Seniors Support Center, Director Against Critics

Image from a slide show on senior activities 

An outpouring of support for the Senior Center at Tuesday's council meeting was marred by an outburst from a member who alleged unresolved issues of sexual harassment.

Both the effusive praise and the pleas of the self-described victim were caught on tape in yet another chapter of controversy dating back three years or more over what goes on at the center. On the positive side, center official George Gore gave an overview of activities and events that he said made the Plainfield program "second to none" in the state. Member Suzy Koonce praised the "warmth and acceptance" she found there after relocating from Portland, Ore.

"I was accepted," she said. "I was made prom queen and was president for four years."

George Gore at the microphone

Member Mazie Wormley said she always found center director Sharron Brown to be "extremely fair" and volunteer Roz Bradshaw said, "I found a place where it's heaven."

But then a woman who previously complained of being sexually harassed launched into an emotional speech alleging a cover-up of her complaints. As she became more and more agitated, a police officer escorted her from the courtroom.

Corporation Counsel Vernita Sias-Hill then explained an outside law firm had been hired to perform "a thorough investigation" of the complaints. After interviewing witnesses and examining "voluminous" documents, including a 32-page single-spaced email, Sias-Hill said, the firm found the complaint was unsubstantiated.

Resident Sandra Taylor Williams, a critic of the center for more than three years, had brought the woman forward a couple of months ago and on Tuesday called out, "Tell it, tell it," as the woman spoke.

Sandra Taylor Williams

The testimony in favor of Brown and the center echoed a 2011 council meeting where seniors came out in force to counter Taylor Williams' constant criticisms. In 2011, she vowed on camera to go to Trenton or Washington if she could not get satisfaction locally and called the center a "Nazi boot camp." Each council meeting contains a portion for public comment and Taylor Williams has unrelentingly complained at nearly every one.

--Bernice