The revelation that the city of Issaquah will be taking over the Issaquah Valley Senior Center on Jan. 1 was not the only eventful part of the IVS Board of Director’s Nov. 8 meeting; prior to the announcement, seniors found themselves shut out of what was supposed to be a public meeting.

Senior center board meetings are open to the public and are normally held at 1:45 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month. However, 15 or so seniors were told upon arrival at the senior center on Nov. 8 that there was no public meeting, and an executive session for just the board would be held instead.

After a few minutes and the arrival of reporters, the board told the gathered seniors that they would get an explanation after the executive session.

“We have some things we want to take care of,” Vice President Carmen Llewellyn told the waiting senior center members.

The seniors waited approximately 45 minutes for the executive session to end.

Many of the seniors, such as Reva Turtel, had arranged their schedules around the meeting, and were distressed to find out that the event around which they had planned their day was not to occur.

“I left my house at 9 a.m. to go to Seattle for a different meeting. I could’ve gone to lunch with friends, but instead I came here,” Turtel told the Reporter.

The waiting members noted that this was not the first time that a surprise executive session had stopped a scheduled public board meeting.

“There have been other times … sometimes they just decide they’re having an executive session,” Turtel said.

“We have things to ask them,” Jeannette Hudson said, but added that “they won’t have us in there because they know we’re mad.”

Agendas are not published ahead of meetings, seniors said. Turtel observed that “they never let us know what’s going on.”

This latest frustration with the board generated an outcry against senior center leadership, as seniors shared frustrations that have been building for years.

Many of the complaints centered around former Executive Director Courtney Jaren, who resigned at the beginning of September. Seniors had on previous occasions alleged that Jaren had treated them with rudeness and been unappreciative of their volunteer efforts.

“Courtney was telling [the board] what to do and they just went along with it,” Hudson said.

“People are unhappy,” David Kappler said. Though he is of the proper age and a citizen of Issaquah, the board has repeatedly denied Kappler membership to the senior center, he said.

Jaren’s current whereabouts are unknown, though seniors said that rumors have been circulating that place Jaren everywhere from Canada to still in Issaquah.

“I wouldn’t put it past one of the board members to still be in contact with her,” Turtel said.

Talk also turned to the board’s leadership.

“There are two rulers and the rest of them are sheep,” Diane Setterholm said. She reported that at a previous meeting, upon giving public comment, she had been “told I had two to three minutes and they [didn’t] have to answer my questions.”

The senior center has been experiencing troubles 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.

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, 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.

Hudson said that when Waggoner spoke at the council’s Services and Safety Committee meeting on Nov. 10, it was “the first time I had seen him happy and smiling” in years.