The Village of Montgomery’s senior center has been a recurring talking point throughout the last several board meetings, with the biggest discussion by far unfolding last Tuesday, September 3 after the village board, motioned by Mayor Mike Hembury, declined to renew the contract with the senior center advisory board and opted to hire a new activities director instead. This sparked divisive feedback from residents attending the meeting, so much so that the board motioned a break midway through the session.

Rita Santo, a former advisory board member, provided a few statements before the board began the discussion. Santo asserted that the mayor, Deputy Mayor Darlene Andolsek, Trustee Kevin Conero, and Trustee Randy Wilbur did not make any efforts to speak with the advisory board despite numerous requests. She feared the village board would decide the advisory board’s fate based on assumptions and misinformation.

“The public needs to know that the senior center advisory board has reached out to the village board several times to speak with us as individuals. There has been no attempt by the mayor, the deputy mayor, Mr. Conero, or Mr. Wilbur to communicate with our senior board,” Santo said. “Since the senior center has no information at all about what is being discussed tonight, we are concerned that the decisions that could be made will be based on false statements and quite frankly, unsubstantiated insinuations of malfeasance made at the July 2 board meeting and in personal conversations with various senior center patrons.”

Santo asserted that the advisory board comprised local volunteers from various backgrounds who were devoted to giving the village’s seniors the best possible experience. Ultimately, she felt that the village board singled out her board and treated its members poorly. After Santo finished, residents in the room applauded her.

“The advisory board consists of volunteers right here, including teachers, accountants, and veterans; we have a board member who was bonded to handle millions of dollars. And we’re being accused of malfeasance,” Santo said. “These people are committed to enhancing the lives of our local seniors. We are very honest, upstanding, responsible citizens of our community and we are within the village. Of the boards in the village, we are the only ones being treated by this blatantly unfair matter.”

Following Santo’s comments, Hembury took over the discussion. He first described the senior center advisory board as a private, not-for-profit, charitable organization comprising nine town residents and three village residents, all self-appointed. He stated that he and Andolsek, after investigation on their own, discovered that the village did not have a contract with the advisory board for the last 12 years.

“The members of this board consist of nine town and three village residents; they appoint themselves and have stated numerous times that they do not answer to this village board,” Hembury said. “The senior center advisory board has not had a contract with the Village of Montgomery in the last 12 years, but still keeps moving and running along themselves. They have had no contract with us.”

Hembury asserted that the advisory board hired Mary McCabe, the senior center’s former activities director, without his or Andolsek’s approval. He also noted that the village did not have any financial records of the senior center’s budgeting beyond the village’s annual payment to the advisory board. A few residents at the meeting shouted that both these claims were false.

“We discovered this within the last three months, the board hired a new director without advising the deputy mayor, not even including her in the interview process. Mind you, this is a village-owned building,” he said. “When we checked the village hall for financial records we could not find anything other than a yearly payment to them. No records as to where this money went.”

Hembury then dived into the advisory board’s financial details, listing off the senior center’s bills and repairs. He also mentioned that the advisory board agreed to do criminal background checks on its members; some residents shouted that this statement was also false.

“Five meetings were held with the advisory board, with the last one involving our attorney at $185 per hour, for him to come and go, including requested criminal background checks which you agreed to. Your board agreed to criminal background checks of the person you hired.” Hembury said. “The next day, you did a 180-degree turnaround, and new information was learned, with one of the advisory board members telling me on the side that they admitted they screwed up.”

Lastly, Hembury stated that the advisory board misused the senior center’s funds for a Yankees Stadium baseball game on July 23, a trip that permitted non-seniors to sign up and initially billed the village for bus fare.

“Recently, you had some ties in the local paper about a trip to Yankee Stadium, $100 for the ticket including transportation and the ticket. The bus will leave the senior center, nothing about just seniors or seniors from the Village of Montgomery,” Hembury said. “After the bus left to Yankee Stadium and you went, the village got a bill for $1,300 and $1,500 for the bus.”

Hembury proposed that, instead of renewing the advisory board’s contract, the village board hire Tom Taylor, activities director for the village’s summer camp, as the senior center’s new activities director. Taylor would work five days a week from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for $25 an hour and would attend the village meetings with monthly reports on the senior center’s budgeting. Hembury also ensured that the village’s seniors will keep all the activities and trips they currently have, with new trips planned for the future.

At this point in the meeting, the room broke out into a cacophony with numerous residents shouting at the board in disagreement with the proposal. Following a 30-minute break, the board approved three items: decline the renewal of the advisory board’s contract, establish a senior activities director, and hire Taylor for the position. The vote for all three was 3-1, with Conero absent and Trustee Randi Picarello opposed. After several more minutes of commotion between trustees and residents, the room eventually quieted down and the board returned to the meeting’s agenda.

Post-Meeting Comments
In a post-meeting conversation, Hembury said that he was initially upset with the behavior from the September 3 meeting but later received positive feedback from residents who watched the meeting online. They told him that they were “disgusted by the backlash” and “surprised by the bus that was rented without the board’s knowledge.”

“Seven thousand people saw this on TV; had I not passed this, folks wouldn’t have known about this,” Hembury said. “What was quiet years ago was now exposed.”

Hembury’s main priority for his decisions was accountability, and as stated last week, he wanted an activities director who would report back to the board with monthly updates on the senior center. He reiterated that the village’s seniors will have everything they currently have and assured that all the senior center’s games, furniture, and equipment will remain at the center.

“We’ll have a couple of bumps, but the seniors will be taken on many new trips. They’ll go to Saratoga, Foxwoods, all sorts of places. And they’ll continue all their activities,” Hembury said. “I’m not out to hurt anyone, I just want accountability.”

Picarello, meanwhile, hoped to further discuss the concerns of both the village board and advisory board during the meeting and find a compromise that would satisfy both parties. She asserted that the village’s seniors were already happy under the advisory board and felt that the village board should not have interfered with this program given the current issues that she and the other trustees are juggling.

“I intended to discuss the overall concerns of the board and senior center advisory board. We are not the only municipality having these problems, and I feel that this was a missed opportunity for us to work together,” Picarello said. “The village has bigger fish to fry than to take over this organization. We have a lot we’re working through and we have no business adding a new program to our plate.”

“If you have a group of residents crying and speaking out at the meeting, you have to ask ‘Why?’ You cannot just say that their behavior was inexcusable,” she continued. “I’m disappointed and distraught by the situation, but I will continue to represent and work with residents.”