This story was updated on July 25, 2024.
PORT ANGELES — Two individuals were trespassed from the Port Angeles Senior and Community Center this spring, sparking a controversy that is tied to the seniors’ actions attempting to change the center’s restrictions on outside food and drink in the cafe and lounge.
Both seniors, Gary Martin and Lynn Ilon, received three-year trespassing notices and are banned from the facility. Martin has been in contact with the city attorney and received an offer to rescind from the city. Ilon has appealed and has a hearing in September.
Jessica Straits, city communications coordinator, wrote in an email that the trespassed individuals engaged in “instances of threatening behavior, bullying and intimidation directed at members, staff and visitors” over a period of several months.
The decision to trespass was made “after repeated violations and several warnings,” she wrote.
Seniors said they did not receive any written warnings or notifications that trespassing was an option before that action was taken.
The trespassed seniors and friends have been lobbying the Port Angeles City Council, the Senior Center Board of Directors — formally incorporated as the Senior Center Guiding Committee — and others.
They want the trespassed individuals immediately remitted to the senior center and clarification on who sets policy for the center, as they feel they’ve been bounced around between different governing bodies.
In a memorandum to the city council, City Manager Nathan West, Parks and Recreation Director Corey Delikat and City Attorney William Bloor stated that the trespassings are “administrative matters that are not subject to review by the City Council.”
“City staff have offered to meet with the two people trespassed with the hope of working out an informal resolution of the issues,” the memo stated.
City staff did not comment on the specifics of the trespass situations. However, interviews with seniors and emails obtained through the Washington State Public Records Act (PRA) provide a rough narrative of the events leading up to the trespassing.
Martin, the first individual trespassed, said the issue began in fall 2023 when Martin and his friends met to chat in the senior center lounge, a room adjacent to the Koffee Korner cafe. Some of Martin’s friends brought outside food and drinks into the lounge.
Martin said staff members approached the group and told them they could not have outside food in the lounge.
After the incident, some of the seniors, particularly Martin, began asking to see an official policy surrounding outside food and drink.
Senior Center Manager Carmen Geyer met with a few seniors to clarify the rule on Oct. 11, 2023, according to emails obtained through PRA.
After that meeting, many seniors from the political discussion group that meets at the senior center drafted a petition asking that outside food and drink be allowed in the lounge and cafe. They brought the petition to the October Board of Directors meeting and spoke during the public comment period.
When no change came out of that meeting, Martin and other seniors continued their advocacy. Martin met with Geyer to discuss the rule on numerous occasions throughout October, according to emails obtained through PRA.
During those meetings, Martin asked Geyer if he could be placed on the board’s agenda in November, rather than speaking during the public comment period, so there could be a discussion about the policy.
Geyer told Martin he should set up a work session to engage with board members on this topic.
At this same time, Martin began contacting Delikat. The senior center is a division of the Parks and Recreation Department, according to the city’s website.
Martin said he called Delikat several times, but Delikat never returned his calls. Martin then stopped by City Hall a few times a week, asking staff to tell Delikat that he hadn’t returned Martin’s calls.
“I was deliberately making it impossible to ignore me,” Martin said.
In an email sent by Geyer on Oct. 26 to the board’s executive team, Geyer wrote that Martin had sent “numerous letters” to Delikat stating his dissatisfaction with the food and drink rule.
Geyer wrote that Delikat had asked her to “acknowledge, but not engage” with individuals about the policy, because Delikat was writing up a formal food and drink policy, on city letterhead, that he would share with the seniors.
The seniors said if that policy was written, they never received it.
In an email interview, Straits wrote that the board of directors, not the city, sets policy regarding the membership programs and activities in the center.
On Nov. 8, Geyer emailed Delikat and said there was “no official policy” about outside food and drink. She wrote, “it has always been a past practice not to bring external food into both sections of the lounge.”
Geyer wrote that this past practice policy was created by the former center manager and presented to the board. However, she wrote that it never gained the status of an official city policy; rather, it became an in-house policy.
