Edmonds' South County Senior Center tries to determine the future of its organization

Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson had stern words for the feuding board members of the South County Senior Center: Stop acting like kindergartners.

The scolding culminated several tumultuous months at the senior center, where the sudden firing of a popular director sparked an insurrection by members who sued their board of directors to win the right to replace them.

The members voted in a new board president: Rose Cantwell, mother of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.

Cantwell, who must now referee meetings of a board with dueling factions, has prepared herself for the task by purchasing a copy of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Robert's Rules of Order" and enrolling in a class on human psychology.

Despite Cantwell's preparation, the board's meetings in March and April ended amid chaos and name-calling, prompting Haakenson to step in during last month's meeting.

"Get over it," Haakenson said. "Put an end to the silliness that has been going on. With the wealth of lifetime experience on this board, you should have had some solutions by now."

At stake, members say, is the future of the South County Senior Center and whether a place that offers crafts, lunch and bingo will evolve into an organization that welcomes a younger, more active generation of new retirees.

"We need to be more than bingo, bridge and lunch," Cantwell said. "We need to attract younger seniors."

That the battle is taking place in Edmonds may be no coincidence. The city is a harbinger of what's been called the "age tsunami," when the pending retirement of baby boomers influences everything from urban design to health care to the direction of retirement centers. Seniors in Edmonds already represent a third of the city's 40,500 residents and will approach 40 percent by 2012, according to U.S. Census projections.

"Senior advocates around the county are asking what models are working to keep centers relevant and vibrant. Those that don't have already seen membership decline as older members pass away," said Phil Sullivan, executive director of Senior Services of Snohomish County.

The flap at the South County Senior Center erupted in October when long-serving board members fired Director Farrell Fleming without warning and without explanation, saying only that it was a "personnel issue."

Angry center members were told by the board that directors appointed their own successors and that the members had no power to vote them out of office.

"We miss Farrell, but that isn't the issue," said Liz Windgate, one of the disgruntled members. "We started looking at other senior centers and at all of them, the members elected the board. When we pointed this out to our board, they took it as an affront rather than an opportunity to grow."

Jeannette Wood, a former state legislator who has served two terms on the senior-center board, said the directors were stunned by the outcry of members who had never attended a board meeting and didn't even know when they were held.

"Up until October, this was the most boring board I'd ever served on," Wood said.

Members found a clause in the board's governing rules that did allow for them to elect the board officers, but it was only after filing a lawsuit against the 16-member board in Snohomish County Superior Court, that the board backed down and allowed an election to go forward in March.

A new slate of officers was swept in with 80 percent of the membership vote, but the result has been nearly unworkable. Four new officers and two "old board" sympathetic members preside over 10 "old guard" directors who regularly vote down their initiatives.

The new officers have further alienated the old board, who collectively have more than 100 years experience running the senior center, by calling on all of them to resign.

Steve Stout, who has served on the senior-center board for 24 years, said the old board wants to ensure the center's stability, but he also expressed hope that the new director, Hallie Olson, would re-energize the center's activities and programs.

"Should we become more dynamic? I hope so. Every center needs to be revitalized from time to time," he said.

Cantwell, 76, who shares her Edmonds home with her senator daughter, said the membership is asking that the center be run in a democratic manner.

A former administrator for the city of Indianapolis, Cantwell points out that members were previously only allowed to address the board if they requested permission two weeks in advance.

And she points to the Northshore Senior Center in Bothell, with its wide array of programs, an adult day center and a health and wellness center, as a model of what a modern senior center can be.

Northshore built new facilities with two public bond measures totaling $6.6 million and enjoys a nearly $3 million annual budget compared to $550,000 at the Edmonds center.

Haakenson told the Edmonds seniors that the gravest problem facing the center wasn't the deep division between board members, but the condition of the building on the Edmonds waterfront, which is slowly sinking and will need $4 million in structural reinforcement.

"At the rate you're all moving, the center won't exist in the future," Haakenson said.

After the meeting, Cantwell said the mayor's presence seemed to have a moderating influence on the warring factions. New board members said they supported replacing old members as their terms expired and not in one sweeping purge. Old board members suggested that the membership be given the right to elect them. The board has scheduled a retreat -- with trained mediators -- for June 6.

Long-serving board member Stout agrees that the future of the center hangs in the balance.

"Edmonds is a graying community. We can't ignore these seniors. A lot of people have a stake in the center doing well."

Lynn Thompson: 206-464-8305 or lthompson@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times news researcher David Turim contributed to this report