Monday is never a good day, but this is ridiculous.
Redwood Coast Senior Center Executive Director Charles Bush went back to work today, Sept. 23, after a 4-2-2 vote last week by the board of directors to fire him. Some of those board members have since said Bush was not actually fired.
He”s baffled, as are several board members and indeed the entire staff of the senior center, on this Monday of Mondays.
“Thank you for your many kind words of support and encouragement during the past three days of confusion concerning the actions of the Board of Directors of the Senior Center relative to their vote to dismiss me from my position as Executive Director. I have received far too many communications to respond personally, so although I have never before posted to the listserv, I have asked my wife Sakina to pass on this note to you all,” Bush wrote to the MCN listservs.
“Because of irregularities in procedure, and the absence of official notification from the Board that I have been dismissed, I have been advised by legal counsel to go to work Monday morning and continue executing the responsibilities of my position,” Bush said.
Bush encourages everyone to continue supporting the senior center in Fort Bragg.
“Serving the Senior Center has been one of the joys of my life,” said Bush. “The financial disaster of the ”great recession” could well have been so very harmful to local elders who depend on the Center for so much. Instead, you have all responded to my constant asking for your volunteer work and financial support with such generosity that we haven”t cut a single service, and in fact are doing more than ever. The wonderful staff of the Center have economized, doing more with less every year and taking on an ever greater work load.”
The annual meeting of the board is scheduled for this Friday, Sept. 27, at 1 p.m. at the Senior Center, 490 N. Harold St., next to the middle school. A new board member will be elected from four candidates who applied for the position by the application deadline. New officers will be elected. A full agenda for the meeting has not yet been published. This is a public meeting.
Timeline of events surrounding the vote to fire Charles Bush
1. Board members were notified privately that there would be a special meeting Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 2:30. Two board members, Syd Balows and Bob Bushansky, say they asked for information regarding the subject of the meeting but never got that information.
2. By all accounts so far, no agenda was posted at the Senior Center prior to the meeting. This would appear to be a clear violation of the bylaws. An emergency meeting can happen faster but no reason for an emergency has ever been stated, nor any claim that an emergency meeting was held.
3. The next big question is whether or not the meeting was first called to order as a special meeting in open session? This is required of any special meeting. Then, did the board vote to close the meeting and go into closed session? So far, the information this newspaper has is that none of this happened. If that is true, the entire meeting would likely be found to be illegal. However, if the board did convene in open session and then move to closed session, then board members Balows and Bushansky would likely be in trouble for discussing what happened publicly. However, Bushansky left the meeting because of irregularities, including that no closed session had been called. Balows insists the meeting was a public meeting and no vote was ever taken to move to executive session. Balows tape recorded the meeting. Although he was told by others to stop, he asserted his right to do so and kept on taping. Balows and Bushansky raised objections to the meeting, including the fact that no agenda was posted as required, either in the senior center or on the senior center website.
4. A secret ballot was held. Under California open records law, this would be illegal. However, the Senior Center board does not appear to be a public body or public agency. Thus, Robert”s Rules of Order, which is cited in the Senior Center bylaws, takes over. Robert”s allows for secret ballots.
5. A list of tasks for certain board members to do AFTER firing Bush was handed out. The list did not include tasks for board members known to support Bush. The list detailed two weeks of activities, such as change the locks on the doors, with a board member assigned to each task. However, Balows, who was at the Sept. 18 meeting, says he was not assigned any tasks. If the list was drawn up in advance, with names attached, this could be a serious violation that indicates that just some board members met secretly prior to Wednesday, not telling board members they disagreed with, and even writing down what they did on a list of tasks to be performed AFTER Bush was fired.
6. The vote has been widely reported as 4 to fire, 2 no and 2 abstentions. Names have been attached to those votes in many published sources. However, the only person of the eight still at the meeting who has revealed his vote to this newspaper was Balows, who voted no. This newspaper has emailed all those at the meeting, but has only received short replies saying Bush was not fired.
7. Balows said he left the meeting before it ended and left the building with Bush. Bush told this newspaper that was true and he, Bush, had told the janitor to be sure to lock up after the last board member was gone.
8. Apparently, after Balows left, the remaining board members continued to talk and decided that the vote somehow did not mean Bush was actually fired. Bush has not been able to get an explanation of what that means. Nor has this newspaper, nor have outraged Bush supporters posting to MCN listservs and other online outlets.
9. Bush went to the Senior Center at 8 a.m. last Thursday morning, Sept. 19, expecting to be greeted by the board president asking for his keys. No board person was there. “I left for my usual Thursday morning breakfast meeting with an ongoing group of local business folks, nonprofit managers and board members,” Bush said. “I left a message at the front desk to inform any board members that I would return at 10 a.m.” Bush said he returned at 10 a.m., Thursday, along with Bushansky and Balows. “Board member Sandra Donato joined us in my office and stated that ”the Board has not notified you that you have been fired, so you haven”t.” I asked her if the board had voted to dismiss me from my position as executive director,” Bush said. “She said yes they had, but I wasn”t fired until they told me so. I told her that seemed crazy and put me in an impossible situation, and that I didn”t understand either what was going on, or what do to. After some very angry and heated words among the four of us, Sandra left.”
10. Determined to find out what his standing was, Bush called more people. He learned that a motion to table the matter had been refused and that the board had no plans to reconsider the vote. To him, that sounded more like firing. On Friday, he took a sick day and tried to figure out what he should do next. Still unsure of whether he is employed or not, he plans to work and see if he gets another check.
(Source of information: Bush and four board members)
