LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors accepted a request to delay making a decision on whether to continue a contract with the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center.
Social Services Department Director Carol Huchingson asked the board for direction on the $4,400 contract with Lucerne Alpine Seniors Inc. for health-related senior support services.
On Feb. 28 the board for the Area Agency on Aging for Lake and Mendocino Counties terminated its $66,000 annual contract with the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center based on a state auditor’s conclusion that the center was a “high risk” provider of nutrition services, as Lake County News reported.
Huchingson told the board that the termination of the Area Agency on Aging contract raised questions about the center’s overall stability. The contract is being paid on a month to month basis.
Initially center Executive Director Robert Clifton said the center would not seek an appeal of the decision, but days later the center board appointed a new executive director, Rae Eby-Carl.
Eby-Carl, who took the job on Monday, March 4, has extensive experience with nonprofits and social programs.
She appeared before the board Tuesday and asked that the decision wait until the appeal process was completed. The payments the county makes to the center are for services that work in conjunction with the nutrition program, she said.
“You’re in a turnaround situation,” said Supervisor Denise Rushing. “This is going to be a real management challenge.”
Rushing urged Eby-Carl to draw on members of the community – Rushing included – to help turn the center around.
The board will want to know the status of the center’s financial stability when it next considers the contract.
“We will be extremely transparent with that, as well as very detailed in our monitoring,” Eby-Carl responded.
Rushing told Huchingson that she wanted staff to monitor the center closely, and wanted to hear back from the center in the future about its stability.
The appeal, according to Eby-Carl, is due to be heard by the Area Agency on Aging later this month.
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