Ark Valley News - Senior Club spat needs to be settled

Senior Club spat needs to be settled
Last Updated: December 10, 2015

Something needs to be done about the Valley Center Senior Club and the city's services to local senior citizens.

Unfortunately, it appears the City of Valley Center is taking a later rather than sooner approach.

The city's $8,500 contract with the Senior Club director is set to expire at the end of December, the end of a five-year partnership between the city and the club. That doesn't give anyone much time to develop a solution.

The mayor and some on the city council want to see the club take the reins of its own organization and plan activities that will increase participation, rather than rely on one paid staff member to lead the club. An increase in the number and kinds of activities would be welcome.

However, some Senior Club members, including its own president, fear the club will fold if it doesn't have the assistance of a paid director. We don't want that to happen.

City council member Jake Jackson tried to spark some discussion on Dec. 1 when he brought up the issue during a council meeting.

Only one other council member joined in, leaving the program in limbo.

If the city is dead set against paying for a director and the club is convinced it needs one, there certainly must be some middle ground. We're not sure what form that will take.

We get the feeling that the city is reluctant to discuss the director's position while the contract with director Cathy Sexton is still in effect. If that's the case, we expect ideas to start flowing after Dec. 31. We wouldn't even be surprised if one of those ideas would be to hire another director, confirming the suspicion that it was a personnel issue and not a structural or procedural one all along.

Council member Al Hobson asserted last week: "It's not about saving a job; it's about saving a program."

Either way, there has been no "saving" going on so far, and that's a shame.

— The Ark Valley News