After over a year of legal battles and tension between the Issaquah Valley Senior Center Board of Directors and the city of Issaquah, the board revealed at the Sept. 13 meeting that Issaquah Valley Senior Center Executive Director Courtney Jaren has resigned.
At first, the board had stated that it would not comment on Jaren’s absence until the Oct. 4 meeting. The room was filled with concerned senior citizens observing the meeting, some of whom asked during public comments what had become of the executive director.
“I understand we no longer have an executive director,” Jack Wishhart said, asking the board for an explanation.
“We’ll discuss that later … at the next board meeting,” Board President Craig Hansen responded.
“Why not today?” Wishhart asked. His question fell on deaf ears.
Others concurred with Wishhart.
“I would like to know what happened to Courtney,” Jeanette Hudson said. “But I know you’re not going to answer.”
At the end of the meeting, Vice President Carmen Llewellyn gave a one-sentence statement as to Jaren’s situation.
“She resigned, and we don’t know anything about that,” Llewellyn said.
It appears that existing without a director may have consequences. In the center’s October newsletter, it was announced that all activities would be cancelled between Monday, Sept. 26 and Wednesday, Oct. 5.
According to the senior center’s lease agreement with the city, the senior center is allowed to use the building for free if it provides a full-service senior center for citizens.
At the same board meeting, the board decided it would meet with the city to discuss senior services. Although the Issaquah City Council had voted in February not to continue funding the senior center itself, the city says it has been committed to continuing to aid local seniors.
“City staff are working to prepare recommendations for 2017 programs and support for seniors in the community,” Assistant to the City Administrator Autumn Monahan told the Reporter at the end of August.
Monahan said that the city has reached out to the senior center at least seven times this year, but has not always received a direct response.
“In three instances the city has made requests to IVS to meet to discuss services and interests in ensuring the provision of quality services for Issaquah’s seniors … Based on a communication from your board representative, Ms. Lewellyn, the IVS refused to meet,” City Administrator Bob Harrison said in the Sept. 13 letter that was read at the meeting.
Harrison was referring to an email sent to the city on Sept. 2 by Llewellyn.
“Since the city refused all funding to the center, we have no obligation to meet with your team,” Llewellyn stated in the email. “None of the dates you suggested are agreeable.”
Harrison stated in his Sept. 13 letter that the “lease may be terminated by the city of Issaquah if the leesee fails to operate a senior center.”
“By way of this letter, the city is formally requesting a review of IVS records and a meeting with the board to determine if the IVS is meeting its obligations under the lease with the city of Issaquah. We are requesting this meeting no later than September 20, 2016.”
Harrison also said that a city representative wanted to arrange for an “inspection of the premises” by Sept. 16, noting that “the city reserves a right of entry to the facility.”
The board debated at the meeting whether to answer the letter and agree to a meeting by Sept. 20.
Issaquah resident Kate Kaluzny told the board that not complying with the city “will get you evicted.”
“You just stuck your thumb in the eye of the city. You didn’t answer their letter,” she said.
Hansen told her to stop talking because it was not time for public comment.
However, board member Judi Schrager said that a meeting was necessary.
“They’ve asked for a meeting three times,” she said. “I think it’s time we met with them.”
The board decided to hold an executive session on Sept. 16 to discuss this further.
On Sept. 16, Hansen and Llewellyn sent the city a reply saying that they were “unable to schedule a meeting … at this time as we are currently preparing for our annual Salmon Days Fund Raiser.” They said that they would speak to the city about a meeting after Salmon Days.
Hansen and Llewellyn stated in the letter that the reason they had not agreed to a meeting in the Sept. 2 email was because “there was no indication as to the reason for the meeting.
“Ms. Llewellyn assumed that the reason for the meeting was to establish a transition team,” they wrote. “The Senior Center has no plans to close.”
The letter also told city staffers that they were “welcome to come to the Senior Center at any time for your ‘inspection.'”
Schrager told the Reporter that regardless of any past or present conflict, the senior center remains dedicated to ensuring the welfare of Issaquah’s senior citizens.
“This is not about the board, this is not about the city, this is about serving our seniors,” Schrager said.
The senior center has been the center of local drama since early 2015, when the board issued no-trespass orders against David Waggoner and Regina Poirier on allegations of harassment and elder abuse. Supporters of Waggoner and Poirier said that this had only been done because the two had spoken up and questioned the senior center’s management of finances.
Poirier told the Issaquah City Council in October 2015 that she had been trespassed because the information she “turned up would disqualify this organization from being a tax-exempt nonprofit.”
Resident and former City Councilmember David Kappler, who said he has been twice refused senior center membership despite being the correct age and living in Issaquah, called the no-trespass orders ridiculous, noting that Waggoner and Poirier “are great people who always have the community’s interests at heart.”
Furthermore, he noted, if there really was harassment, then, “Why was it not reported to the state in a timely manner?”
Tension reached a boiling point when Jaren and members of the board sent out a newsletter in June 2015 that spoke of a “conspiracy” against center leadership and accused a group of seniors of a host of villainous acts, including bullying one senior to death. This resulted in defamation lawsuits that are ongoing against the board and Jaren by a group of seniors.
The Issaquah City Council got involved in autumn 2015, when it began questioning whether to continue funding the center. The council voted in December 2015 to continue, provided the senior center adhered to a list of regulations, including lifting the no-trespass orders and allowing an audit by June 30, 2016.
However, the council ultimately revoked this decision and terminated the city’s contract with the senior center on Feb. 1, 2016, after finding that the board had proven it had a desire to “eliminate accountability and transparency,” Councilmember Paul Winterstein stated at the Feb. 1 council meeting.