Backroom shenanigans?

For those of you new to blogging, there are two primary components to any blog.  The first component is the blog post itself; that's what you're reading now.  The second, are the comments; the story around or within the story.

Interesting Comments

My last blog, The End of a perfectly good relationship…., has generated an interesting series of comments.  It appears, based on one anonymous source, there is the possibility of PRPD backroom shenanigans.

If you don’t succeed try, try chutzpa.

To add more credence to this “possibility”, I have just now learned of PRPD’s intent to place a copy of their resolution at the Senior Center, with, I believe, the shamefully clear intent of manipulating, confusing and sowing discord and doubt among Park Ridge Senior Center’s most elderly members. 

It seems Chicago style politics is now in vogue right here in little old Park Ridge. 

In my opinion, the Park Ridge Park District Board wanted their “Clubhouse” back but were too cowardly to go after it in plain sight – that is, through the correct and legal use of their vote at a Board Meeting.  Instead, I believe, these covert-acting representatives of Park Ridge-values are attempting to stress the seniors into capitulating to their demands. 

PRPD’s Board clearly wants Senior Center Members to believe they have not been well served by Senior Center Leadership, and that Senior Center Members would be better served by a manipulative Park Board, under current Board leadership and its resolution.   See pages: 21…23.

How silly!  How shameful!  How pathetic!  How wrong!

Of course, PRPD has the right to post anything it wants within that building; they own it. 

What should Senior Center do next? 

To my Senior Center friends, I suggest we all remain calm.  

Pass by the resolution should it be posted.  Read every word.  Ask yourselves this; is there anything in the resolution to force this Board or any future Board to unconditionally keep their commitment to you.   That is what a CONTRACT does.

That guarantee is what is missing and that is what this fight is all about!

Comment in writing, sign your name and leave it in the suggestion box.  

When you see these members on the street, be polite and as respectful as you’ve always been, but tell them what you think.  

So you might easily recognize them, I have included their picture, name and title below.

Jim O'Brien, President	Rick Biagi, Vice President	David Herman, Treasurer
Richard Brandt, Member	Marty Maloney, Member	Mary Wynn Ryan, Member

This act of attempted senior citizen manipulation is unprecedented (by Park Ridge standards) and unacceptable.

The Park Ridge Park District Board has only themselves to blame for this situation. 

The Boards representatives negotiated a contract.  The board needs to vote up or down on that document; nothing less will do.

Those interesting comments in order….

Anonymous said...

“I have heard from people at the Park District that some reasonable Seniors have begun meeting with the Park District in unofficial meetings to work within the resolution that was passed, and are supportive of it. These are Seniors that want a solution and no longer wish to be represented by people who cannot reach an agreement due to pride and vanity. Sounds like there is some dissent within the Senior Senate? Anon: February 24, 2011 11:07”

 

Kenneth Butterly said...

“Anon: February 24, 2011 11:07 AM, A very interesting development should it be true. However, you will have to provide more specifics, like names, to give your comment the credence it deserves. Further, as I understand the PRPD/Senior Services relationship, no one but official representatives of Senior Services have the authority to represent Senior Center members. Period! It would seem to me, if what you say is true, Park Ridge Park District Officials are knowingly wasting their time and our money. You state that Senior Center Members, specifically, Senior Services Board Members, cannot reach agreement due to “pride” and “vanity”. Please, show me examples of Senior Service Member or Senior Center “pride” and “vanity” regarding this issue. At this moment, I can only think of one example of Senior Center “pride”. Maybe it’s the one you are referring to; it’s Senior-members pride in the accomplishments they’ve created within the Park Ridge Community. Maybe it’s the pride in creating and growing the Senior Center and Senior-centered activities – through their own efforts. Maybe it’s the pride in raising money for various charities. Maybe it’s the pride in making regular payments of thousands of dollars per year directly to the Park Ridge Park District. Maybe it’s vane to crow a little for what they’ve done; but who can blame them? That said, if there are any pride or vanity problems at all regarding the contract proposal or contested resolution, it lies with those PRPD Board “enlightened ones” who can’t stand not having their outrageous demands met. Remember, the seniors only want an up or down vote on their negotiated proposal; a proposal authorized and paid for by the PRPD taxpayer. It appears to me, it’s the Park District Board that needs to cover its butt through the use of a back-door method, for not having the political balls to vote the contract agreement up or down! Happy Clubhouse Day!  February 24, 2011 12:34 PM”

 

Anonymous said...

“Mr. Butterly, I do understand the need for names to give it credibility. Unfortunately if I provide those names, the discussions will likely end, or significantly change. Right now progress is being made. It will come out soon enough. For now, it's happening behind the scenes. Well behind the scenes. February 24, 2011 8:38 PM”

 

Kenneth Butterly said...

