Open Letter to My Fellow Senior Center Members – 03/31/2011

For weeks, I’ve been urged by friends of PRPD’s current Board to tone down the rhetoric in order to give current Board Members and the new Executive Director a chance to work their magic, to solve the Board’s self-created “senior center crisis”. For the most part, I have done so.

Now this from PRPD Board Incumbent-Candidate, Mary Wynn Ryan!

The following email was sent to me today. The emailer clearly intended my sharing this with you, or else this email would not have come to me.

The Email

“… Hi, Barbara -- just heard that the event this evening is from 6:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m., firm (the Library closes at 9). I thought it was 7 to 9 p.m. Maybe it's my misunderstanding but I thought you'd want to know. Also, what is going on with Helen Roppel? I have never spoken with her in my life. What are these "widely rumored comments" she is accusing me of? You know my position on senior programming and services -- we need more, and that's the Park District's mandate and promise, which does NOT depend on any deal with the fundraising foundation. (In fact, I'd like to have Senior Senate play a bigger role. But that's just me.) I will be there tonight, but I sure hope you can pass the word that I am not the bad guy. In fact, anyone who votes for anyone else in hopes that the old deal will come back is going to be disappointed. No one except Steven Vile is in favor of it. But everyone is in favor of more productive and enrolling senior programming to reduce the deficit, and that's a fact! See you tonight. Best, Mary”

Now we know the truth.  Now we know where this Board stands on passing or rejecting the Senior Services/Park District created proposal, and right from the horses-mouth no less.

Based on Ms. Wynn Ryan’s written appraisal of the current situation, Seniors will have:

• no contract
  • no force of law to protect their interests, only nice sounding words and empty promises
  • no security
• no  up or down vote
• no independence
• no trust!

Seniors have been told, in my opinion, to surrender their hard-won creation, the “Senior Center”, into the hands of of what appears to be an incompetent, uncaring and now untrustworthy Board of which  Ms. Wynn-Ryan is a leading figure.

We are told that the “Resolution”, passed earlier this month, is all that is required to calm our fears of future betrayal. You don’t need the force of contract law to protect your interests, your creation; we are assured.  All you need are our good intentions!

To that I say, BULL!

Now, the ambiguity is gone.  We now know, should we believe Ms. Wynn Ryan, the voting intentions of six of seven Board Members.   Another thing we learned about the Board is their inability to handle anomalies.  A contracted relationship with the Seniors is different  than the other partnering relationships they maintain, an anomaly.  If something doesn’t fit in their predetermined single-sized box, they apparently can’t deal with it.  They apparently don’t want it!   I wonder how previous Boards were able to handle these things over the last 30 years?

This inglorious Board wants control. 

This Board wants to control:

• the “club house”
• the money
• all the activities under their authority.

Fair enough.  I say, let them have it.  All of it!

Let them control the money; what little there will be.  This isn’t about money anyway.  Our continuing to fork over 60k in yearly contributions toward their expenses doesn’t seem to mean a thing.  We even offered to take out the one sticking point, the deal-breaker.  A reimbursement clause possibly worth as much as 300k in PRPD savings.  Instead of closing the deal and going to contract, instead of making the Seniors feel happy and secure with a limited contract with no downside potential to PRPD, Board members went home empty handed, probably thinking of ways to extract more.  Now they blame the Seniors for stopping the talks while leaving the Park District vulnerable to the reimbursement repayment! 

Let them control and be responsible for all the activities within the building. The Park District has been trying unsuccessfully to increase utilization for months.  I was told by candidate Hunst that the responsibility of increasing the utilization of the building belongs to the building’s manager.  Rubbish!  It belongs to the Board, Executive Director and her immediate staff.  This is a PRPD marketing problem not local building management or a local senior center service problem. 

Let them use the building as an additional pool-side services center when they close the Oakton pool or as additional storage for the Community Center such as was described by Ms. Wynn Ryan last night.  The Board wants the building.

Let them have the whole bloody thing!   The Board Members can have their “club house” back; it was always theirs. The Senior Center is not a building. It’s an idea!  It’s people! 

These idiots just don’t get it.

It’s time to rethink this relationship.

Would you live with an abusive partner; one that thinks so little of you, takes your 60k a year, while they refuse to tell you their true intentions?  Well that’s what they are and that’s what they’ve done; at least as I see it. 

One more thing. 

I went to a “meet the candidates meeting” at the Park Ridge Library last night.  I watched with fascination as Ms. Wynn Ryan opined to a stunned audience the Boards frustration over a perceived lack of communication within and outside the Park District organization.  To illustrate her point, she told her story of how the PRPD Board learned of the latest PRPD/Senior Services proposal, and how it was allegedly created by their Board-chosen employee, without the Boards prior knowledge. 

