MOORPARK : Senior Center Panel Is Cut to 5 Members

Moorpark council members have decided to cut the size of the city’s Senior Center Advisory Committee from seven members to five--and in the process forcing the board’s two most combative, outspoken members to reapply for one open seat.

“Apparently what they want is a bunch of yes men,” said Gerry Goldstein, a frequent City Council critic who was appointed to the advisory board last year. “I think every town needs at least one curmudgeon.”

The council on Wednesday accepted a recommendation by Christine Adams, city director of community services, to cut the size of the board because meetings were running too long and the seven-member format had become too unwieldy.

“Five members, that’s five opinions and five recommendations,” Adams told the council. “I think that’s easier to work with than seven.”

The council had originally intended that the board have five members, Adams said, but when seven applications came in last year, the council decided to appoint all the candidates and see how things turned out.

“It’s just been a nightmare,” Adams said Thursday. “Our committee meetings take 2 1/2 to three hours once a month and they shouldn’t. . . . I just think five people will be much easier to work with. We don’t have seven-member city councils and I think for good reason.”

Because of terms of last year’s appointments, four existing members will automatically be extended for a second year, while Goldstein and Joe Latunski--another opinionated resident--will be forced to reapply and compete with all other applicants for the one available seat. The seventh original member had resigned from the committee.

Goldstein attended Wednesday’s council meeting and complained about a lack of direct contact between the committee and council members and about conditions at the Senior Center. He said the center doesn’t even have a bulletin board available for senior use and that all notices or flyers must be posted with the permission of Senior Center Coordinator Carol Ghens.

“As if the seniors, who have built this community, are somehow too immature to put up a note,” Goldstein said. “The closest thing we have to a bulletin board is a large poster advertising laxatives and antacids.”

While Goldstein said he may apply for another year on the committee, Latunski said his first term will be his last.

“I’m not going to reapply. Even if they beg me on bended knee, I’m not going to reapply,” Latunski said. “If you go like a sheep and go, ‘Baa,’ then the meetings wouldn’t last so long. Well, I’m not a sheep.”