Two weeks ago, the Village of Montgomery Board declined to renew its contract with the Montgomery Senior Center’s advisory board, opting to hire a new senior activities director instead. During the September 3 meeting, Mayor Mike Hembury stated that the advisory board lacked communication and accountability, withheld financial information, hired a new director without his approval, and misused funding for a Yankees game.

Since then, members of the advisory board announced their responses to the mayor’s statements, and they hope to clarify any rumors or misinformation going around.

The advisory board, also known as the MSC, is a nonprofit organization that was established in 1983 to manage the senior center’s programs and services, comprising volunteers from the Village and Town of Montgomery. The group previously operated out of Wesley Hall, which later became the village museum, until the current senior center was built in 2007. The MSC has received funding from the town, its three villages, and Jonah Mandelbaum, a senior housing developer.

Tom Sheridan, a former MSC president who joined the group in 2012, asserted that the village board, during former Mayor Steve Brescia’s term, never questioned the MSC about its contract in the 12 years following the previous contract’s expiration. MSC members presumed that the mayor and trustees never brought up the contract because they trusted the advisory board to carry out the senior center’s operations.

“The first time that I viewed a contract between the village and the advisory board was at the June 2024 meeting with the village board. This topic was never discussed with the advisory board by the previous village administration,” Sheridan said. “The contract that I was shown was dated 2012 and signed by Director Audrey DiAngelo, who was employed by the advisory board at the time.”

Over the last decade, the MSC appointed activity directors through a hiring committee that carefully reviewed and chose the most qualified candidates. Sheridan stated that the village board was never involved in the MSC’s hiring process until last June when Hembury asked Mary McCabe, the newest director, to undergo a fingerprinting at the village police station. Other MSC members noted that Deputy Mayor Darlene Andolsek, who was a liaison between the village and advisory board, did not provide input whenever the MSC hired a new director.

“Since 2012, the advisory board has hired three directors and one assistant director. During that time, no one from the village board ever requested to be involved in the hiring process,” Sheridan said. “The recent change was no exception. Our previous director, Trish Murphy, did not suddenly leave. She and her family built a home in another state and she gave us almost a year’s notice of her intent. Anyone who had even a remote interest in the senior center or visited the center would have known of her impending departure.”

“We began the selection process in the spring of this year and hired the new director about two months before the outgoing director was leaving,” he continued. “The first time I was told that the mayor believed the village trustees should have been involved in the hiring process was at a meeting in June to discuss the contract, about a week after we had hired the new director.”

Additionally, while the advisory board complied with Hembury’s request for fingerprinting, it did not agree to criminal background checks. MSC members argued that McCabe was a long-time resident who had already undergone background checks during her service in the federal government.

“When told by the mayor that the fingerprinting process would only involve a visit to the village police headquarters, we agreed that the new director would be fingerprinted. When she contacted the village police, she was told that they do not do any fingerprinting and that she would have to travel to Newburgh and pay a fee for the fingerprinting; we did not agree to that,” Sheridan said. “The new director is a village resident, all of her references were checked, and she was recommended by her previous employers. We did not see a reason to do more.”

Regarding financial records, Sheridan assured that the MSC took all the necessary steps to file annual tax returns, prepare the proper documentation with its treasurer, and discuss the senior center’s budget during meetings. He noted that the village board never requested any records until recently and that both boards share the same auditor; if the MSC was misusing funds, the auditor would have alerted the village board.

“We have never been asked for any financial reports from the village, the town, or Jonah Mandelbaum, the main sources of funds for the advisory board’s operations. Our tax forms are public records and based on prior years, and we believed these were our only obligations” Sheridan said. “Our treasurer presents regular financial reports at our board meetings and our board meets at least once every three months.”

Lastly, in response to the Yankees baseball trip on July 23, Sheridan mentioned that the village paid the bus fare for the senior center’s previous trips.

“During the 12 previous years, the Village of Montgomery traditionally paid for the buses for three senior trips, expenditures that the current mayor and other members of the village board were aware of or should have been aware of because it has been an established practice,” Sheridan said.

Overall, MSC members asserted that the village’s seniors were happy under their services over the last few decades. They felt that the village board’s decision to evict them was hasty and unfair, not only to the advisory board but also to the seniors.