Only took three days to fix. There is no reason for the situation to happen again. I guess I finally got to the right person!
I’m get pretty tired of having to keep asking Park Ridge Park District Management to upload Park Board Meeting videos and minutes to its website in a timely manner. It’s not unusual to wait up to 90 days.
The problem regarding timely uploads has been going on for some time. As a matter of fact, I have had to write Gayle Mountcastle several times on this subject since October 2011.
Problem is, I think I have been writing to the wrong person!
PRPD’s Board is known for its tendency toward micromanagement. I should have written Ms. Wynn-Ryan or Mr. Biagi or maybe Mr. Hunst.
I’m sure they would have solved this dilemma pronto!
To see the complete document full-screen, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
To see the complete document full-screen, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
To see the complete document full-screen, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
I received the new, improved emailed offer from Rick Biagi on 09/07/2012.
To see the complete, full-screen document, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
Bear in mind that Park Ridge Park District started the Kemnitz Trust mess in earnest on December 12, 2011.
From December 2011 Attorney/Client Detail Billing Records.
Note: Here’s a short conversion table table to assist your reading.
Code
Description
SSI
Senior Services, Inc.
BK
Betty Kemnitz Trust
DS
BK Trust Attorney Smith
To see the complete, full-screen document, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
To see the complete, full-screen document, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
Rick took my suggestion to include Bob Trizna in the conversation. This is what Bob had to day:
To see the complete, full-screen document, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
While writing this post I kept thinking of Robin Hood and his merry men; and women of course. But then I thought, Robin Hood robbed from the rich and gave to the poor!
While PRPD is attempting to rob from the Seniors and keep for themselves.
To see the complete, full-screen document, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
Notice: This is a long read and worth every minute of your time!
Here, you’ll learn about the organization, its history, its relationship to Park Ridge Park District and Park Ridge Senior Center Senior Senate, and all the relevant details you need to know about the “contracts” and “reparations or clawback” as written first hand in original documents; real information, not undocumented statements or opinions, the type of garbage you’ve you’ve been fed in other blogs and in the local papers!
Its time to free yourself of the tyranny of this Board and read the documents they don’t want you to see!
Let’s begin!
I am constantly amazed, even after 20 months of open public discussion, the lack of knowledge by residents surrounding the PRPD/SSI/Senior Center issue. That includes some members and former members of PRPD’s Board of Commissioners and others who refer to Park Ridge Senior Services, Inc. as: “Seniors, Inc.”, “SSI”, “Greedy Geezers”, “Senior Inc/SS”, “SS”, etc.
So, I thought it might be a good idea to replace assumptions and misinformation with document-based facts to enlighten some of my readers and sometime detractors - just a little.
Why Senior Centers?
The other day I asked Park Ridge Senior Senate President, Barbara Hameder; how old the oldest Senior Center member was. She checked around but couldn’t get the fact. However, she did find this out. Currently, fifty-two (52) ninety-plus-year-old members are involved with Senior Center activities. Without the Senior Center, it’s possible the majority of these Nonagenarians would be home – alone. Instead they are experiencing the company of fellow Nonagenarians, as well as Octogenarians, Septuagenarians and Sexagenarians.
To see the complete, full-screen Why Senior Centers, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
Understand what Park Ridge Senior Services, Inc. is and how it works, can best be seen by reading its Bylaws.
To see the complete, full-screen Senior Services, Inc. Bylaws, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
The Park Ridge Senior Center was launched in 1980. Three years later, it found itself in the throws of a recession; much as our current Center does today.
For a little more insight into those times, take a moment to review the letter from the Park Ridge Senior Services, Inc., President Raymond Hollis and Park Ridge Senior Center Senior Senate Relationships Committee Chairman; Jim Proebsting.
While you’re at it, notice on page (2) the local organizations and names of distinguished local citizens connected to the original senior center effort.
To see the complete, full-screen Hollis & Proebsting Letters, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
The Park Ridge Senior Center has always been underfunded relative to other Park ridge Park District services, activities or other taxpayer-funded amusements. In spite of that, Seniors, through Park Ridge Senior Services, Inc., continued to pursue their dream of an independent Senior Center.
To see the complete, full-screen How Center Got Started, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
Early Park Board Leader Rifkind Recognized SSI’s Role.
To see the complete, full-screen PRPD President Rifkind’s Newsletter, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
Based on SSI’s Newsletters, SSI and Senior Center’s Senior Senate has always been cognoscente of their financial responsibilities. Here’s an early example:
To see the complete, full-screen SSI Financial Status 1984 Newsletter, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
As time went on, Senior Center membership and activity needs grew beyond the limited capabilities of the original “Center” building. In November 1985’s “Know Your Center” Newsletter, SSI leaders said:
To see the complete, full-screen Need More Space Newsletter, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
To see the complete, full-screen Launch Fund Raising Drive Newsletter, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
Note: Go to the bottom of the document to see where the first check came from!
