Editorial

Task force report provides council good reason to act

The Los Gatos Senior Task Force did its homework well, and in the process, members learned what many older residents of Los Gatos already knew. In spite of statistics showing 38 organizations or places offering services for seniors, there is much confusion about what's available.

The task force found that lack of coordination is a key reason for the confusion.

At the heart of the task force report to the Town Council is the demographic reality that the adult population is beginning to grow at an accelerated rate, and that Los Gatos would do well to wake up to that fact. Most communities began planning for this years ago.

These findings led the group to urge immediate planning for an older adult center. In the meantime, the task force wisely advised the town to hire a full-time coordinator of adult services and to begin preparing for better utilization of the Neighborhood Center for senior programming.

These are excellent recommendations.

The task force deserves high praise for employing an investigative approach that took a hard look at how the town stacks up against neighboring communities in providing for the needs of its aging population.

We also commend the Town Council for appointing representatives to the task force who had no vested interest in protecting the status quo.

Although some service providers were on the task force, it has been clear for some time that they understand better than anyone how lack of coordination hurts overall delivery. The people who are in this business want their efforts to be as productive as possible. It is, after all, a people-serving business.

We urge the council to adopt the report in its entirety and to begin acting on it immediately.

The new budget should reflect funding for a coordinator of older adult services, and it would be wise, as the task force recommended, to consider a cooperative effort between the town and the Los Gatos-Saratoga Department of Community Education and Recreation, which has taken on much of the recreational programming that currently exists.

Of critical importance, however, is that the job go to one energetic person with training to coordinate services and volunteers, do budgeting and keep the focus on eventually putting the majority of programs under one roof. In other words, an advocate for the community's older adults.

Making the Neighborhood Center more homey and attractive to seniors, and devoting more time in the center to senior activities is nothing more than what the town agreed to do when it acquired Community Development Block Grant funding to build the center in the first place.

The task force did a commendable job. Now the ball is in the Town Council's court.

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