OASIS supporters angered by Costa Mesa fund-raising

Elise Gee

Officials and supporters of the OASIS Senior Center in Corona del Mar

have taken offense to fund-raising efforts by the Costa Mesa Senior

Center, which plans to mail solicitation letters to Newport Beach

residents whose names were gathered from county tax rolls.

The Costa Mesa Senior Center kicked off its annual campaign last week

with Orange County Tax Collector/Treasurer John Moorlach heading the

campaign as the auxiliary committee’s chairman.

About 58,000 letters will be sent to homeowners in Costa Mesa, Newport

Beach and Corona del Mar asking for financial support for the center.

And that isn’t sitting well with OASIS supporters.

“We have always worked with them,” Friends of OASIS President Anna-Jean

Sweet said of the Costa Mesa center. “Now it’s like a competitive thing

and there’s no sense in that. It’s like a cold war.”

OASIS Senior Center Director Celeste Jardine-Haug supported Sweet’s

statement, saying that Costa Mesa’s efforts were like a “slam” or “cheap

shot” and that they had “crossed the line.”

But, said Costa Mesa Senior Center Executive Director Alan Meyers, there

is no intention to take away OASIS’s donors.

“We are a nonprofit and this is how nonprofits survive in this world,” he

said.

There also are key differences in how the two centers operate: The OASIS

is a city-run and -funded facility augmented by the nonprofit Friends of

the OASIS while the Costa Mesa Senior Center is a nonprofit organization,

augmented by funding from the city.

Moorlach said he thought any issue of conflict that OASIS had was

one-sided.

“We have a bureaucracy that’s government-sponsored that’s crying foul

with a nonprofit, partially-funded government organization, which seems a

little immature, a little insecure and a little disappointing,” Moorlach

said. “I don’t think the Costa Mesa Senior Center would have a pity party

if the OASIS mailed letters to residents of Costa Mesa.”

Jardine-Haug took issue with Moorlach’s use of the county tax rolls to

get addresses of homeowners. Moorlach said that he was using public

information that’s available to the OASIS Senior Center if it wanted it.

Newport Beach’s Community Services Director LaDonna Kienitz confirmed

that OASIS is a city facility run by city staff and that the center’s

entire $441,000 operating budget comes from the city.

However, the Friends of the Oasis Senior Center group operates as a

nonprofit and raises $250,000 a year for services such as transportation

and other senior programs, Kienitz said.

The support from Friends of Oasis is also critical to the senior center’s

operation, she said.

And she supported OASIS concerns regarding fund-raising by the Costa Mesa

Senior Center.

“It seems inappropriate for another senior center from a neighboring city

to use our neighborhood as their fund-raising base,” Kienitz said.

However, Meyers said, the bulk of the population served by the Costa Mesa

Senior Center comes from Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. The center serves

5,220 seniors a year from Costa Mesa and 1,372 from Newport Beach, Corona

del Mar and Balboa Island.

All together, there are 7,693 seniors served by the Costa Mesa center

from 13 different cities.

While the Costa Mesa Senior Center operates as a nonprofit and is not

operated or run by the city, the city of Costa Mesa built the center. And

it has a five-year agreement to provide partial funding, which will

eventually be phased out so that the senior center will become

self-sufficient, said Stacia Mancini, recreation services division

manager.

The city will provide $100,000 to the center each year until 2001 when

funding will be cut to $75,000 and then $50,000 in 2002, Mancini said.

The center’s operating budget is $720,000, Meyers said.

Costa Mesa’s contribution, combined with grant funding, amounts to less

than one-third of all operating costs. The rest must be raised by the

center itself, Meyers said.

“Let’s grow up here,” Moorlach said. “Where’s the sense of community? Why

can the Performing Arts Center mail letters for solicitation to Newport

Beach but not the Costa Mesa Senior Center. I’m a little embarrassed for

the OASIS Senior Center and its leadership.”