Happy Monday. I hope you had a really great Thanksgiving! Before I forget, below is the link to the last ACCOA meeting on you tube. Jeff and Jess Dobbs did a great job filming this. I believe there is another on you tube from the ACCOA zoom setup.
Because not everyone has three hours to devote to watching the meeting, I did take some notes (well, actually five pages). All board members were present except the president so Will St. John ran the meeting as vice president. The first order of business was to accept the agenda. Bob Turek asked that the agenda be revised to move two presentations to either the end of the meeting or to another day. There were two presentations on the agenda, one for 90 minutes on poverty by NEMCSA and the other for 30 minutes on housing by Habitat for Humanity. Bob stated that there was enough ACCOA business on the agenda to have a three hour meeting without the presentations. The board voted 5 to 3 to have the presenters come back at another time. Delores asked that the minutes not include negative information (i.e. that Karen Sharboneau pointed to Mike Maturen and was told that was rude) but just to stick to what the comment was about. Public comment was next. Rich Bray stood and said Alcona County is 44 percent seniors and only 7 percent of those are at the poverty level. We need to focus on the seniors. Pam MacKinnon stood and asked the board members if they were prepared to spend five hours at a meeting. She thought the way the board handled the presenters could have been done in a better way but she agreed they should not have been on the agenda. Judy French stood and asked the board to get back to the way the ACCOA used to be with seniors wanting to come to the center. I stood and read the response from the board on my discrimination claim. None of my questions were answered, the board apologized for the misinformation and invited me back for dinner. Jerry Merrick stood and told the board it seems like Lenny runs them instead of the other way around and that the board should listen to the seniors and what they want.
Dan O’Connor gave a report from the school. Terri Goldstrom asked what his report had to do with the seniors and he replied that he was invited by Lenny to give a report. During the in-home service report Bob requested that the number of seniors who actually receive meals should be in the information, not just the dollar amount. Delores asked if our in-home service people were trained to do, for example, change a colostomy bag if needed for a senior. Lenny assured her the staff is trained. However, an ex-employee watching the meeting on zoom texted that she never had that type of training. No Kinship report, no NEMCSA report, no transportation report and no food back report other than there won’t be a pop-up pantry in November and December.
Bob brought up several questions about the financial report. He wanted to know why some line items have doubled since last year. Insurance, Advertising/Admin and Misc. Admin to name a few. The first is due to some lawsuits, the second due to the purchase of the fair animals that was categorized as advertising(?) and the third had no response. Bob mentioned there has been no finance committee meeting in the last three years (according to the last three years of minutes he has read). The bylaws state committees must meet three to four times per year. Since Bob had more finance questions, Lenny told him to write his questions, give them to the finance committee to review and they will bring answers to the next board meeting. Delores asked that Bob be on the finance committee (Bob had requested to be on it) but Mike Maturen appoints the committee members and did not honor Bob’s request. Bob and Leroy brought up the fact that Lenny has signed all the contracts the ACCOA has with companies for the building project. Will said the board gave Lenny the authority to do so. (Bob said that is nowhere in any of the minutes – if you want a list of other misstatements, please contact me as Bob has re-watched the video two times and has four pages of relevant comments). Will said the architect has plans that are in flux and not set in concrete. They talked about the community center going from 13,000 feet to 30,000 feet. They talked about the survey that went out about the project. Jacqueline Schwanz said her mother and father saw the survey and filled it out. No one in the audience has seen the survey for this building project. Dan O’Connor left at 11:30.
Lenny asked the board to sign the second half of the Sidock contract so they could continue the project. Bob motioned to table the signing since there were words in the contract saying the housing was the most important phase followed by the community center and then the senior center last. The board passed the motion 7 to 1. The board voted to have a meeting next Tuesday, December 6 to discuss the contract. It will be at 10:00 am at the senior center.
There were some committee updates. The finance committee met with Edward Jones. The committee agreed to put new grant funds into a Money Market fund. I belive this amount was $250,000.00. They approved next year’s budget but this should not have been done. The committee brings recommendations to the board and the board approves the budget. Not the committee. Bob asked the board if the committee considered changing the allocation of funds so that the ACCOA loses less in the coming months. The new building committee met and Leroy gave an update. He asked for the list of what is located in the community center that was given to the architects. The policies and procedures committee met. Will gave a couple of updates and Bob filled us in on the rest. The building and planning committee met with NEMCOG and they said Alcona will greatly benefit from this project. Rolland was able to get three estimates for tree removal. The board motioned and passed getting John Matthews to remove the tree and stump for $2500.00. Leroy talked about the need for removing surveillance cameras from employee offices but to keep them outside. This was tabled until the building and grounds committee meets and makes their recommendations.
The last public comment came next. Pam MacKinnon stood and said Dan O’Connor is an asset to the board and thinks his updates are important. Anne Mills disagreed and said there is a time and place for Dan and it is not at a senior center meeting. She also commented that her grandma felt safe living in a senior community until there were low-income housing people added to her community and then more security was needed. Sharon Humes asked the board to consider building a senior center first. Brenda Bray stood and asked the board for how much money they have spent on this project to date. She asked if the board considered 9 percent inflation in their savings decisions and suggested the board become more quick with their decisions on what to do with their money. Rich Bray stood and gave the CDC guidelines that say no mask signs should be posted. He also reminded the executive director that he is in the presence of doctors, nurses, engineers and business people and we understand what is going on. Jess Dobbs also commented on the ‘vaccinate or mask up signs’ at the ACCOA. She suggested the new board is more than capable of changing previous board positions as new information becomes available. Jerry Merrick again commented that he voted for the millage for a senior center. He thought the contracts should be canceled and start over for a senior center only. He said the board should put someone in charge who can do it and not lead the board down a dangerous path. He said we could be headed to another Katona deal. I stood and stated the requirements for the executive director position of the ACCOA is a four year degree in accounting, finance, management or a related degree. The executive director has a degree in Political Science even though he has represented himself to have a degree in law (government). I questioned whether the board knew he wasn’t qualified when they hired him or he misrepresented himself to the board to get hired. Tamara Quick stood and said she was embarrassed for the board. She has a lot of experience on boards and said the minutes need to be published and are the record of what the board does. She said she knows seniors who are not comfortable coming to the senior center. She said budgets need to be adhered to and expenses need to be itemized. She pleaded with the board to build a senior center and listen to the people they are serving.
Will adjourned the meeting at a little after 1:00pm. There was a lot covered and it was a three hour meeting without the two hours of presentations that were removed.
The Tavern meeting will be at the library this Wednesday at 6:00pm. Looking forward to seeing everyone!
Lisa
