Seniors looking for some results

While it's true you can't please everybody all the time, the boards in charge of the Carson City Senior Center took a significant stride last week toward resolving some long-simmering problems.

The center has both a governing board and an advisory board. To complicate matters further, the Carson City Board of Supervisors makes many of the ultimate decisions on the center, and the director and employees work for the city.

Perhaps there are too many decision-makers and not enough decisions. In any case, many senior residents of Carson City believed their concerns were not being addressed.

It took a summit meeting of sorts on Friday to clear at least some of the air. It was a necessary and welcome step in the right direction. Now it's time to look for results.

One general suggestion would be for the senior center boards to be far more open in their relations with the people they serve. The organization behind the governing board is a non-profit corporation, but that doesn't mean board members need to be defensive when residents start asking about such sensitive issues as employee discipline and the finances of the center.

Part of the simmering frustration of seniors was built up by vague answers, resistance to opening up the details of the center's operation and the appearance, at least, of unresponsiveness - even if there was action going on "behind the scenes."

And although the corporation is a private non-profit, there are lots of tax dollars going into the Senior Center. City supervisors have a responsibility to make sure the public knows, understands and generally agrees with how their money is being spent.

The seniors, to their credit, presented not only the problems they see but suggestions for how to solve them. With the issues now on the table, we'll be interested to hear next month how the center's leaders are resolving them.