so says Park Ridge Park District Board and Management.
Earlier this week, I received several calls and emails from Park Ridge Seniors telling me of a new set of rules Senior Center Members will be required to obey, lest be disciplined. To say those octogenarians were miffed, would be one hell of an understatement.
I went to the Park Ridge Senior Center, or as many of us now refer to the 100 S. Western building, the Wynn-Ryan/Biagi Cultural Center, and noticed the newly minted document prominently displayed in the front hallway.
This precious document…
Now, before you read this precious document, let me remind the reader of a couple things.
The Park Ridge Park District Board of Commissioners, first under Mary Wynn-Ryan and now under Rick Biagi, are the same Board of Commissioners who’ve publicly bemoan their failed attempts to come to any agreement with Seniors over the Kemnitz Trust Fund.
These are the same Board of Commissioners who publicly tell their Senior constituents and the press, that they want those same Seniors to stay and play at the newly renovated 100 S. Western building.
Now, with this document, the same Board of Commissioners, in my opinion, are displaying an irritating, irrationally unnecessary, personally diminishing and politically stupid Senior-targeted document, in an ill-advised attempt, in my opinion, to squelch free Senior Center Member expressions of dissatisfaction on public property, by intimidation.
After taking the picture displayed below, I went to the Community Center, South Park, the Ice Rink on Oakton and toured Maine Park Leisure Center while the Board was in closed session, and found no comparable document on display.
So that my readers are not confused by my usage of the word, let me define precious – “used for emphasis: used for emphasis to express irritation, dislike, contempt, bemusement, or some other strong emotion (informal).”
Newly Posted Park Ridge Senior Center Code of Conduct.
Talk about unnecessarily waving a red cape in front of an already angry bull.
Targeting seniors or any other group of citizens in this way is a travesty of pomp and circumstance equaling a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta . These buffoons have once again demonstrated their malicious contempt for the very seniors they purport to serve.
Additional Board Buffoonery
And notice this: “Violations if these or other non-posted rules, regulations, policies, or ordinances put forth” bla bla bla….
My friends, you just can’t make this stuff up!
How can a rule be put forth that has not been posted? Are these rules to be communicated by osmosis or channeling or crystal-ball gazing?
Next thing you know we’ll be seeing these!
And by the way, who’s standard will our overseers use to define unacceptable Senior behavior? Yours? Mine? Ms. Mountcastles? Or will they refer to some still secret mystical source?
NEXT
Board Meeting Tuesday 7/10/2012 The Kemnitz Matter.
I went to the Board meeting the other night. The subjects for the discussion were the Youth Campus and the Kemnitz Trust.
We don’t need no conflict resolution!
If there has ever been a time in the Kemnitz misadventure to resolve the problem and end the bloodletting, last Tuesday nights Board Meeting was it. The Board’s decision to return to the court with an intention to shanghai the Judge into the negotiating process, instead of manning-up and resolving the problem themselves, was another example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, something this Board is exceptionally good at.
| At one point in the discussion, Mr. O’Brien, moaning in disgust, told his fellow Commissioners to just let them go. At that moment, I was reminded of a scene in the Ten Commandments where Pentaur, (Henry Wilcoxon), commander of Ramses Legions, tells Pharaoh to let them (the Jews) go. |
The only character missing from their Cecil B. De Mille parody was:
The Senior Center/Kemnitz problem does not need conflict resolution or a judges intervention or Moses or the wisdom of Solomon.
| Senior Center/Kemnitz dilemma is a political problem. |
| It always was. |
| It needs a political solution! |
It’s time for the Park Ridge Park District to cease and desist! It’s time to make the seniors an offer they can’t refuse and move on!
Let the buffoonery end. My guts are splitting. Please! Please! I just can’t take this anymore!
Of course, it’s just my opinion.
16 comments:
It's a sad day when the people who should be setting an example of civil behavior -- and who certainly claim to be the last well-mannered generation -- have to be reminded not to be verbally abusive to staff, not to intimidate fellow Senior Center members, etc. People have had strong feelings about other programs, prices, etc. at other Park District facilities, but they've learned to express them in a way that doesn't violate others' freedoms to enjoy the faciity or do their jobs. You will find a similar, rather more brusque version of this code of conduct at the Community Center, where users are reminded not to swear, fight, or appear half-dressed. Nobody there is protesting to the blogs how ill-treated they feel by this sign. But of course, you and your kvetching confederates are special.
Hope when the pillory is installed at Hodges Park it does not block the view of the concert goer.
I wonder if the Code of Conduct applies to staff.
It has become known and is so documented in minutes of a city committee that Ms. Mountcastle erupted with language threatening to "lock the doors and keep the seniors out" if they did not do what she directed. 97-8 Suspend her from park properties for months.
In the many years Teresa managed the senior population, I heard only one story of a senior being exceptionally nasty. That person now serves on the Park Board. I heard that was simply addressed by his peers not welcoming his participation.
