Seniors want more control of center

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- A growing number of Costa Mesa Senior Center members --

some who called for the ousting of the center’s recently fired director

months ago -- want more control of their facility, starting with greater

input in staff hiring.

“There’s been an abysmal lack of communication between us, the staff and

the board,” said Kathleen Cole, a member of a newly formed board of

directors’ advisory committee, which met Monday. “The board is too

complacent. It needs to pay attention to the seniors.”

She said the board should have listened to seniors’ reservations about

the center’s former executive director, Alan M. Meyers. The board fired

him just nine months after he was hired, after Costa Mesa police

investigators presented a detailed report to board members in May.

Authorities alleged Meyers had impersonated doctors, skimmed money from

several nonprofit organizations and served jail time for choking a doctor

whose identity he allegedly assumed. The center is partially funded by

the city.

Police officials haven’t pressed charges, but are investigating whether

the board hired Meyers based on bogus credentials and professional

degrees, Lt. Ron Smith of the Costa Mesa Police Department said last

week.

Meyers, who has turned down repeated requests for comment, has denied all

allegations. On Wednesday, he is scheduled to go to trial for allegedly

stealing money from a nonprofit group in Oregon.

Three months before the board fired Meyers, more than 100 seniors signed

a petition questioning his motives and calling for him to be replaced.

“It soon became apparent after his appointment that he had little, if

any, interest in the seniors or the Senior Center except to use it as a

stepping stone for his own personal advancement,” said a letter

accompanying the seniors’ petition, which was presented to the City

Council in February.

“They completely ignored us until the police got involved,” said Jack

Hernance, who led the signature-gathering effort and is chairman of the

new committee. “We formed this group in response to not being heard.”

The committee’s stated goals include lobbying for improved building

maintenance, writing articles in the center’s monthly newsletter and

recommending new programs at the center.

Senior center board member Jerry Richards, who is also a member of a

hiring committee for the new executive director, agreed that the board

should seriously listen to what the center’s members have to say about

each candidate.

“If he doesn’t have an affinity or affiliation with seniors, why bother?”

he asked. “We don’t need another senseless bureaucrat.”