Note: That act by Teresa’s father, I believe, cemented what became a life-long love affair between Teresa Grodsky and Park Ridge Senior Center members. When current Board President, Rick Biagi, torched her reputation last January; see: I swear by my tattoo – Part One, he set off a chain reaction, the result of which we are still reading about in local blogs and in local papers.
Not all Senior Centers Are Alike
Back in May of 1986, SSI performed a study involving local and North Shore Senior Centers resulting in the following Newsletter.
To see the complete, full-screen Senior Center Comparative Study, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
By mid-year 1986 Senior Center membership had grown to 1,800+ with over 3,000 contacts (member-visits) per month; and it was becoming clear the building would have to be expanded.
Over the next year, Senior Services, Inc. (SSI), working with Park Ridge Park District officials, local community members, senior volunteers and others, worked out the details for the much-needed 100 S. Western building expansion.
Then, in November 1987, SSI kicked off Seniors efforts to fulfill their part of the agreement with PRPD. SSI obligated seniors to raise $350,000; half the cost of the building expansion.
I won’t go into all the detail’s I’ve uncovered describing the immense efforts SSI and Senior volunteers went through to raise the money, but I will provide these small clips from SSI’s Newsletters.
From the August 1988 Newsletter.
From the November 1988 Newsletter.
From the December 1988 Newsletter.
From the January 1989 Newsletter.
To see the complete, full-screen Newsletter – April 1989 – It is Done, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
The fundraising efforts I’ve just described represent a single but significant part of SSI’s fund-raising activity history.
SSI – More Than Just Fundraising
SSI is more than just the fundraising arm of Senior Center members. SSI was also the organization PRPD contracted with for 30 years to use the 100 S. Western building for its Senior Center activities. More on that in a future blog post.
So, next time someone tells you Seniors didn’t contribute significantly to improving that taxpayer owned property, send them to this page for the facts!
I received a copy of an email the other day that I’d like to share with you. It was dated June 21, 2012. The body of the email says:
“Dear Teresa:
Congratulations!
You have been selected by the National Recreation and Park Association to receive the 2012 Distinguished Professional Award. The Distinguished Professional Award is presented to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field through their leadership, research, advocacy, community outreach, and program development. Eligible candidates must have at least 15 years of experience in the field of parks and recreation. The recipient of this award was submitted for national recognition through the Network Distinguished Professional Award. We commend you for your exceptional service in the field that has furthered the aims and values of parks and recreation.
You will be recognized and presented with this award at the upcoming NRPA Congress and Exposition in Anaheim, California on Wednesday, October 17, 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the Best of the Best Ceremony...”
A hardy well done indeed!
Too bad PRPD’s “Park Ridge Park District Senior Center” can no longer claim her as their own!
or this Board’s political insanity is why there are over 27,000 views on this site!
The PRPD/SSI/Grodsky/Senior Center imbroglio, has been going on for almost two long years; and every time we turn around these fumbling incompetents, come up with another laughable Park Ridge Park District moment, one designed to stretch out the process and bankrupt Senior Services, Inc.
Note: To see the complete, full-screen Parks File Preemptive Suit to Senior Group, click the box on the lower right side of the document window. To move UP or DOWN use the SLIDER on the right.
PRPD, who started the Kemnitz Trust suit by informing Kemnitz Trust attorneys of their alleged claim to the Kemnitz assets, voted to do a Pearl Harbor like sneak attack on these old World War II era Seniors.
Hysterical Board leaders, Biagi and Wynn-Ryan convinced their sycophantic Board associates to believe rumors, based on comments revealed on this blog. The commenters were demanding that SSI contractual rights be honored. The boys and girl concluded those
pesky old codgers were planning a legal offensive of their own to gain what Seniors believe PRPD owes them; the agreed-to dreaded “clawback” provision money.
Your representatives who voted yes for this insanity:
Rick Biagi
Mary Wynn-Ryan
Steve Hunst
Richard Brandt
Jim O’Brien.
The lone Commissioner who voted no: Stephen Vile.
WWII era Senior’s don’t like sneak attacks!
For those Board Commissioners too young to recall or understand how many seniors of this era might view their act, look at the video.
Biagi! Wynn-Ryan! Have you no political common sense? Have you no shame?
UPDATE: 08/31/2012
I received a copy of the following email this morning.
