Mona Rae Fish, right, a board member of Lewis County Seniors, asks county leaders to repay $17,000 that the Toledo Senior Center overpaid the county by mistake.
Two months after they first asked Lewis County to reimburse $17,000 in overpayments, members of the Toledo Senior Center are still wondering when they’ll find out if the county is planning to pay them back.
“I’m still waiting,” said Mona Rae Fish, secretary of the Toledo Mighty Fine Seniors. “We were kind of pushed off last time.”
Fish approached county commissioners Monday to remind them that she had still not received an answer on the question she raised earlier this year. She was directed to contact Public Health and Social Services director Danette York, who had initially been brought the Toledo seniors’ concerns when they contacted the county in January.
According to York, the Public Health Department is currently focused on closing out its fiscal year 2018 records, which could delay an answer on the Toledo issue until April.
“It's very difficult, because the people who were tracking it and dealing with that are no longer with the county,” she said. “I really don't have any concrete information yet. ... The fiscal staff is still trying to close out the year for 2018, so that takes priority, but we definitely have it on the list.”
Fish said she was hopeful that Toledo’s request — if not dealt with sooner — would resurface when the county goes into its budget process.
“At least when they start to revise the budget, perhaps they'll write us in with that,” she said. “But if you don't say anything, what's gonna happen?”
Both Fish and York said they had not yet had a chance to meet.
The issue arose when the area’s senior centers were operated by Lewis County, but each center was expected to contribute a certain amount toward its own funding. For awhile, the Toledo Senior Center sent in that full amount in fundraising dollars, not realizing that its facility rentals and hosted classes also counted toward that total.
After the county transferred the senior centers to a nonprofit group last year, Toledo could no longer use the surplus it had given the county as credit toward its contribution numbers, and the center says $17,000 of its funds are still in the county coffers.
“We were good, and we paid, and we came up with quite a bit that we overpaid,” Fish said in January. “The Toledo group is asking for the money back.”
York said that issue was caught by the county, but it’s not yet been worked out how much was overpaid and how much was credited back.
“Our fiscal staff is going back through records right now to determine what if any is owed to them,” she said. “The belief is that Toledo paid that in advance, because they were really good at doing fundraisers. They would get donations and then pay it ahead of time, instead of doing it on a monthly basis. They didn't realize how much they were going over. ... The belief is that they probably did not use it all, and we'll be putting together the documentation of how much they put in each month.”
When the issue was first brought up, officials noted that former commissioner Bill Schulte, since deceased, had made a verbal pledge to Toledo not to use their surplus funds to make up shortfalls at other centers — but without a written contract, it was unclear what mechanism existed to reimburse Toledo.
Budget Manager Becky Butler said at the time that York’s office would have to do some research before making a decision, and county commissioner Bobby Jackson pledged that the county would take a “serious look” at the matter.
Since then, it’s been mostly radio silence from the county, Fish said.
“We had kind of hoped that after the county was through with (operating) us, they would say, ‘Oh, look here. You paid us too much. Let's get everything balanced out,’” she said. “But it was just, ‘Oh good, we're through with you.’”
Fish did credit county commissioners for being active in senior center fundraises, and said the centers’ transition to a nonprofit group has gone smoothly, thanks in large part to the thrift store in Chehalis that raises money for operations. But she’s still eager to get an answer on the five-figure sum she believes the county owes back to Toledo.
If the money is returned, Fish said the center plans to use it to buy new doors, including a handicap accessible entrance.
