Saratoga News

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

Management concerns
at Saratoga Senior Center

There are concerns about the management of the Saratoga Senior Center that the membership should be made aware of that needs further examination, and perhaps it would be best done at this time by the Saratoga City Council and the Saratoga city manager.

Member discontent has escalated for over a year now that has resulted in seven board members resigning in 2006. Their talented and wonderful cook, nominated Volunteer of the Year by the Junior League, said that she would no longer work there with the present administration. A staff member who did financial bookkeeping duties was fired, and then allowed to come back as a volunteer. The program director just left, and a talented staff member who worked for nine years and assisted the executive director was recently forced to leave. She was an emotional wreck and made a tearful departure.

There are other incidents not mentioned. Although membership is high, participation at activities and the Wednesday once-a-week lunch program has dwindled.

It appears there needs to be an immediate outside "intervention" with the help of the Saratoga City Council and the Saratoga city manager to meet with the Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council board and the executive director to consider a complete restructuring of the present administration. At that time, all members' written complaints to each SASCC board member should be reviewed and any action deemed necessary be taken to resolve the situation.

M. Ferguson

San Jose

Senior center no
longer welcoming

Except for hearsay, I don't know many details about [senior center executive director] Genie Dee's mistakes and errors, previous to the recent debacle of the aborted Christmas dinner. She has explained and apologized to the Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council board, and to those who bought tickets; but no explanation was given in the January newsletter to the members.

Genie's decision to be away on vacation when one of the biggest and most important events of the year was scheduled shows a serious lack of judgment and disregard for the people she was hired to serve.

Despite what Genie may think, we members are not stupid. We can see quite clearly that Genie is not a senior-friendly person and is not interested in us as individuals. We notice that at senior center events she hides behind her camera taking endless photos, but never stops to chat or visit with us.

I do not plan to renew my membership in 2007. The atmosphere at the senior center is no longer warm and welcoming. I am not willing to support it as it is now. There are others who share my views.

Jeanette Boettcher

Ravenswood Drive

Jeanette Boettcher has been a member of the Saratoga Senior Center since 1992. The annual Christmas dinner at the center was scheduled, but later cancelled.

City needs to address
issues in initiative

I support [the city council's] efforts to open a dialogue with sports user groups and neighborhood representatives on parks preservation. As one of parties who originally submitted the initiative, I am prepared to withdraw the initiative.

It is imperative that [the council] seriously address the issues raised in the initiative. It appears that the genie has been temporarily stuffed back in the bottle. However, the next time there might not be a Jeff Schwartz on the board of trustees to bail out the council. Add to this a unified neighborhood leadership, and Saratoga could well be facing World War III.

If, at the end of the day, organized sports come away with 100 percent and neighborhoods come away with nothing, this scenario will become a reality.

Stan Bogosian

Lomita Avenue

Should be ordinance
restricting signs

If the city of Saratoga does not have restrictions on the placing of advertising signs on private property--with respect to number, size, duration and nature--I think we should have.

I am appalled at election time with the explosion of cheap billboards declaring how the property owners intend to vote. I don't wish to know that and think it's an eyesore. I am very glad when elections are over.

Now we have the arrival of hundreds of advertising signs whose blatant purpose is ticket sales and monetary gain.

The new council, some of whom claimed they wanted to "preserve" the city, are off to a shaky start. What next? Advertising of the church bake sale? Pet grooming? Massages? Everyone knows that Anytown USA has a well-deserved reputation for unsightly advertising.

Is this the city we want, or could Saratoga not be preserved as a pleasant residential community?

Peter Knight

Glasgow Drive

Person returns signs
to the high school

An article appeared on the front page of the Jan. 24 edition of the Saratoga News. It detailed some issues regarding the theft of yard signs promoting the Saratoga High School production of the musical Into the Woods. In the same edition, a letter by me appeared, one in which I invited the person who took the signs to return them.

I want to sincerely say thank you to that person. This afternoon we discovered a stack of 27 well-used Into the Woods signs that had been left on a lawn area near the corner of Herriman and De Anza at the high school. To be fair, we also got 10 signs back from Jana Renaldi, the code enforcement official for the city of Saratoga who had rightfully pulled them from locations that didn't meet placement code--though not the locations sited in last week's list of concerns. Combined, that's a fair percentage of the missing signs.

I want to say that it heartens me that, when people are at odds, even passionately, differences can be bridged and goodwill can be demonstrated by all parties. It's a wonderful community, and the person who returned the signs is a positive part of it, whoever they are. They may be passionate, but they are also courageous, and at the end of the day, honorable.

I also want to thank the Saratoga News for being an example of positive print communication in our community, and thanks to the city of Saratoga for its professionalism. Now, if you'd all just come to the show.

Bill Pack

Saratoga

School play should
run for two weeks

It is indeed distressing that an adult in the community would harm and punish the drama students at Saratoga High by stealing signs instead of addressing whatever their issue is to the adults involved.

However, there is a much more harmful action that is occurring that students, parents and Saratoga taxpayers should be concerned about. And it is that since the McAfee was completed (paid for with taxpayer money through bonds and donations), the drama department's award-winning and internationally recognized as excellent productions, no longer perform over two weekends as they did for many years, but are given only one weekend instead. I guess it was naive of me when I voted for the bond money that built the McAfee to actually think the students at SHS would be given priority in using it!

The loss of the signs may result in several dozen people not having the opportunity to see Into the Woods; refusing to give the students the second weekend to perform in the McAfee that their thousands of hours of hard work have earned them results in 400-700 people being denied the opportunity to see the show.

Viki Patton

Franklin Avenue

Gratifying that Friends
reopened the library

I would like to congratulate and thank the Friends of the Saratoga Libraries for their efforts to reopen our library on Mondays! What an outstanding achievement for a volunteer group. It is very gratifying to me that a volunteer group and their dedication are able to make such a monumental contribution to our community.

Saratogans are very fortunate to have a library the high quality caliber of the Saratoga Library.

Laurel Perusa

Oriole Road