“Anon: February 24, 2011 8:38 PM, No one seems to know whom you are talking about. Not the Senior Center’s attorneys. Not the President of the Senior Senate. Not the President of Senior Services. Who else officially represents the interests of the seniors in this matter? I am a member of the Park Ridge Senior Center and I recognize as my representatives only those representatives duly elected or appointed to represent me. If the Board is in fact attempting to circumvent the official representatives, they will, I believe, be placing the Board and the new Administrative Officers in political of not legal, harms way. If what you say is true, then what does it say about the integrity of PRPD’s Board? I guess, had I been a member of the PRPD Board, I would have had the balls to vote the proposal down and been done with it. But that’s just me. As you infer, we’ll just have to wait and see. February 24, 2011 11:00 PM”

Welcome aboard!

Lastly, I hope Ms. Gayle Mountcastle, our new Executive Director, has more luck dealing with this group than her predecessor.

What do you think?

The End of a perfectly good relationship….

 

Thursday’s Meeting – The beginning of the end.

Thursday, February 17, 2011’s Park Ridge Park District Board Meeting did what it’s members intended to do; it destroyed the 30-year Park District/Senior Services relationship.

At this point, based upon the actions of those Board members present at that meeting, the actions at the Mid-January, 2011 meeting, and everything I’ve seen in print; including the old contract, the recently negotiated agreement and the newly passed resolution, I don’t see how any kind of working-relationship based on mutual respect and trust, can exist.

Poor Leadership = Poor Results.

The Park Ridge Park District Board has once again micro-managed its way into a corner.

It, unfortunately, doesn’t think so. Based on what I can see, Board Members apparently believe, or wish to believe, their newly passed resolution will stamp closed to this problem.

It will not!

Those of you who’ve read my earlier blog postings on this subject already know that I couldn’t care less, whether seniors meet in Park Ridge or not.

My concern has always been, and continues to be, the shoddy way in which Park Ridge seniors, possible even your parents and grand parents, are being treated; by this Board. And based upon Thursday’s meeting, I now have, I believe, a better understanding on why a professional like Mr. Ray “O”, left.  

 

Prior Warning

For weeks I’ve been warning some of my fellow Senior Center members that the PRPD Board as a whole, was apparently incapable of dealing straight with them, and that they, the seniors, were being led down a path by men and women who were not showing their true colors.

And now, those colors are clear.

At the Mid-January Board Meeting, board members tabled their expensively negotiated proposal, because “they had questions”; even weeks after having the proposal in their hands.

In the end, of course, they didn’t have questions. Tabling the item did what it was supposed to do, kick the can down the road.

The Board apparently didn’t even propose questions that would lead to a resolution on the contract when two of its members met at the Senior Center with Senior Services members, a week or so prior to last Thursday’s vote.

No Guts – No Glory.

Seniors have been patiently asking this board for two months; please vote our proposal, up or down.

What they got, was – nothing. 

No. 

What they got from this weak and dysfunctional Park Board, was in my opinion, a poorly executed lesson in deception.

Five Board Members came to vote on that resolution and they were damn if they weren’t going to get what they came for.

And they voted themselves a flowery, shamefully  meaningless, unenforceable, resolution.  

 

Return of the “Clubhouse”

So, Park Ridge Park District Board Members and Park Ridge non-Senior citizens, you now have your “Clubhouse” back.

In years to come, I am sure  Park Ridge children, and maybe even your grandchildren will proudly proclaim each February 17th, “Clubhouse Day”.  

 

They don’t want us here – maybe it’s time to go!

So now my fellow Senior Center Members, I suggest we look for another home. I am sure there are places we can go; senior-friendly places.  Places where we can share our final years.

It’s obvious to me, “the enlightened ones” on the Park Ridge Park District Board believe we, and their other self-inflicted problems, need to go away.

If board actions to date are any indication of what is to come, then I believe the resolution they just passed, at the whim of the board, won’t be worth squat.

Seniors, maybe it’s time to blow this place!

Reality Check Indeed….

Dialogue has been moving fast and heavy over there at PublicWatchdog.org. As you’ll recall, they recently published a post titled: Time For A Senior Reality Check.

This one sub-thread made me chuckle. 

Reader #1 Comment

“I think it’s time for the seniors to abandon the Center.  Tell the whiners on this blog that they can have the “club house”.  They can stop crying to daddy now!

Citizens of Park Ridge think they’re “North Shore” by the airport.  They whine when the planes fly over their house.  They whine when the Park District wants to place a cell tower in their back yard, they whine when local church(s) want to provide Park Ridge homeless comfort and now they whine over the senior center clubhouse.

