The Town of Bristol and the Benjamin Church Senior Center have reached an accord that will allow senior center employees to keep working, without confusion over who they work for.

Three current senior center employees are all being officially terminated by the Town of Bristol — but they’re not actually expected to lose their jobs. The senior center, a private, nonprofit organization that manages the senior center and its activities, is expected to hire them all back to their original roles. Behind the scenes, the Town of Bristol will no longer pay these employees directly, but will instead send the money to Benjamin Church, which will hire, manage and pay the employees.

To the outsider, nothing is expected to really change. Yet what seems like semantics on the outside has real meaning to both sides.

For the senior center, it means total certainty over who these employees work for — them. For the town, and particularly Town Administrator Steven Contente, it means the town employee flow chart is a lot cleaner than it used to be.

“I want accountability for all employees,” Mr. Contente said. “I want accountability for all town funds … We when we didn’t have oversight of them, I just couldn’t get past that.”

The disagreement came to light last spring, when Mr. Contente learned that former Bristol Senior Center Director Maria Ursini was working her full-time job, as well as earning an equivalent full-time income for substance abuse prevention work that was funded by two public grants. As the investigation and controversy swelled, it came to light that, even though the Town of Bristol literally paid the four senior center employees (a director, assistant director, meals coordinator and bus driver) and provided benefits, they were hired by and behaved like they worked for the Benjamin Church nonprofit.

When Ms. Ursini was arrested and charged with felonies, then relieved of her duties last summer, the tension mounted. Even after the majority of her case was dismissed with no penalties, the tension between the town and senior center continued, because the director’s seat was left vacant. It ratcheted up another notch last month, when Mr. Contente created and filled a new position — coordinator of senior services — and announced there would be no more funding for Ms. Ursini’s vacant position.

Yet both sides say they want to put the acrimony behind.

“We’re on the right path to building our relationship much better than it has been,” Mr. Contente said after the two sides met face to face this week. “And we’re not taking anything away from the seniors. We’re going to add services for the seniors.”

The president of the Benjamin Church board of directors shared those sentiments.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” Ms. Doherty said. “I feel really good about this.”

The senior center board has a few things to figure out — like setting up payroll services and potentially administering benefits. It hopes to have it all worked out by March 1, when the official termination and hiring would take place.

Money for director restored

Mr. Contente confirmed that the senior center will have all the funding for salaries that was agreed upon in the 2017-18 town budget, and the senior center must advocate for that funding every year through the normal budget cycle. For now, the salaries for four employees, including the director, will be funded. But the new system has a few ramifications:

1. The town will not be supporting benefits costs for those employees, including contributions to the state pension system. “They’re no longer municipal employees, so they can’t be in the pension system,” Mr. Contente said.

2. The senior center will have a total allotment of money, which the board can choose to spend as it sees fit. Accordingly, if the senior center board chooses to fill the vacant director’s position, they can hire anyone. Asked about bringing back the former director, Ms. Ursini, Mr. Contente said, “I think the senior center needs to move forward.” He later added, “But they can hire whoever they want. It’s their personnel.”

Senior services are growing

In the end, the town is paying more senior services salaries than ever before. New Coordinator of Senior Services Joanne Mello remains on the job, with a focus on coordinating and building services throughout town. An employee of the Recreation Department, she will continue working with Benjamin Church, but will be trying to build programs and collaboration between all the town’s senior services organizations.

Said Mr. Contente, “There are more than 400 seniors active at the community center. If you go any day, they’re in fitness classes, yoga classes, playing pickleball … they’re loving it, they’re healthy, they’re happy. You can go by there any day, and you’ll see it.” He envisions the community center as a hub of senior activity in town, yet he says the town’s senior center remains vital.

“The Benjamin Church Senior Center has been a senior center for as long as I’ve been in Bristol, and it will continue to be,” he said.

Ms. Doherty is eager to get things moving again. “We’ve been shorthanded,” she said. “There’s a lot going on here, a lot of activities that are on hold without all our staffing. With that fourth position, things will be back to full swing again.”