Blaine Senior Center president, treasurer resign amid debate, according to members

After two weeks of confusion and turmoil at the Blaine Senior Center (BSC), board president Jim West and treasurer Christine Yung, two of three board members voted out from their positions by a September 25 membership vote, have resigned, according to reports from multiple members that were confirmed by executive director Pete Nelson.

On September 25, 190 members attended a special meeting to vote on a petition to remove West, Yung and vice president Adele Berman.

The day before the special meeting, a September 24 letter signed by West, Berman and Yung said the board did not recognize the upcoming meeting and vote to be legitimate, and would be consulting with legal counsel to go over specific provisions in the BSC bylaws.

“After these legal consultation are concluded a report will be made to the general membership,” the letter stated. “These discussions with the board’s lawyers will not be limited to the issues noted above and will include other matters of high importance such as maintaining the ongoing integrity of BSC and limiting potential legal exposure.”

However, the meeting went ahead as planned. Of the votes cast, 178 voted to remove the three, with eight voting to keep all three, according to a copy of meeting minutes provided to The Northern Light. None of the three board members or Nelson were at the meeting.

Nelson, BSC executive director since January 2023, said problems between him and the board originated after he unsuccessfully asked the board for medical and other employee benefits.

Nelson had originally told the board he would resign on September 30, but rescinded the letter, saying he would work through the end of the year to help the transition to a new executive director.

After West and Yung announced their resignations from the board on October 2, Nelson said he was unsure if he would step down at the end of the year as the board remains in flux.

West declined to comment when asked for a response by The Northern Light, citing possible litigation between the board and Nelson, saying, “No one from the board of directors is authorized to speak on behalf of the board due to this potential litigation.”

According to the members who filed the petition to remove the board members, it satisfied all requirements stated in the organization’s bylaws and cited state laws that allow members to vote to remove board executives.

Multiple BSC members said that the center’s bylaws are antiquated and unclear in relation to board member removal, and are in need of updating.

With West and Yung stepping down, the board will meet to find replacements to serve out the remainder of their terms until new elections are held in May 2025, Nelson said. The remaining board members will regroup on Thursday, October 10 to discuss next steps. The next general membership meeting is on Monday, October 14.

Nelson said that funding from the city of Blaine and Whatcom County could be hanging in the balance due to the impending legal battles. Blaine city manager Michael Harmon told The Northern Light the city’s roughly $34,000 in funds to BSC would need a full city council vote to be stopped, and said neither he nor mayor Mary Lou Steward plan on bringing that to council.

Blaine city councilmember Sonia Hurt, who has been liaison to the senior center since January 2024 and is a member of BSC, voted to oust the executives, and attended the September 25 special meeting along with Harmon and director of community development services Alex Wenger. In an email to The Northern Light, Hurt supported Nelson, saying she believed the senior center had growing membership figures and a consistently balanced budget.

“The Blaine community is very fortunate to have Pete Nelson at our senior center,” Hurt wrote. “We were baffled as to why [West] would want to stay on as president when the majority of the membership wants him gone.”