North Shore want-a-be community, my ass!

EDITOR’S NOTE: We can’t speak for commentators to this post, but our beef with the Senior Center clubhouse is that it has sucked almost $1 million out of the taxpayers’ pockets in just the past six years, and it has done so for the benefit of approximately 800 Park Ridge “members” who constitute only a small fraction of all the seniors in Park Ridge – all while those “members” pay $35 in annual membership dues (up from $22 just a few years ago) and now want to lock the Park District’s taxpayers into an expensive “poison pill” buy-out.

By Anonymous on 01.31.11 11:38 am ”

Reader #2 Comment

“11:38am…
That’s a very reasoned approach to debating the issue at hand.  Did you learn that skill in a Senior Center class offering you took?

By Anon on 01.31.11 12:46 pm”

 Reader #1 Comment

“Anon:12:46

Thank you!

Actually, I learned that at New Trier!  I know how North Shore communities take care of their elder citizens.  Glad I don’t live in Park Ridge.

EDITOR’S NOTE: That makes two of us.

By Anonymous on 01.31.11 1:36 pm”

Enough said.

Not everybody agrees….

I wanted to take a moment to thank fellow Blogger PublicWatchdog.org – Park Ridge . They ran a post on the Park Ridge Senior Center today titled: Time For A Senior Center Reality Check that was eye-opener. I think seniors should see for themselves how PublicWatchdog and their readers feel about seniors and the Senior Center.

Park Ridge Seniors dissed….

Thursday, January 20, 2011, Long After Midnight

Thursday, January 20, 2011 marked my 56^th Public Board Meeting since 2003. It was cold outside with temperatures in the single digits.  It was however, very warm inside Park Ridge Park District’s (PRPD) Board Room.  Angry seniors who only minutes before braved the cold and ice to attend the late night meeting were made hot under the collar after they realized they’d just been snookered.  The seniors thought they were going to witness an up or down vote on the newly revised contract.  Instead, they got a civics lesson in local politics and the opportunity to witness first hand the dysfunctional operation (micro-managing) of the PRPD Board.

Political Cowards!

A decision not to vote, a purely political act.

At last weeks PRPD Board Meeting, a quorum of commissioners elected not to vote on the newly revised PRPD/Senior Services Contract, citing the absence of two members. 

This week, the full board, after placing the same item on the agenda, copped out again, removing the vote and sentencing the agreement to agenda-limbo for an undetermined period of time.  Only one Board Member, Mr. Vile, had the political acumen and courage to demand an up or down vote.  He was soundly defeated 6-1.

Mr. Vile needs to read your emailed thanks!

Stephen Vile, Secretary.

Click on name to open email window.

In the end, not only did Park Board Leadership cause a group of 80 year olds to brave late night ice, wind and freezing temperatures, they refused to give these seniors the satisfaction, courtesy or decency of an up or down vote.

Why?  To what end?

The Board’s failure to take an up or down vote tonight was clearly, based on my experience, a political decision.

Some members are seeking reelection. They obviously didn’t see Senior Citizens as their primary constituency. Marty Maloney and Mary Winn Ryan recommended again, the agenda items removal.  Said they “had questions”.

Board members have had access to the completed board-attorney negotiated document for weeks.  Board and Senior Services attorney’s and Senior Center leadership were available to answer Mr. Maloney or Ms. Winn Ryan’s questions all along.

Senior Center/Negotiator/Attorney Jack Owens made an impassioned plea to complete the process, then-and-there. Yes or no!  He also offered to address those “questions” that night. The item was ultimately removed and sent into agenda-limbo to be addressed at some later date.

In my opinion there were no questions that could not have been answered, if in fact it was answers Mr. Maloney or Ms. Winn Ryan were seeking.

No questions from any of the Board Commissioners were forthcoming!

There were, in my opinion, no questions from this Board - because there were no questions. 

In the end, it appears, at least to me, that these Board Members just didn’t have the political-balls to make the decision and take the heat. 

It’s funny. These guys wanted the job. Wanted the bragging rights. Wanted their little bit of power.  Some even finance their own campaigns to get it.  But when it came to making the controversial decisions in an election year…… “take it off the agenda”.  

What do the Seniors do now?

I’m not on the Senior Services Board so I can only speak for me. I’m not sure what I am about to present is ultimately the way to go.  That said, I am livid! 

If I had some say-so, I would recommend:

• Senior Services Board (SSB) and Senior Center Senate  tell the Park Ridge Park District Board to suck pond water  (call their bluff)
• SSB tell PRPD’s Board that we will no longer be fobbed  or abused
• SSB tell PRPD’s Board; as far as we’re concerned, the contract ended December 31, 2010 and that we no longer feel bound by the agreement
• SSB demand PRPD pony-up the estimated $300,000 repayment for contract termination 

No contract – no money!

