‘Proposal not related to Leece’

Councilman Gary Monahan has proposed creating an ad hoc committee to review the Costa Mesa Senior Center’s programs and offerings and decide what the city’s role should be in the center’s future. The proposal will come before the City Council Tuesday night.

Expanding the center’s offerings and improving the facilities are among what the task force will look into, according to Monahan, and the city will likely have to invest more money to achieve those things. He said the move was prompted by the coming expiration of the center’s contract with the city on June 30, 2010, and not by shortcomings in the center or its management. The city’s involvement in the center has been a bone of contention recently, though, as Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece has said that seniors unhappy with the organization’s management have encouraged her to try to get the City Council to have a more prominent position in the center’s governance. Monahan said that this wouldn’t be the aim of his proposal, though.

“I’m not hearing complaints or pointing fingers, I just believe the city should be more involved in the center especially from a financial standpoint,” Monahan said.

The voting portion of the committee will be composed of seven people — two council members, two senior center board members and three at-large community members — according to Monahan’s proposal. Monahan said it will not be a standing committee: It will dissolve after making recommendations to the council and the Senior Center board.

Board members and the center’s executive director Aviva Goelman were surprised by the move Friday. They said they didn’t know why the committee was being formed.

“I need to know more about what’s motivating this. We report regularly on what programs we offer and compare ourselves to other senior centers. We’ve had a pretty rich program selection,” said board member Bruce Garlich.

He called Monahan a “friend of the Senior Center” and said he would take a positive view of the task force’s potential.

Lately, though, there has been controversy over how much involvement the City Council should have in the operation of the center. Unlike many of the senior centers around the county, Costa Mesa’s is not owned by the city, it’s a private corporation. About one-third of its budget comes from the city and the rest comes from private donors and grants.

The board governs the senior center, but lately they have felt that Leece — the City Council’s liaison to the center — has been attacking their autonomy by insisting on knowing private information like employee salaries and asking for a vote on the board. This has put her at odds with many of the board members because they see her requests for information as an affront to their status as a private corporation and an attempt to have the city take control of the center.

The board members and board director hadn’t had a chance to talk with Monahan about the task force before Friday, but said that Leece’s recent actions have made them skeptical of the proposal. Goelman and the board’s president, Arlene Flanagan, both expressed interest in the prospect of increasing programs at the center, but were worried that the committee could be a harbinger of a city effort to take the center’s management into its own hands.

“If they’re going to start nitpicking our programs that means we’re no longer running the center,” Goelman said.

They also requested that if the task force is created, Leece not be one of the two council representatives.

Monahan declined to comment on the dispute between Leece and the center’s management, but said that it is not the intention of the committee to usurp control from the board.

“I can understand why they would have this fear but this is an attempt to work with the senior center, it’s not about the city increasing oversight or taking over,” Monahan said.

He said that he would want to be one of the council members on the task force.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.