In her opening remarks, Ms. Wynn Ryan went to great lengths to convince her audience of her competence by focusing on two primary political illustrations; her time spent as Park Ridge Alderman and her current stint as Park Ridge Park District Commissioner.

At the end of her tale, I found myself wondering how a person at this experience level, along with other PRPD Board Members, some of whom claim to possess equal or greater managerial or leadership experience, would have have allowed herself to be so removed from the process, that an agreement of that nature could have been created without her, let alone another, Board Members knowledge.  

At the completion of her yarn the gathering was treated to beautifully timed supportive comment voiced by Board Vice President Biachi and simultaneous nod of agreement by Commissioner Brandt.  Mr.’s Biachi and Brandt were in the audience, I suspect, in support of their colleague.

Legitimate question to ad hominem attack.

Lastly, some of us at that meeting were really taken aback at Board members Biachi and Mary Wynn Ryan’s uncalled for ad hominem attack on former Park Ridge Mayor Howard Frimark.  Their stormy public ridicule of his administration was boorish and in my opinion, Biachi and Mary Wynn Ryan need to publically apologize to him in writing.  I’m certainly not a Frimark fan but he was asking a reasonable question regarding the Boards decision to give the former Executive Director a bonus while at the same time talking “poor”.  This clear overreaction by these current Board Members to reasonable questioning is typical of what I call, executive decision discomfort.    

So here’s the question.

Who will you be voting for on April 5^th?

Still knockin!

It’s been 11 days since my last “"Knock, knock”!  

Back then, I gently pulled the Board/Administration’s chain, because the Board and Administration failed to post on the Park Ridge Park District’s (PRPD) Website, the Board Meeting Minutes for a couple vitally important meetings held over 30 days earlier. 

At the time, I chose not to link any particular motive to this inaction on the part of the Board or Administration.  But now, however, I must ask if there is a motive for this inaction.

This is the political season in Park Ridge, and has been for the last three months. 

Maybe protecting Board incumbents is more important than informing the public of their meeting activities.   Considering these meetings dealt, in part, with the Senior Center Contract and City of Park Ridge’s proposed detention pond at North Park, two volatile subjects affecting several thousand Park Ridge citizens, I can see why.

How much longer must we wait?

The PRPD, to my knowledge, has always posted their Board Meeting Minutes in a timely manner and on time. 

Meeting Date	Days Ago	Days Overdue
Feb. 8, 2011	45	17
Feb. 9, 2011	44	16
Feb. 17, 2011	36	8

I asked you-all to fix this problem back on March 14th.  So, please have the staff take a few minutes to remedy the situation.  I would hate to resort to having to use the Freedom of Information Act to solve this on-going issue.

Of course, it’s only my opinion!

Where are the meeting notes?

Knock, knock!

Is anybody home at the Park Ridge Park District?

Seniors have been waiting for weeks for you guys to update your website’s meeting notes so we can see where we stand on our proposal.   Now, maybe your ongoing strategy is to wait us out, hoping we all die off first? 

Sorry, we’ve just too darn ornery for that to work.

Today is March 14th.  The February 8th and 9th Board Meeting Minutes are still missing. 

Please fix it! 

While you’re at it, you may as well play it smart and post the February 17th minutes.

We’re all supposed to continue to remain quiet now. So shush, you Seniors!

I received an email this evening.  It was from a reader unable to post a oversize comment in response to someone else’s a prior comment.  It read: “I responded to the last post on your blog, but it won't accept it because it is too long, I guess.  I have copied it below.  If you want to find a way to post it, that would be fine with me.” 

The original comment,  was attached to to Reality Check Indeed…..  A second comment, a complete copy of the first, was attached to Backroom shenanigans?  Obviously, the writer wished to make sure he got his point across.

If you have not read these posts, I urge you to do so now by clicking on the links above.

The Original Comment….

Anonymous March 4, 2011 8:26 AM and 11:28 AM wrote….

