Less than two weeks after our local newspaper printed a "Jeers" item* we had submitted on wasted watering at the Floyd County YMCA (heavily funded by Horseshoe Casino in southern Indiana), we received a letter from its executive director, Joe LaRocca, rescinding our 33-month membership at the facility. The primary reason cited was "since you are not happy here" with some vague, anonymous references to complaints and nothing about any broken regulation. LaRocca never suggested meeting with us first about our inferred "unhappiness" prior to the letter, nor has there ever been any transparency whatsoever on the sources of these anonymous allegations. JT's quizzical response to LaRocca's letter was initially ignored for 10 days, and only after reminding he owed a response, LaRocca then replied to him in a note that begins "Dear Ms. Martin." Mindless insult to undue injury.
A subsequent call to the national YMCA organization recommended we contact the Board of Directors about our baseless ouster, which we did. Robert Kleehamer, Chairman of the YMCASI Board, kindly set up a meeting that would include himself, LaRocca, and the two of us. [A fifth, previously unannounced attendee was Paula Lomax of the YMCASI staff.] We had the good sense to record the hour-long meeting, which we could tell was going very well for us with Mr. Kleehamer. We were able to properly present our perspective on matters and, finally, JT had the opportunity to voice his personal witness of our experiences, something he'd always been denied by staff in the past.
Shortly before the meeting's conclusion, the Board Chairman asked what we now wanted. When we said "immediate reinstatement," Mr. Kleehamer swiftly replied "Done." But then LaRocca interjected he wanted "to continue the meeting" -- without us, of course -- and then overruled his own Chairman by stating "no, you are not reinstated today, we'll get back to you." Again, we are so glad we have all this on tape. Mr. LaRocca did not get back to us, however, until after much prompting from various directions and more than two weeks after the meeting. His most recent email response is now a written overruling of Mr. Kleehamer's on-the-record reinstatement of us. So much for democracy and transparency, not to mention such clear-cut undermining of the Y's core values of honesty, caring, respect and responsibility to us, the national organization, the community and the environment.
So, now that we've exhausted every benefit of the doubt and hope for the right thing to happen behind closed doors, we can fully share our experience as members of the Floyd County YMCASI with the public. If this is not useful in changing some of the decision-makers at the facility who are involved, maybe it can at least mitigate any unchristian, ego-driven decisions considered in the future. If neither of these are outcomes, it will at least serve as a cautionary tale -- a caveat emptor -- to anyone with a current, or considering a future, membership with this New Albany, Indiana-based organization.
We became YMCASI members at the end of 2008 when the facility was sparkling new. We faithfully paid our monthly dues for 33 months straight. Our workouts quickly became a welcome routine for us a couple of early weekday mornings as well as a longer session that included the pool area on Sundays mid-morning, and this rarely varied. In mid-May of 2009, barely six months into our membership, there was a serious incident in the aquatics area. Per the instruction of the duty lifeguard, Kathleen opened a supply closet to retrieve exercise equipment and, dripping wet, immediately slipped into a bad fall on the smooth closet floor. No caution was first given, and there was no sign posted of "slippery when wet" either, even though we were told after the fact it was well known to staff this floor was untreated and slippery.
Kathleen’s pain was excruciating, especially the entire left forearm that took the brunt, yet our experience with staff in the aftermath only increased the injury of her needless fall. The head lifeguard arrived with an icepack and a report to fill out. When she was asked, Y didn't the lifeguard retrieve the equipment and, if not, Y didn't she at least caution about the closet, she had no answer except that the guards aren’t allowed to leave their chairs. Well, we knew for a fact that this guard and all others hopped up to turn on spa jets whenever needed, so that was no excuse. When asked Y there wasn't a caution sign, and we suggested, please, put one up now after this injury, she told us "The chief doesn't like tape on the doors." As to Y the equipment wasn't already out poolside as it had been in prior weeks, she answered again "The chief doesn't like equipment hanging around the pool area." Y isn't the floor textured? "We have textured paint, but haven't applied it yet."
Needless to say, this was a clear-cut lawsuit for gross negligence, and we did briefly discuss it, especially as Kathleen's arm took over a month to heal, but we decided instead not to make waves for this brand new facility that we wanted to see thrive. We didn't even complain to the "chief" himself (Joe LaRocca) at that point in time. But the whole incident left a sour taste in our mouths to discover the staff is so poorly trained with regard to public safety. The head lifeguard's uncaring excuses for allowing any patron to fall proved this attitude trickled down from the very top, however: After all, the ugly aesthetic of a temporarily taped sign was a greater concern to LaRocca than preventing paying patron injuries.
