Fighting mad about senior center revamp

Fighting mad about senior center revamp
BY FRANK LOMBARDI DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Sunday, November 23rd 2008, 5:15 PM
The commissioner in charge of restructuring and modernizing the city's 327 senior centers said he can't "guarantee" that some centers won't be closed in the process.
The comment by Commissioner Edwin Mendez-Santiago of the Department for the Aging has added fuel to the already blazing opposition to the modernization plan, which is backed by Mayor Bloomberg.
"They don't call this a budget cut; they call this 'modernization,'" City Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx) scolded Mendez-Santiago at a Council budget hearing Friday. "Here, it means consolidation, and that's the bottom line."
Vacca, chairman of the subcommittee on senior centers, said "75 to 85 centers" could be shuttered by the modernization of the facilities into what Mendez-Santiago described as "healthy aging centers, where seniors can enjoy an array of activities that promote physical, social and mental wellness."
The agency is in the process of awarding new contracts for the centers through a bid-like process called Requests for Proposals (RFP). The nonprofit groups that operate the centers will have to compete for the new contracts.
Asked by Councilman Lewis Fidler (D-Brooklyn) whether he could guarantee centers won't be closed, Mendez-Santiago said that will depend on the proposals that are submitted.
"I can't guarantee who the winners and losers will be," the commissioner testified. "What I can guarantee is that our intention in putting out this RFP is not to close senior centers but to enhance them. ... Our intention, sir, is not to close or consolidate programs, but I can't give you a guarantee because, again, it's a competitive process."
Aging Committee Chairwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo (D-Bronx) told MendezSantiago the Council is concerned about the "impact" of the modernization plan, "not your intention."
Vacca likened the RFP to throwing 327 senior centers "up in the air and waiting to see what comes down, and who survives and who doesn't."
He fumed, "And senior citizens in this city aren't drinking the Kool-Aid, period. They know what's going on."
The modernization plan has drawn broad opposition from elected city and state officials, including Council Speaker Christine Quinn(D-Manhattan. She recently urged the mayor to stick the RFP "into the garbage pail."
The Council can't block the plan directly, but it can push for it to be delayed, changed and even scrapped as part of its negotiations with the mayor to modify the current $62 billion city budget, or in negotiations next year over the new budget, which is due July 1.flombardi@nydailynews.