WASI board, director lose sight of big picture

Since Dec. 10, 2010, we’ve been following members’ efforts at the Wasilla Area Seniors Inc. to make changes to management practices at the non-profit.

Seniors freely share their concerns about the way the nonprofit is operated, but usually when we call the management or board of directors at WASI, we are told no comment — if they take our calls at all.

Then, like clockwork, after a story runs we get an opinion piece submitted from the WASI board as a whole or from an individual member detailing how the WASI members cited and the reporter got the facts all wrong.

Salvo after salvo has passed between these two groups with members insisting on transparency and accountability and the board and management telling their “frail” — as they’ve termed them — membership to just go along with things, everything is fine.

Taken to task, WASI management has responded with threats of lawsuits against members who speak out and against this news organization for reporting the story.

When our reporter K.T. McKee was absent from the last WASI meeting this week, we received a tsunami of letters from WASI members concerned we’ve been frightened away by management’s threats.

Not to worry.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are cornerstones of our democracy. As a newspaper, it is our job to hold the line on these precious freedoms, especially in the face of threats and intimidation.

In a representative form of democracy, we elect some citizens to serve on behalf of the rest. Some of these citizens were elected to serve on the WASI board. And when they forget who is master and who is servant, it is our job as citizens to rebalance the scales and remind those who serve that it is we the people who are their masters.

It puzzles us why a board that exists only to represent members’ interests would be so reticent to represent its members’ interests — even when asked repeatedly to do so.

Rather than using our pages to point fingers and level allegations, we’d prefer to see management and board members listen to the people they serve. Really listen. Hear members’ concerns and act to resolve them.

It seems those sitting on the board of directors and in the executive director’s chair have forsaken that responsibility to serve and are instead struggling to maintain the personal power that comes with this responsibility.

This power struggle reminds us of recent incidents in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya.

We watched in awe as our brothers and sisters in these far-off foreign lands peacefully overthrew their rulers — rulers who they charged did not represent the will of the people.

The clash at WASI is a world away from these international examples, but the answer to the question about where the power lies is the same. All power resides with the WASI members — not with the non-profit’s elected representatives, nor with the executive director its board members hire.

We urge WASI board members and management to end this power struggle, listen to members and respond to their needs.