11th-hour save of senior center doesn’t answer all questions

Monday, Oct. 18, 2004 | 9:51 a.m.

Luis Sosa has been volunteering at the Arturo Cambeiro senior center for 14 years and no one connected with it ever told him the place was having trouble paying its bills.

The center may be the only place in Las Vegas where the mission is to provide information, recreation and a cheap meal to Hispanics of retirement age. When Sosa heard last week that the center might close, the news hit him "like a bucket of cold water."

Though an 11th-hour rescue from that fate was announced Friday, a host of unresolved questions remain about why the center's parent agency -- the Nevada Association of Latin Americans -- tried to pull the plug on the center and how the organization has been managing the $200,000-a-year operation.

The spiral of events began last Wednesday, when officials from the association, a nonprofit organization with a $1.1 million budget, announced to the press and seniors that the center would have to shut its doors two days later.

Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly's staff and the Latin Chamber of Commerce rushed to put together a stopgap plan, and on Friday announced that the center would stay open for at least the next 90 days under the chamber's direction. Representatives of the Nevada Association of Latin Americans did not participate in the planning.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said a group will be meeting over the next three months to come up with a long-term solution to keep the center open.

Tony Sanchez, immediate past president of the Latin Chamber, is a part of that group and said help is being sought from private sources within the business organization's membership, local Hispanic community groups and the Las Vegas Housing Authority, which owns the building in which the center sits at 232 N. Maryland Parkway.

But the center's near-closing -- including last-minute announcements to staff and the seniors -- as well as what appears to be shaky financial information behind the nonprofit parent organization leave more questions than answers.

Mark Sandoval -- chairman of the Nevada Association for Latin Americans' board for six months and a member for five years -- said the senior center operated at an "average net loss" of $40,000 a month since 1999 and that money intended for child-care services was increasingly being used to pay for the center.

Then he said the monthly losses "ranged from $10,000 to $20,000, up to $40,000."

The board chairman also said it costs between $180,000 and $200,000 a year to run the center -- a number that is difficult to reconcile with losses of more than twice that amount.

Asked how the center could lose more than it takes to keep it open, Sandoval said there were a lot of costs that vary, such as when equipment breaks down or new purchases are made.

Then he said,"I cannot account for the difference (between the numbers)."

Sandoval said he did not know the source of the money intended to pay for child care services. If it is from federal grants, there may be rules tied to its use that prohibit it being used to pay for the senior center.

"I don't believe we've been doing anything wrong with ... moving the money from the child care to the senior center," the board chairman said.

Sandoval said the association's board decided to close the senior center Oct. 7 and needed to shut the doors shortly thereafter because "at some point you have to decide to cut your losses."

But Carlos Valdivia, another volunteer at the center, said that when seniors were told last Wednesday the center would close, two reasons were given: financial hardship and the need to expand association services and offices. The association is headquartered across Maryland Parkway from the center.

Susie Sepulveda, director of the center and one of five employees, said she didn't understand the reasons behind the association's decision.

Sepulveda, who has run the center for five years, said doesn't see financial reports for the center or an annual budget.

Sandoval, however, said the Sepulveda was told a year ago about the center's financial problems and that new sources of funds needed to be found.

"She said she understood," he said.

While questions about the center's past and future are resolved in the coming weeks, its doors remain open to the likes of Jose Mota, who only recently began coming for a game of dominos or cards and was among those reliving last week's whirlwind of events on Friday.

Mota is 105. Like other patrons of the center, he said he likes the company he can find there and offered a philosophy of sorts.

"People say I'm a good man," he said. "But I say I'm a good friend."