Senior Center paid $70k but got no roof

The senior center lost approximately $70,000 this year to a contractor with a documented history of scamming clients in Washington, and it looks like the money is gone for good. 

The board president of the local 501(c)3 nonprofit organization reportedly wrote the check based on an unrealistic, unclear and over-valued contract with no specified end-date - an expense that, according to the senior center's own bylaws, should have gone before both the full board and the general membership for approval.

Then, when an active, longtime member questioned the roofer over his lack of legally required permits to begin the work, the board of directors banned her from the center.

The exact details of that encounter are in dispute, but Jesus Alvarez, a general contractor out of Entiat, reportedly told senior center leadership he could not begin the work if that member, Birdie Hensley, was anywhere near the premises. 

The board banned Hensley, an active longtime member, in favor of the roofer. She was escorted out by a Grand Coulee police officer earlier this year. Weeks went by. The work didn't get done.

Now months later, the matter is beginning to be put to rest. At the board's June 21 meeting, Secretary Fred Netzel facilitated, rather than President Dave Roberts, though Roberts was present.

Netzel presented a letter showing the board's attorney has terminated the senior center's contract with Alvarez, over material breach. That being done, the board voted to officially reinstate Hensley's membership and allow her back at the center. Vice President Cheryl Hoffman volunteered to inform her. 

Immediately following the 9 o'clock board meeting, Hoffman and Netzel addressed around 20 members at the monthly membership meeting. Of particular interest was whether they had any recourse to get the money back.

"Our attorney has said: First we'd have to run the guy down, and then we would have to take him to court, and if the judgment was against him, we would be in line to collect after everybody ahead of us has been paid," Netzel said. "So it will cost a significant amount of money to track this guy down, and there's no reasonable expectation that even if we do that, and we get him into court, and we get a judgment, that we'll get a nickel back. 

"Unfortunately, that's where we're at," he said.

"And we don't have debtors prisons in the United States," added Hoffman. "There's no criminal penalties, unless somebody wants to pursue the county [prosecutor] to try and get criminal fraud charges." 

After the membership meeting, Netzel told The Star he wasn't sure if the whole debacle will impact the nonprofit organization's ability to attract donations in the future, and that it will depend on what the community believes went wrong. 

If they think "something shady" went on – awarding a vaguely-worded high-dollar contract to a relative, for example – then perhaps.

"But I think people will understand we just made a mistake, and we're putting safeguards in place so that it won't happen again," he said. 

The center has already received an informal estimate from Nic Alexander to repair the roof, for around $15,000.

And even if they don't recover any of the lost $70,000, the board did receive a bit of good news. At the meeting they learned the center would be receiving an unexpected $9,750 from the state Department of Revenue.

It seems a member some time ago had taken it upon herself to search out whether the Grand Coulee Dam Area Senior Center had any funds held by the department's unclaimed property program - funds the board could rightfully claim with the proper paperwork. 

Guess who.

"This was Birdie's operation," Netzel said. "Bless her heart."