Senior services director resigns; says he was "kept in dark" by Phelan

QUINCY - Elder Services Director Thomas F. Clasby Jr. resigned Tuesday to protest being largely “kept in the dark” on Mayor William Phelan’s plans for the city’s first senior center.

“We only have one chance to do this right, and the Department of Elder Services needs to be far more involved in this process than it has been to date,” Clasby said in a letter of resignation.

Clasby delivered a copy of the letter to The Patriot Ledger and said in an interview that the administration has ignored recommendations and concerns he raised about the location, size and programs at the future senior center.

“It seems to me seniors in the city are being shortchanged, and I don’t want to sit back and watch that happen,” Clasby said. “I won’t be a part of it.”

Phelan declined to comment on Clasby’s resignation, which is effective immediately. But Phelan’s spokesman, David Murphy, said it came as no surprise, “considering his long-term relationship with Tom Koch,” the mayor’s opponent in the Nov. 6 election.

“I don’t know why a council on aging director and a candidate for mayor would oppose fulfilling a promise that was made to Quincy’s seniors almost 30 years ago,” Murphy said, referring to a 1978 land deed that indicated the city’s intention to create a senior center at what is now the Richard J. Koch Park and Recreation Complex in Merrymount Park.

Koch and Clasby have both said they support a senior center. But last week Clasby questioned whether the park department headquarters was the best location, and he expressed concern that too little input had been sought from seniors and other citizens.

The somewhat rare dissent from within the administration - the elder services director is appointed by the mayor - came as longtime park board member Bryant Carter denounced aspects of the senior center project as politically driven.

The mayor’s announcement of the project, about two months before his first significant election day challenge, smacked of political opportunism, Carter said. And he said the selection of the Koch complex without public debate appeared at least in part to be an attempt to reinvent a city department long associated with the Koch family name - it is named for the late Richard J. Koch, who was succeeded as park commissioner years later by his son, Tom Koch, who is challenging the mayor.

Phelan has denied the accusations, though he has declined to say whether the Koch complex’s name would remain.

Clasby acknowledged he is close friends with Koch but said he has not discussed his resignation nor the senior center with the mayoral hopeful.

“If this were about my relationship with Tom Koch, I would have left in January” when Koch announced his candidacy, Clasby said.

Former Mayor James Sheets appointed Clasby, 43, as the director of elder services in 1999, two years after he went to work for the department. His salary this year is $67,613, according to payroll records. When Phelan took office, he reappointed Clasby each year.

The senior center proposal, not yet fully developed, is envisioned as a central retreat for the city’s 18,000 seniors. The two buildings making up the Koch complex would be renovated, and perhaps enlarged, to make room for technology classrooms, a dance studio, an exercise room and an all-purpose entertainment room. Bocce and tennis courts would be built outside.

The park department would relocate to a new garage being built at the department of public works. The city’s health and elder services departments, meanwhile, would move into the senior center.

Phelan has estimated the project at $1 million to $3 million and said it could be finished next year. Last month the city hired an architect to design it.

Clasby contends the Koch complex falls short of state guidelines for how spacious the senior center should be. In March, Clasby recommended the Fore River clubhouse in Quincy Point as a potential site, arguing its size and features make it easier to convert into a senior center.

Since the administration began exploring the project last year, Clasby said his role was limited to touring senior centers in nearby towns. Otherwise, his office was “essentially kept in the dark.”

“For example, I was forced to discuss a budget item for the senior center in front of the city council without receiving any information from the administration,” he wrote in his resignation letter.

Clasby, who was married last year, said he does not know what professional direction he intends to pursue. In October 2006, he said, he and a business partner sold The Cottage Tavern, a restaurant and bar on Liberty Street.

John P. Kelly may be reached at jkelly@ledger.com.