Senior Services, Senior Senate and Senior Center members, and friends of seniors,
As some of you already know, this week we made a counteroffer to the Park District in an attempt to end the Kemnitz lawsuit once and for all. As you may also know, the Park District had offered to settle the suit if we agreed that we would not use any of the Kemnitz monies in legal action against the Park District. Publicly, the Park District's rationale was that Betty Kemnitz would not have wanted her bequest used in such a fashion. Given our responsibilities as a non-profit organization to preserve and protect our assets, we could not agree to such a broad restriction on the use of our own money. We need to protect our rights and our assets, and legal action is sometimes the only way to do that.
However, we made a very reasonable counteroffer. Following a lengthy consultation with our attorneys, we agreed that we would not use Kemnitz money to sue the District over the capital payback provision of the contract we had for many years with the Park District. We agreed to this because of our desire to end the lawsuit now, and because we believed our offer addressed the real concern that the Park District had, which was that we would use Kemnitz money "against them" to recoup monies from the Park District.
Instead of accepting our offer on the spot, however, we learned yesterday that the Park District has inexplicably filed yet another lawsuit against us. In this lawsuit they are asking the court to declare that they do not owe any money to us under the capital payback provision. We view this lawsuit as unnecessary and a complete waste of our own and taxpayer money. Neither SSI nor the Senior Senate has made a decision to sue the Park District under that provision, so the Park District is taking a step it need not take at all. And our counteroffer creates a substantial restriction on our ability to even bring such a suit if we wanted to do so.
Unless they drop this latest suit, not only will they be spending more and more taxpayer dollars, but we will have to pay our attorneys to respond to the lawsuit. That could get expensive, and all of the money would have to come from our Kemnitz assets. Up until now, the bulk of the legal fees we have incurred in the Kemnitz matter have been largely paid not out of the Kemnitz funds but through our insurance coverage. Our insurance coverage will not be available to defend this latest lawsuit, however, so if we have to defend it, it will come straight out of the Kemnitz money. We don't want to see that happen, and don't think Betty Kemnitz would either.
After nearly two years of trying to resolve this matter in a lowkey manner, we believe that a more direct appeal to the Park Board and others is now needed. For that, we need your help. Please contact members of the Park Board and ask them to
ACCEPT THE SETTLEMENT OFFER SSI HAS MADE IN THE KEMNITZ MATTER AND ALLOW ALL THE PARTIES TO MOVE ON!
Seniors do not need this matter to drag on even one more day, and the Park Board should end this immediately. We've met their most important demands, they should accept the offer and MOVE ON!
Here is the contact information for the Park Board members:
Now I’m hearing PRPD Officials are apparently, once again, this time in court (using Taxpayer-$$$), claiming ownership of Senior Service, Inc. assets. Assets PRPD has already stated under the Freedom Of Information Act to belong to Senior Service, Inc.
Previously stated under FOIA:
Senior’s, maybe it’s time to kiss Don Homer’s ring, and ask the Don for his forgiveness and protection.
He says he only has Seniors best interest at heart!
A little tribute! A little respect; and apparently at this moment, maybe those SSI paid Senior Center Assets is all he requires.
And maybe someday, and that someday may never come, he will ask you for another favor, or tribute, or gift, or maybe your final gift:
Your Trust Money!
A personal observation…
PRPD Board Members continue to act in curious ways, almost as if they are taking the process personally; and forgetting to keep this important rule:
I think this Board has gone down the rabbit-hole.
When a group of seemingly intelligent men and women rely on local blog generated banter as intelligence or as a substitute for direct Senior/Board communication, and use those same opinions as the basis for what I now see as litigation-based decision-making, you’ve got to wonder what type of people Park Ridge voters voted in.
Quite frankly, I no longer think the real story is about the Senior Center.
I think the real story is about a local Park Board full of itself and angry their ideas and demands have been rejected by constituents they’re unwilling to or incapable of dealing with!
PRPD’s expensive taxpayer-paid court-shenanigans are starting to look to me like these kids are out of their league; and because they couldn’t get their way by tantrum and bullying, are just getting back at those old codgers; and making seniors pay through the nose with legal bills. It apparently, is all they have left!
This Senior Center problem, under Boards current leadership, has morphed from a purely and easily solved political challenge into a complex legal jumble, and one not to be fully resolved by any court order.
Another example:
PRPD Board’s Fantasy Issue
Well, PRPD Board decided it no longer wanted to deal with SSI and Senior Center Members, Senior Senate. So, they just voted to officially eliminate them, made them at worse, Soviet style nonentities; at best, persona non grata (“"an unwelcome person”).
