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Homeless veteran urges Cathedral City to reinstate senior-center member after alleged harassment
Summary
At a Cathedral City study session, veteran Robert McCormick urged the council to reinstate and compensate an elderly senior-center member he says lost her membership after being told she "did not want" a person to be at the center. McCormick said staff told him the membership had been removed rather than addressing the reported harassment.
Robert McCormick, who identified himself at the meeting as a decorated U.S. Marine Corps veteran and someone who said he is experiencing homelessness, told the Cathedral City Council on the record that he witnessed an elderly woman repeatedly told that she "did not want" him at the Cathedral City Senior Center and that staff subsequently revoked her membership.
McCormick said he raised the incident with staff members Jeff Corbin and Victor Eyde and was told the issue had been addressed. "We took the woman's membership away from her," McCormick said during public comment. He told council he did not know the woman's name and did not know whether she filed a formal complaint. "I want her membership to be reinstated. I want her to be financially compensated for all of her the crimes that were committed against her," he said.
The city clerk read the council's public-comment rules at the start of the meeting, noting comments were limited to three minutes and that council members could not take action on items not on the agenda. McCormick spoke during that public-comment period and cited the senior center incident as the reason for his appearance.
The council did not take formal action at the study session on McCormick's request. City staff present were asked earlier in the meeting to handle public-comment follow-ups as permitted under state law; the matter of reinstating a membership or pursuing compensation would require investigation and any formal corrective or disciplinary steps would be handled by staff and not by council action during the study session.
The city did not provide the name of the woman McCormick described, and McCormick said he did not know whether she filed a complaint. He named the two staff members he told and said he wanted the woman's membership restored and compensation, but he did not provide documentation of the alleged membership removal at the meeting.
The council did not comment further on the senior-center allegation during the study session. The matter remains a request made during public comment and, according to the clerk's remarks, could be followed up by staff or placed on a future agenda if the mayor or council requests a staff response or investigation.