Mr. Butterly urges that the Park Board "vote the Agreement up or down".  To what purpose? Might one reasonably conclude that the Park Board has not taken that route because the most recent draft Agreement proposed for its consideration is not acceptable to it? And what message would THAT send to the seniors? Why should the Park Board do a useless act? What is all the fuss about? The "Agreement" that expired back in December, 1995, was not replaced until June, 1996, but somehow the Senior Center survived. What is all the hysteria about now? The Park District's share of the 2010 operating budget for the Senior Center was $185,000, and going forward that is only predicted to increase if the current model applies. Senior Services Inc. has proposed to pay, as its share of the 2011 operating costs of the Senior Center the sum of $60,000, and yet it seems to expect the Park Board, which may find such a "sharing" formula, to be unacceptable, to enter into such an Agreement. Should a "minority shareholder" dictate operational policy, especially when the "majority shareholder" is the taxpayer? Circumstances have changed. The economy has changed. The old model may no longer be workable. The Park Board, in the exercise of its fiduciary duty to manage the assets of the park district in the best interests of all of the taxpayers and residents of the Park District would be remiss if it were to simply give a rubber-stamp approval of the suggested Agreement. The citizenry should be proud that its elected officials are taking their time on this one. The Park Board, through no fault of its own, has been without an Executive Director and a Superintendent of Recreation in recent months and should not be pressured to act without such staff both in place and prepared to make a recommendation regarding the terms under which the Senior Center would best continue to operate. After all, isn't that why they get paid the big bucks? We should all calm down and give peace a chance. Let's not create needless anxiety for our beloved seniors. The Senior Center is not closing. The sky is not falling.

The Response….

Anonymous March 6, 2011

The writer of the last comment is so "inside" the Park District thinking that he has completely missed how seniors and Senior Services have viewed the actions and inactions of the Park District from their perspective.  His is certainly not the only reasonable view, though he arrogantly makes that assumption in his post. Let me explain.  First, seniors feel insecure because the Park District has refused to act on the contract, one way or another.  At the same time that it said it wouldn't even talk about the contract since the new Director should be in place first, it pressed forward to adopt (over numerous requests not to) a resolution that by its terms infers that the contract is no longer on the table.  From this one can see how seniors might very reasonably conclude that the Park District  no longer wishes to have a contract with seniors.  And in fact, members of the Park Board have sent clear signals that they do not wish to continue a contractual relationship with Senior Services.  This is not a matter of taking a while to finalize details (as it may have been in 1996), this is a situation where the Park District Board, for undisclosed reasons, is refusing to sign the contract that was negotiated by Park District staff after lengthy discussions. I think one might "reasonably conclude" that the Park Board is afraid to vote down the contract because of the upcoming election.   It has had ample opportunity to negotiate changes in the contract, and to discuss it's concerns about the contract at its meetings, and has refused to do so.   They don't want to negotiate, they refuse to vote it down--let me guess... after the election they won't have any problems voting it down?   That sounds pretty political to me. Second, you say that "the Park Districts' share of the 2010 operating budget for the senior center was $185,000...."  That's a really interesting and misleading way to phrase it.  Let's be clear about this-- the Park District owns the senior center building and runs it's senior programs out of it. Those are programs that it claims to have no intention to change or discontinue, and those are programs that seniors should be able to expect from its park district.  These programs are very similar to what is offered in other senior programs in the area.   All costs associated with that building and its senior programming are 100% Park District costs.  They don't "share" them with anyone.  Do they "share" the cost of the community center with anyone?  Do they "share" the cost of the pools with anyone?    If they are concerned about the cost of the programs and building, they should do something about it-- that is in fact their responsibility, and in fact Ray O made a number of changes in programming and expenses before he left to do just that.  Some of those changes have already been implemented, by the way.    Any money that comes to the Park District from Senior Services is great because it reduces the cost of the Senior Center to the Park District.  And what does Senior Services ask for in return?  A contractual right to preferential (NOT exclusive) use of the building during the day.  That's it.  Are you really alleging that this preferential use is the "model" that will cause the Park District to incur more cost in the future?  That makes no sense. Senior Services is not preventing, via the contract or in any other way, the Park District from reducing expenses or increasing revenue at that building.  If you disagree, you should present the facts in support of that position. The Park District Board has so bumbled this situation that it has created every bit of the anxiety that you so callously attribute to seniors misinterpreting the facts.  They haven't, and for you to say they have is utterly insulting.  They know that the sky is not falling, but they also know that the foundation of the relationship between the Park District and Senior Services is crumbling.   Is it wrong of them to ask for confirmation of that fact so that they can figure out how to move forward? Senior Services and seniors in general are waiting for the new Director to start.  The Park District Board should have done the same before it chose to adopt a resolution prematurely and have that resolution posted on boards at the senior center.  More than anything else, those actions fanned the flames of unrest and "needless anxiety for our beloved seniors."   I am a citizen.  I am not proud of the Park Board on this one.

Seems likes silence by seniors is not an option.

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.