting of the general membership before dissolution,” Kappler stated. “Unfortunately, the board members have chosen not to follow the state law or their own bylaws.”
On Nov. 21, over 55 seniors signed a petition to hold a meeting of the general membership to discuss what will become of the senior center’s material assets before the city of Issaquah takes over on Jan. 3.
According to IVS bylaws, a meeting of the general membership must be held if requested by 20 senior center members. However, seniors reported that when they presented the board members with the petition on Nov. 22, the board refused to agree to a meeting.
At the last regular IVS board meeting on Nov. 8, after announcing that the city would be taking over the senior center at the beginning of 2017, the board members told the gathered seniors that they intended to donate the senior center’s items to other senior centers and nonprofits in the area before the city takes control.
“The things that belong to this center are being donated,” board secretary Judi Schrager told the seniors at the meeting. She said that the board did not want to leave the items for the city “knowing that the city has behaved in the manner in which it has behaved, including lying to us often.”
The gathered seniors, many of whom had personally donated items to the center, such as paintings, furniture and books, expressed outrage at the fact that the property would not be left for the seniors.
“I see things missing everywhere … it seems [they are] giving all of that stuff away when it was for senior use. It’s not right,” senior center member Diane Setterholm told the board.
Kappler told the Reporter on Friday that he feels the board is liquidating all of the assets “out of spite.”
“It’s to spite the city, to spite people like myself who have questioned them,” he stated.
He said that the seniors are especially worried about the senior center’s van, baby grand piano and pool table. The van is important to the seniors, he said, because it can hold up to 14 people and is built to accommodate people with limited mobility.
According to Kappler, the board already sold the senior center’s other van earlier this year, and more recently, sold the senior center’s grandfather clock, an action that he said “upset many people.”
“People felt that things they had donated to the center had disappeared … [seniors] are concerned they won’t be there to be enjoyed by the membership,” he said.
According to RCW 24.03.230, an organization with voting members must come up with a plan of distribution of assets before dissolving. Kappler hopes that the court will order Hansen, Llewellyn and the other board members to adhere to this law.
“The intent [behind the temporary restraining order] is to get them to follow state law and retain those assets,” Kappler said. “They have a duty [to retain them] and out of spite are refusing to do so.”
Kappler said that he just wants to “have this whole thing go away quickly so they’re doing their job.”
“Hopefully the court will tell them to retain the assets and go through the bylaws and state law process in dissolving nonprofits,” Kappler stated.
Hansen and Llewellyn could not be reached for immediate comment.
