"We're asking the county to rescue us financially and then subsidize us for a while as we try to understand and correct our problems," said Walt Kuver, the center's front man and interim vice president.
While admitting that past mistakes had been made, Kuver said, "We have to focus on the present so we even have a future - that's the point. The past has to be understood to understand the mistakes, but we can't dwell on it. We have to move forward, and that's what we're trying to do."
Kuver added, "It needs to be clearly said upfront that the county did not refuse to support us financially. It was the nonprofit corporation that turned down the county's support in July 2004." The senior center's board of directors, executive director and staff didn't like the conditions that went with the offer of financial support, he said. "They refused it, and in hindsight, that was a mistake."
However, executive director Mary Jane Files said in her defense that the senior center's many-faceted troubles predated her arrival in March 2004. Files said she only inherited the financial problems, aggravated by the formation of senior cliques with a lot of time on their hands to jockey for positions of influence on the board of directors.
Additionally, routine late payments of funds by both the county and the state of Nevada have contributed to the arrears in which the senior center now finds itself.
Moreover, the organization has become more complex in its financing and accounting operations, with twice as many grants contributing to its funding, than was the case before.
The immediate remedy to the problem is to get the nonprofit organization an infusion of cash and put it on life support, Kuver said. "We need immediate cash this week and next week to stay open," he said.
Past-due bills and payroll expenses were the reasons Kuver cited for the center's debts. Rescue by the county will take time, he said. "It has to be decided on as an intermediate and a long-term solution."
The senior center was formed as an independent private corporation in 1999. Nye County transferred its 1.2 acres of land on which the 60-year-old building sits in a mobile-home park to Pahrump Senior Center Inc. The center was organized to operate under written bylaws that have since been revised several times, Kuver said.
One week ago, the new board of trustees started advertising for people to apply to stand for election, tentatively set for the end of January 2006. Governance would then pass to the seven-member board of directors elected by the senior membership.
"That last phrase has been a point of contention," Kuver admitted. Election of candidates to the board has "created chaos in the past," he said. "Elections were turned into popularity contests, and people lost sight of the fact that board members have to have some skills.
Additionally, a way must be found to allow greater participation of the membership in the appointment of new board members, while at the same time screening out the formation of power blocs designed to take over the center's operations, threatening its proper functioning as a business.
Kuver said of the temporary board of trustees, "We are just a transition board right now. I certainly can't operate by myself. The key is: I'm not alone; I'm not the Lone Ranger.
Pahrump Senior Center Inc. has responsibility for "everything that goes with running a business," Kuver said - increased fuel costs, vehicle maintenance costs, food costs and payroll costs for a staff of 14, which incidentally do not receive paid benefits such as health insurance.
"There're a lot of government restrictions and requirements for reporting statistics of people fed," Kuver added: "You cannot charge for these meals; you can only request a donation. So you have to have savvy to operate with the deficit built into the grants you receive. The state of Nevada acknowledges that the grants do not cover the full costs of preparing and serving a meal and running buses.
"The grant amounts are fixed, and when the gas goes up and the passengers are dispersed for miles in the valley, you just have to live with it," Kuver said.
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