It wasn't but a couple weeks from our decision not to press suit or even make waves with "the chief" that we discovered there were at least two other falls after Kathleen's on that same, untreated floor. Leann, a therapy pool lifeguard herself, told us how she broke her coccyx in a fall there, and a patron in the pool overhearing us said she knew of another member's fall as well. Now of course, we felt truly awful we had not filed suit and so perhaps save these others from such needless pain and injury, or at least made big enough waves that would have forced signs to be put up, with or without tape.
Week after week, resentment built as we watched a few younger aquatics staff members in utter dereliction of duty. A last straw came in early September 2009 when the female guard never once broke eye contact in a 20-minute conversation with a male guard standing by her chair. The patrons in the pool were completely ignored, and so we finally contacted LaRocca about this. In that email about the staff chatting each other up rather than doing what our member fees pay them to do, we finally referenced back to Kathleen's fall in mid-May. We never got a written reply to our email and Kathleen only finally received a phone call after persistent requests for one. No apology was given and clearly a target was put on her back at that moment, and anything we reported after that was being compiled and kept in a file folder.
There was also a fitness staff member named John who was very often on duty the same hours as our weekly routine. No doubt John was a model employee when administrative supervisors were around to observe, but personally we never saw him do any work whatsoever. It wasn't enough that he didn't lift a finger, which a couple others didn't either, but he also spent much of the time we crossed paths talking with on-duty or off-duty staff members. One of those he engaged in conversation was a particularly loud and incessant talker, the sort who feel entitled to share cell phone conversations with everyone around them. Even our music at a safe level through our ear buds wasn't enough to drown out her loud, nonstop chatter egged on by John. Besides his role in disturbing the peace of our workouts, John would even turn away paying patrons asking him for assistance in order to continue his personal conversations.
Nothing worked at stopping their patron disturbance. Clear looks suggesting to take down the volume only emboldened them. Directly asking them to respect the space of paying members had no effect either. As a last resort, we contacted their supervisor, Julie Calloway (whose husband works with her on staff, too). Calloway’s harsh and defensive stance took Kathleen by surprise, but we knew from that point on we could never initiate a call to her about staff problems again. Unbeknown to us, we’d clearly stepped on the wrong toes involving some sort of cronyism if not outright nepotism. Calloway and, later Lomax, merely reinforced the trickle down attitude from on high – “we don't want to hear your problems or complaints” -- so instead we filled out suggestion cards on a couple of occasions about John's continuing behavior and broken equipment reported to him in 2009 (and still not fixed when we left).
Next thing we know, administrative calls are initiated from the other end in the spring and autumn of 2010, and Kathleen records Paula Lomax and later the aquatics director parroting "maybe the Y isn't the place for you" -- the identical passive-aggressive phrase from both staffers toeing the "party line." It didn’t matter that Kathleen had found the Y a perfect fit for her in prior memberships in Los Angeles and Boston facilities. The administration was determined to twist our legitimate suggestions for patron safety and needed improvement into "stifle yourselves or go elsewhere." The printed “Jeers” item on August 20th mentioned at the top was the proverbial last straw to break the backs of too easily bruised egos.
We must question: Y do they bother with a suggestion box at all? Y do members we've met along the way tell us they've also come up against attitude whenever they've made a complaint about something -- like the leak leaving a persistent puddle on the oval track for months on end (ironically something we never complained about ourselves)? Y has LaRocca never asked to speak with our list of people who could provide the opposite experience of our membership and counterbalance whatever these unnamed, anonymous complainers have purportedly alleged (which still has never been revealed to us)?
A city councilman suggested this concerted railroading all goes back to the serious fall Kathleen took and even the merest suggestion of a negligence suit. Another city official suggests we accidentally bruised the wrong egos, and yet another suggested it's a generational divide in work ethics -- slacking vs. giving a tinker's damn -- with the slackers banding together against our feedback to save their jobs. Probably some combination of all these factors but nevertheless patently unjust, and it creates a major interruption in our health regimen. Until he reverses his position and reinstates us -- as his Chairman of the Board already did back on September 19th -- LaRocca ought to pray for us to remain in good health in the interim.
If you have a dime, give Joe a call and ask him to justify to you his decision as he never did so to us: 812-206-4891
And then let us know Y in email to juha [@] oivas [.] com
Take and (always) give care, Kathleen & J.T., October 17, 2011
READER JEERS... to the Floyd County YMCA landscapers for wasting great amounts of water because of an unadjusted sprinkler system they were notified of.From at least early morning Tuesday through 6 a.m. Friday, needless streams of water were created all over the entrance concrete, walkways and gutters.Water is the planet’s most precious commodity.— Juha Lindroos and Kathleen Martin, New Albany
Water is wet.
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