• SSB stop making those $10,000 quarterly payments designed to defray operating costs and place those monies in an escrow account
• SSB start looking for a possible new home – a home where they will be wanted! 

Will those recommendations solve the problem?   I don’t know.  Senior Center Leadership have tried playing “nice nice” without success.  It is time, in my opinion, to fish or cut bait.

My friends, these six politically-inept Board Members need to hear from you, and they need to know how you feel.  One way or the other!

Jim O'Brien, President	Rick Biagi, Vice President	David Herman, Treasurer
Richard Brandt, Member	Marty Maloney, Member	Mary Wynn Ryan, Member

Senior Center Members came to the Board Meeting tonight to complete the renegotiating process and close a PRPD inflicted wound.  They (we) thought we had a deal.  We were wrong!

If the Board is stupid enough to renege on it’s “board attorney” negotiated agreement, as I believe some of these six would prefer, then it’s “Katy bar the door”, and I have no idea where things will end.  That said, I am convinced, if need-be, there will be other venues available to us, that would be happy to take in Park Ridge Senior Center refugees – especially if we are willing to pay our own way as we do now.

But that’s just my opinion!

An Open Letter to Fellow Park Ridge Taxpayers

by: Mac Mc Lendon, Park Ridge Senior Services, Inc.

69 Years ago, I enlisted in the US Army and during the 5 years of active service found a “HOME AWAY FROM HOME”, the USO.

Today, having been retired from business since 1991, I have a new “HOME AWAY FROM HOME”, the Park Ridge Senior Center.

Not all Park Ridge seniors – male and female – may be aware that OUR Center offers more than 140 different scheduled programs in areas of: RECREATION, CONTINUING EDUCATION, CULTURAL EXPEERIENCES, HEALTH AND FITNESS, NEW FRIENDS, SOCIAL SERVICES, and most important, VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES.

Our Center operates 7 days a week as a drop-in facility for its approximate 1,000 active members and has monthly contacts with roughly 4,300 Seniors, members and non-members.

I wish to invite all Seniors and “Furure-Seniors” to DROP IN and visit.  Learn FIRST HAND why today’s members feel so strongly that their “QUALITY OF LIFE” is helped by membership in the Senior Center – their new “HOME AWAY FROM HOME”.

Time to make them an offer they can’t refuse….

It’s been almost two months since I last blogged.  I’ve been waiting to see how the Park Ridge Senior Center / Park Ridge Park District  contract negotiations would play out.  I must say that it appears that things are not going well.

A couple nights ago, Park Ridge Senior Services, the organization representing  Senior Center members, voted on the Park District’s latest unvetted proposal.  Apparently, based on what I’ve heard through the senior grape vine, the Park District made an offer to the Senior Services Board that proved to be  so unacceptable not one member could vote yes for it.  That’s got to be one exceptionally crummy offer.  I’ve met some of these Board seniors over the last couple months and they’re not the unbending type.

The current contract has a little over a month until it expires and the expensive consequences of the failed process play out.   As I understand it, should the contract be allowed to expire (terminate), the Park District could be on the hook for up to mid-six-figures in reimbursement dollars.

Fact: These Seven Park District  Board Members and One Administrator say they want a deal.  

Click on a name to send e-mail to your elected representative.

Mr. Obrien	Mr. Biagi	Mr. Herman	Mr. Vile
Mr. Brandt	Mr. Maloney	Ms. Wynn- Ryan	Mr.  Ochromowicz

Is this possibly the Board or top Administrators attitude toward Senior Center Members?

Facebook: Ray Ochromowicz

“Life is too short to stress yourself with people who don’t even deserve to be an issue in your life…:)”

Fact: Majority of Senior Center Members do not have deep pockets.  If they were rich, they would probably be living somewhere else; maybe in a real “north shore community” I would think.

Fact: The Seniors say they want a deal they can afford. 

Park District. Perhaps it’s time to employ the Corleone approach to positive contract negotiations.  Perhaps it’s  time to make the Senior Center Representatives an offer that is both good and reasonable enough.  It’s time to make the the Seniors an offer they can’t refuse.  Look at my last blog post guys.  I’m almost sure they’ll accept the reasonable offer printed there.

Lastly, when all is said and done, should this new contract be signed, the tax-paying Seniors will have a Happy Holiday.  The non-senior tax payers will once again be off the hook for thousands of dollars, and Park District leaders will be able to paraphrase Marlon Brando’s famous line: “Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day accept this justice as gift” in this holiday season.

I am only speaking for myself here, but  I think something is starting to smell at the Park District , and it’s not decomposing foliage.