In other words, the Board fantasizes SSI/Senior Senate no longer exist; a wish, a vote, a change in Board Policy Manual; snap, crackle, pop, bibbedy, bobbedy, boom; SSI and Senior Senate no longer exist!
Reality is what they wish it to be!
Bet Board leaders wish they could do that trick with their Youth Camp property problem!
Is this the sign of a healthy Board? You tell me!
Guys, I don’t think so. When one sees a government body resort to using the courts to solve its political problems and acting as if their opponents don’t exist, you know they’re in trouble and some of them know it too!
So, let me not mince words!
SSI, it’s over! It really is.
An organization that refuses to acknowledge your existence is incapable of rationally resolving differences.
It’s time to take all your property (see FOIA’d list above) from 100 S. Western to a local storage facility until you can open up an independent senior center of your own – unencumbered by local taxpayer-funded-litigation-crazy political hacks. Assuming of course, PRPD lets you take your stuff!
If Mr. Trizna’s “comments” over the last two posts continue to bellwether (“a person or thing that shows the existence or direction of a trend”) Board thinking and imminent Board actions, as they have in the past, we can expect many more expensive taxpayer-paid days in court.
Can you all shout conspiracy?
Litigation, the cause of and solution to, all Senior problems!
One of the problems that happen in long, drawn out affairs such as the PRPD/SSI/Senior Center saga, is the proliferation of rumors. The rumors most times aren’t malicious, just stories based on bad or incomplete information. A more recent story flying around town was that PRPD intended to make it difficult for seniors to withdraw their assets from the 100 S. Western building.
Now, rumors usually have a kernel of truth, albeit incomplete. The ignorant, (”lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact”), unfortunately, often take these rumors as gospel truth by virtue of the fact that their contextual grasp of the issue is incomplete.
One such story (rumor) was the recent report that Park Ridge Park District Officials intended to give Seniors a difficult time retrieving their assets from Park District’s 100 S. Western building. As of this writing, that rumor is not true; and that is a good thing.
I never said I could eliminate intransigent or wanton ignorance. intransigent:(“refusing to compromise: stubbornly or unreasonably refusing even to consider changing a decision or attitude”); wanton:(“random: lacking reason or provocation”, “desiring to do harm: done out of a desire to cause harm”, “excessive: unrestrained, heedless of reasonable limits, or characterized by greed and extravagance”, or “unruly: lacking discipline”). However, I can provide facts to those with open eyes and open minds regarding the PRPD/SSI/Senior controversy.
I first heard about PRPD possibly withholding access to Senior Services, Inc. (SSI) owned assets last February. Wanting to know more, I submitted two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA#’s – 120202-001 and 120207-001) requests, to determine what assets were owned or paid for by SSI seniors – assets they will take with them should the they move into a new facility.
First FOIA – 120202-001
PRPD Response - FOIA – 120202-001
Extracted Fixed Assets for -“Senior Center” Building
Note: View document on large screen click box at lower right corner.
Now, you’ll notice the two reports are somewhat different. The first report came to me from PRPD under the Freedom of Information Act. (FOIA). Unfortunately, it was incomplete. The second report was created by me. I took the misleading PRPD report data and added, along with some additional calculations, the best replacement values I could find using US Government derived figures. That is the reason the PRPD version only shows a replacement value of $2.467 million while the more complete version shows a truer replacement value of $3,212,301.
Note: View document on large screen click box at lower right corner.
SSI Senior Magic…
Take a good look at the acquisition dates and cost vs. the replacement cost for these assets.
As of 03/03/2011, the acquisition cost in 1970 of the 100 S. Western storage building was roughly $140 thousand. Under SSI/Senior/PRPD’s government/private partnership, and through SSI/Senior magic, the value of that derelict building grew to a little over $3.212 million in replacement value.
In other words,the property actually grew in value by over $2.476 million.
That’s one hell of an asset appreciation for PRPD’s minimal yearly investment; and what a immense return on investment to the senior community.
Ironically this was is a feather in the then PRPD Board’s hat and a tribute to their prudent actions.
Second FOIA – 120207-001 – SSI Owned Assets
In my judgment…
Fortunately, the rumor was untrue. But here’s the problem. Seniors believed the rumor to be true because seniors have been deceived by PRPD leaders multiple times throughout this process and their patience and good will has been abused. PRPD/SSI and PRPD/Senior Senate relations have been so diminished, these two senior entities are no longer even recognized by Park Board Officials who now fully control the financial destiny of “Park Ridge Park District Senior Center”.
Without the 30-year collaborative partnership and ongoing energy and generosity of SSI/Seniors, there would be no award-winning Senior Center in Park Ridge, let alone that lovely $ 3.2 million building for that matter.
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