The Issaquah Valley Senior Center Board of Directors announced at its Nov. 8 meeting that the city of Issaquah will be taking over the senior center beginning Jan. 1, 2017.

The board went into a surprise executive session at the public meeting’s scheduled start time, shutting out over a dozen seniors who had arrived to observe the meeting; the seniors waited around for 45 minutes before the board came out to give the announcement.

“We’re very concerned about this community and you know it,” began Judi Schrager, the board secretary, before revealing that the city would be running the center. This means that as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, Issaquah Valley Seniors will be dissolving.

In a letter to the board on Nov. 4, Martha Sassorossi, the city’s human services and social sustainability coordinator, stated that “IVS has failed to demonstrate 23 of 26 minimum standards for operation of a senior center via a 501(c)3 organization, which is a requirement of the lease.”

Although the city voted this past February not to continue providing funding to IVS, the city has continued to lease the senior center building to IVS for free, which includes the city paying utilities costs apart from the telephone bill.

Schrager stated that the material items at the senior center would be donated to various nonprofits, such as other senior centers, before the city comes in. She told the seniors that she didn’t know which items in particular this would include, but said “we’re not stripping it to the walls.”

The seniors surmised that this would include property such as books, puzzles, chairs, paintings and even the center’s piano.

“I see things missing everywhere … it seems to be giving all of that stuff away when it was for senior use. It’s not right,” senior center member Diane Setterholm told the board.

Schrager 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.”

“My problem is, I don’t believe the city,” Schrager said. “They are in control. Your mayor is not in control.”

“Do you feel you are representing the seniors when you are liquidating stuff?” Setterholm asked.

“You’re just hurting the seniors … the people you’re supposed to love and protect,” member Jeannette Hudson said.

When Setterholm asked Schrager if she planned on using the senior center after the city takes over, Schrager responded, “Hell, no.”

“There are other things I want to know, financials,” member Reva Turtel told the board.

“I just told you,” responded Schrager.

“You didn’t tell us how much [money] you have left,” Turtel said.

The board’s vice president, Carmen Llewelyn, said that first off, Issaquah Valley Seniors’ debts must be paid.

After that, “we don’t want to have any money left,” Schrager said.

The board suggested that if the seniors had personally donated items to the center, they could take them home for safekeeping and bring them back after Jan. 1. However, many of the seniors said they didn’t have adequate storage space at home, and didn’t understand why everything couldn’t be stored in one room in the center.

“[The seniors] donated [the items] for the seniors to use, not the board,” Setterholm told the Reporter after the meeting. “[The board] is not representing us. A lot of it is done behind closed doors.”

Hudson told the Reporter that the board would be getting rid of “everything in here” because “they’re mad at the mayor.”

“The membership would like a say where the items and assets are going to be distributed,” member Diane Woltz told the Reporter. “We just want to know that they’re not going someplace else.”

Upon hearing of the board’s statements concerning the city, Issaquah Mayor Fred Butler said that he was “disappointed in their allegations, both personally and against the city.”

“I have been very open and honest … and always acknowledged that IVS is the governing body [of the senior center],” Butler stated.

He brought up the fact that the city “attempted to meet a number of times since March” with the board, and had a joint meeting with the board in October to discuss the city’s “willingness for an orderly transition if [the board members] did not feel they could effectively provide a senior center.”

Butler said that the city is sending out an invitation to meet with the board again.

“We hope they can accept the invitation to see how we can cooperate and work together for the interests of seniors,” Butler said.