A statement from the board of directors said the policy “has been in place for many years [and] is crucial for several reasons.”
They wrote that the policy enables the center to address food allergy concerns and protects the coffee shop, which generates more than 50 percent of the center’s annual operating revenue.
The board’s statement said “all other areas of the building do permit outside food and beverages.”
However, a copy of the in-house policy was never provided to the seniors.
On Jan. 18 of this year, Geyer emailed Delikat that she had received a complaint from a member who was “visibly upset” by Martin’s communication with her regarding his petition and campaign against the food policy.
On Jan. 19, PRA information shows Geyer received an email from a member of the senior center, who expressed concern about Martin’s activities.
The member stated that Martin had been circulating a petition and had “confronted people he doesn’t know to get them on his side,” according to an email the member had sent to Geyer.
“I’ve repeatedly told him I don’t want to speak or be involved with his petition or motives, but he won’t listen … the aggressive tone adopted by Gary is creating a hostile environment here at the center and making many individuals, including myself, very uncomfortable,” the email said. The senior center member declined to comment further.
Around that time, Martin said he went to Mexico for a month to get some dental work done. On Feb. 20, within 10 minutes of his return to the senior center, he said Geyer asked him to step into her office.
During that meeting, Geyer asked Martin to stop bringing up the food issue. After that, Martin said Geyer called the police.
Martin said he realized he wasn’t wanted, so he left before the police arrived. If he returned to the senior center again, he would be served with the trespass notice.
“I have no idea what my offenses were,” Martin said.
The officer who responded to the incident wrote in an email obtained through PRA that the senior center wanted Martin trespassed for one year.
In a response email, Geyer asked city Chief of Police Brian Smith if the trespass could be edited to three years, instead of one year.
Three years is the current length of Martin’s trespass notice.
On Feb. 22, Geyer emailed the board that Martin “refused to stop harassing members and threatened to ‘turn it up’ and take legal action against the city.”
“I had no other option but to trespass him,” the email obtained through PRA read.
Ilon, also one of the individuals advocating for a change in the food policy, was trespassed on May 7.
Last October, Ilon emailed Delikat outlining what she viewed as two separate but related issues: communication with seniors and policy on outside food.
The email stated “those in authority have been vague, back peddled or obfuscated about a policy and policy changes, leaving some seniors feeling disrespected, not valued and unheard.”
In an email obtained through PRA, Delikat wrote on Nov. 7 that it had been relayed to him through a “very reliable source” that when Ilon was in the senior center lounge, she told a few people “I will have her (Carman’s [sic]) job and her employment will be short lived.”
“To me, this is intimidation,” Delikat wrote, “and brings a negative and harmful atmosphere to the Center and our newly hired manager.”
On May 7, Ilon said she went to the senior center to try to renew Martin’s membership. Martin said he wanted to stay current with his membership, even though he was trespassed, as he hoped to get the trespass repealed.
On that day, Ilon was trespassed for three years. She said she was banned both from physically going to the senior center and from Zooming in to the political discussion group.
Straits wrote in the email interview that Ilon has appealed her trespass and has a hearing with the City’s Hearing Examiner scheduled for September.
Martin said his lawyer has been in contact with Bloor regarding the trespassing.
Martin said his lawyer got an offer from the city, which said if Martin wrote an apology and promised to “never misbehave,” he would likely be remitted to the senior center.
Bloor said he discussed a number of informal resolutions, one of them being a revoking of the trespass notice if Martin gives a written commitment that “his behavior will meet the expectations of the Senior Center.”
Martin didn’t accept this offer, because he thought if he did, the senior center would trespass somebody else in the future.
He said he wants the senior center to stop using the trespass law “to hush up troublesome members of the Senior Center.”
Straits wrote in the email interview that the situation at the senior center is not “debates about policy. Rather, they are questions about the actions of two specific individuals and the City’s response to those actions.”
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
