If I were an employee at Senior Services in ANY capacity I’d be shaking in my shoes for fear that I’d be next. If a CEO can arbitrarily fire someone with Karen’s years of distinction and service for sending an email then believe me no one’s job is safe.

No due process, no board approval, no open discussion, no debate, no nothing. Just fire the best director that the SCWS is ever likely to have after 25 years of extraordinary service, then duck for cover and refuse to acknowledge the uproar your decision has created.

Just wanted to let you know that there a many, many folks who are still watching for updates on this story and still very interested in what happens next.

With much thanks for all you do..

Jan

I apologize, we’re still recovering from the weekend, watch this space tonight for the next story.

Is there new information on this? I see that an update was expected on July 14th but don’t see anything. Did the West Seattle Senior Center board get an explanation from the Senior Services board? Has Paula Houston responded to any of the e-mails she has received?

I can’t find John Norden or Troy Pladson’s emails on the internet but here are the other officers:

Mark Stensager: mstensager@gmail.com
Joe Creed: jcreed@cefirm.com
Shannon Fuhrman: shannon.fuhrman@regence.com

Also, the CEO Paula Houston’s email is paulah@seniorservices.org if you’d like to contact her directly. Nearly all of the staff emails are Senior Services are the first name followed by the first letter of the last name.

I encourage everybody who can speak up to do so. There are many more people (like myself) who would like to be more vocal, but can’t given our relationship with the organization. Please be nice to the Board members – the ones I’ve met are good people and may not be aware of the whole situation.

Since I’m guessing it’s a volunteer board, you’d probably just need to Google to see if the key members’ e-mail addresses are publicly listed (through their work, etc.). Meantime, we expect to publish an update this afternoon, including the latest from the WS board president Dave Robertson, so if anyone monitoring this has any new information – please note our own address isn’t working at the moment thanks to a server failure, so we’re reachable at westseattleblog@gmail.com – Tracy

One of the obvious conclusions that I would like to make is that the CEO of Senior Services of Seattle handled this manner so poorly that her board would be negligent if they did not look into it. Senior Services may be an at will employer that can terminate employees for any reason at any time but for a leader to terminate a well respected professional in a manner that alienates an entire community (West Seattle), disempowers two governing boards, and creates fear and a loss of trust with its hundreds of dedicated employees and thousands of volunteers is negligence.

Ms. Houston’s spectacular lack of judgment and insight demonstrated in the handling of this issue would also necessitate that her board look deeper. This is not likely to be her only “personnel issue” failure during her half year at the helm of Senior Services. Her board should exam her judgment in hiring, firing, administration and leadership. If she handles firing so callously how does she handle hiring her immediate reports? Does the staff have a clear understanding of the vision Ms. Houston has for Senior Services or does her leadership bring confusion and fear into the workplace? Did the board of Senior Services make a mistake in their own hiring decision? Does her board need to lead by example and demonstrate how to handle the termination of the head of an organization in a fashion that actually builds trusts instead of distrust with its community partners, employees, volunteers, funders and the clients they serve?

Will the board of Senior Services do a serious inquiry into these and other questions? Will it poll the employees, volunteers, funders and clients about their experiences with the new leader of Senior Services or will it just show up for meetings and take at face value the sterilized reports presented to them? It is okay to have made a hiring mistake but when the writing is on the wall and the effectiveness of an organization that serves tens of thousands of King County’s seniors is at stake you need to take clear and decisive action to correct that mistake.

Karen Sisson has a 25-year track record of providing quality and even innovative leadership to the community and in the service of the Seattle aging population. She was terminated within hours of simply expressing her concerns in a manner that didn’t suit her boss’ leadership style. Ms. Houston has seven months of working in this sector (employment and title do not equal service) and she has only racked up ill will and consistently demonstrated poor judgment and lack of leadership. How long will it be before her boss, the Senior Services Board of Directors, takes action?

Take action before the ability of Senior Services to perform its mission is permanently damaged. Check out Senior Services Mission, Vision and Cultural Competence statements at http://seniorservices.org/WhoWeAre.aspx Do you think the new CEO or her actions embody these?

Please join me in asking the following board members of Senior Services to review the incident reported on in this article as well as the leadership health at Senior Services. Board members: John Norden (Chair), Troy Pladson, Mark Stensager, Joe Creed, Shannon Furman, Debbie Anderson, Paul Beck, Eileen M. Birge, Cheryle A. Broom, Joe Garcia, Michael Goodheim, David Haack, Jennifer Paulett, Helen Sikov, Sharon Sobers-Outlaw, Lorna Stone, Jeanne Marie Thomas and Pran Wahi.
http://seniorservices.org/WhoWeAre/BoardofDirectors.aspx

Senior Services’ spokesperson Karen Bystrom only has it half correct. The unilateral, on the spot firing of a well respected and accomplished advocate for the aging community with 25 years of faithful service and the simultaneous alienation of an entire Seattle neighborhood is not just a “personnel matter”; it is news. A “personnel matter” would be a board actually exercising their responsibility to provide oversight of a CEO by performing an inclusive inquiry into a CEO’s questionable leadership and judgment across an organization and either terminate that individual or issue a public vote of confidence.

As a long time resident of Seattle, a soon to be retiree, a volunteer, a board member of sister organizations to Senior Services, and even a regular donor to Senior Services, I can assure the board of directors of Senior Services that Seattle and King County is watching. We are waiting to see if the outside perception of a hostile work environment and loss of trust caused by the top leadership is addressed. We were willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and categorize the grumblings of our colleagues at Senior Services as normal new leadership growing pains but now we expect some answers.

Karen Sisson was my boss for eight years as her administrative assistant. It was during that time when she started the Capital Campaign for the Senior Center of West Seattle. I have never seen anyone as vigorously and as tremendously dedicated in pursuing the success of this Capital Campaign as Karen did. To the point of being obsessed and where her life (almost) revolved around this project during that time. Seeing how passionately involved she was in wanting this project to succeed, her Board of Directors was totally and unequivocally behind her. I saw her pursue any and all sources and resources where she thought the senior center would benefit from, no matter what the amount was. That’s how she was. Karen went beyond the call of duty and would drive her husband’s van to pick up donations from the seniors even at nighttime that in turn benefitted the center’s thrift store, The Stop ‘N Shop. And I have also seen her with her husband do that many times. She had opened the senior center to many possibilities and had given opportunity to all sectors of the community. At first I thought she was being really brave and unwise when she started the Rainbow Bingo at the center where the bingo players were all seniors. But as it turned out, the Rainbow Bingo was a big hit among the seniors! Was that cool or what? She made it possible for the LGBT community to be part of the core of the seniors’ activity and that was to play bingo. Karen had created a win-win situation where everyone co-existed with no problem, no judgment or bias.

It was such a shock to say the least, when I read this article about Karen getting fired by the powers that be from the head office, the Senior Services of Seattle. I can’t wrap my brain around it. The news was so upsetting to me that I have decided to contribute my piece here and join the many who had aired their opinions and their feelings of disgust by the abysmal way Karen Sisson was treated and how this situation was handled. She does NOT deserve this. I have known Karen for many years and I have seen her passion and her compassion toward what the senior center stands for. The whole community is watching and would want to know what will come out of this ultimately. This is a sad day.

Thank you,
Hilda Teodoro