To the commenter who’s comment started: “To Anonymous 2:07 pm Mountcastle…”
Your comment was removed because I felt uncomfortable with its content, and I believed it was in this blogs interest and mine to do so. That said; I have copied the content and will investigate it for accuracy. Should I find your comment accurate, I will repost it, along with my findings.
If you have a problem with my action, or if you would like to further explain the remarks, you may contact me by entering another comment with your name and email address, and I will return the favor. Of course, I will not publish that note.
Ken
This new code of conduct is truly insulting to members of the Senior Center.
There is no code of conduct at Maine Park Leisure Center where the boys participating in the summer camp program are using the F-word freely and showing disrespect to their camp leaders in the hallways and at the front door.
All the other facilities that you checked out have no postings. This is truly a double standard. This is definitely pointed at anyone who might say something about the Park District and they're abominable behavior. Who are we kidding here. We may be old but we're not stupid.
Double standard? How about age discrimination, and isn't there a law against that?
Anon 7/12
11:08 a.m.
Civility in adults was innate in all where I was born and lived. Kids did, however, do some name calling. Adults did not find name calling necessary as you did starting out this discussion. Civility, as you lament, is lost here because of your word choice in your final statement was definitely name calling. If you were to discuss issues/policies it would be more effective. Your final expression of name calling was necessary?
Here's an idea: Look through the various blog entries and comments here, take note of the analogies made between unpaid elected officials who are your neighbors and various despots, crazoids and fiends of the past, and then say who are the champs of name-calling. Y'all could get a job on Limbaugh's foul and erroneous show.
You continue to repeat the untruths.Mountcastle did not say she would lock out the seniors or even the hostile sub-groups of same. When one of the ringleaders brought up the notion of another, "real senior center" made up of these subgroups, Mountcastle said that if there was another senior center someplace in town, let's lock the door on this one and go there -- meaning that the senior center as a group of users, not a facility, was not accurate. She never at any time threatened to close the senior center at 100 S. Western. And to your shame, you know it.
Anon 7/15 10:53
You certainly put a different spin on the statement. I was not present at the meeting at which the statement was made. I did hear the exact words from more than 4 people as well as the circumstances. Not as you spin. Were you there?
If it were not considered important or true, why would such a "falsehood" be reported at a Human Needs Task Force Committee meeting...April.
It came up again in the June 12 minutes because the chair was contacted to remove such from the minutes . Take a look. I did. The minutes were on the site last evening. Such is documented in the minutes as well as a reference from the CEO of Maine Center who expressed concern with the treatment of their clients who tried to use the Community Center, but were rudely treated and will not return. Was that the goal of the staff and administration? I hope residents are welcomed and accepted at Park buildings and public operations. Such minutes are published and available for you to read on the web site of the city. Could this be a trickle down effect of behavior exhibited by District leaders?
I printed the minutes of both the April and June minutes and I will provide to whoever wishes them, but you would have to reveal your name(s).
Ooooooooh.....great stuff ! Nothing like poking fun at self-aggrandizement air-heads to let out some of the air. Whew! What a show. Awesome! Keep poking and let all the air out.
10:53 am :
Someone really fed you a bill of goods.
Mountcastle did not threaten to close the senior center. But she DID threaten the Senior Senate, when they would not allow her to change THEIR By-laws, and try to run THEIR meeting. She was thanked for her opinion, but was told that she was just a guest at the meeting. THAT's when she got loud & angry and threatened the 15-20 Senate members that were present.
To: Anonymous - 10:53 AM
No, Mountcastle fed you a bill of goods and I was there and heard the whole thing. Just like the barrage of falsehoods that she told at the April 11th Park District Board Meeting. I stopped trying to count the lies she told about the Senior Center Senate that night, as they were too numerous to count. I'll spare you the details on that for another time.
And now the "truth" about that Senate meeting. The president of the Senate tried to read the minutes of the previous off-site meeting of the Senate, and the minute that she mentioned the name of Forest Miles (the attorney hired by the Senate to represent them in the Kemnitz lawsuit) Mountcastle told her that she couldn't read those minutes, as they were not valid, because a member of the Park District wasn't present at that meeting. Someone forgot to tell Mountcastle that the Senate had been having valid meetings for 30 years without a member of the Park District present and yes, she was a guest. I also find it very ironic that Mountcastle wanted to amend the Senate By-Laws, when at the April 11th Park Board meeting, she said they had never been in use or followed. Why then did she want to amend a useless, never followed document?? I'll tell you why. Because these never followed By-Laws stated that the Senate set the membership dues, entered into agreements, leaseholds and contracts, set programming, etc. and the Park District wanted to take all those powers away from the Senate and put themselves in control.
And please, let's stop with these fabrications. Mountcastle did say she would "shut you down and lock those doors in a minute". No one brought up anything about a senior center at another location. She was, without any question, talking about the building in which the meeting was taking place at that very minute. Which would lock out every member of the Senior Center. As Sandee, July 15th, 1:39 PM mentioned; this statement was found so egregious, that it was reported in the minutes of The Human Needs Task Force Meeting and then there were attempts to have it removed from the minutes. Now I wonder who tried to do that?
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