Senior Advisory Commission Special Meeting – February 5, 2025
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Senior Advisory Commission Special Meeting – February 5, 2025
The Senior Advisory Commission (SAC) held a special meeting on February 5, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 2:56 PM in the City Hall Council Chambers. Commissioner Ellyn Elson was absent. The meeting featured a presentation on elder fraud prevention, a senior center program update, and the election of the 2025 Chair and Vice Chair.
Agenda Review and Approval of Minutes
- The agenda was reviewed with the addition of a PowerPoint presentation for item 5A.
- The minutes of the regular meeting of December 4, 2024, were approved unanimously.
Presentation: Senior Scams & Elder Crime Prevention
- Detective Tyler Olson of the Napa Police Department presented on the prevalence of financial scams targeting seniors. Key statistics shared:
- In Napa, over $1.3 million was lost by seniors (aged 64+) in a 12-month period (Nov 2023 – Dec 2024). This figure is likely underreported.
- Nationwide losses: romance scams ($638 million in 2023), investment scams ($1.2 billion), tech support scams ($590 million).
- Detective Olson described common scams: romance, investment, phone (grandparent scam, government impersonation), foreign lottery, tech support, and phishing. He highlighted the use of skimmers and shimmers at local ATMs, including incidents at Bank of America and Redwood Credit Union.
- Prevention tips: shred personal documents, monitor credit reports, use contactless payment, never give personal information over the phone, and freeze credit reports.
- Reporting: Encourage seniors to report fraud even if embarrassed; contact Napa PD, Adult Protective Services (APS), FTC, IC3, and credit bureaus.
- Detective Olson noted that the department has given nine presentations since June 2023, reaching about 230 people.
Administrative Report: Senior Center Program Update
- Recreation Coordinator Linda Button provided an update:
- Karen Vega, Latinx program manager, has been running a successful Loteria class and will start "Café Plática" (coffee and conversation) with arts and crafts.
- The recreation division joined the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
- Upcoming speaker series: Share the Care (falls prevention), CHP "Age Well Drive Smart," Napa Art Walk, Napa PD "Drafe Drive Safe," HICAP Medicare fraud prevention, and hands-only CPR by Napa Fire.
- Two new volunteers: Sharon Crairy teaching tapestry weaving (9 out of 10 spots filled) and Katie Donovan (background check pending) to teach crochet.
- All volunteers undergo background checks, including live scan and TB test.
- The Senior Center paving project is nearly complete; striping will be repainted when temperatures exceed 60°F for several days.
- Commissioner Howie Broxton noted that Share the Care now located at 160/162 South Coombs Street, open 10 AM–3 PM Monday–Friday.
Key Outcomes
- Election of Chair: Jim Holland was nominated and unanimously elected as Chair for 2025.
- Election of Vice Chair: Liz Marks was nominated and unanimously elected as Vice Chair for 2025.
- The next regular meeting is scheduled for April 2, 2025.
Comments by Commissioners and Staff
- Commissioner Tom Woolf praised the new senior activities catalog, noting it was distributed to 11,000 households and may be expanded citywide.
- Discussion about archiving presentations: Linda Button noted she can share PowerPoints or contact information upon request.
- Commissioner Jim Holland requested specific dates for upcoming CHP and Napa PD driving safety classes and the CPR class, which Linda agreed to provide.
Meeting Transcript
We'll do a row call. Holland. Here. Wolf. Here. Here. Marks. Elson is absent. Okay. Agenda review. Do we have any? Just that we have a PowerPoint for item 5A. We'll be added to the agenda tonight. Okay. So we'll cover that then. Okay. Any public comment? No. Okay. Do we have approval for the uh minutes of December the fourth? I move we approve. Second. Okay. Motion carried. I guess. We would take a vote. Everybody agree with that. Approved. All in favor. All in favor. Aye. Okay. Eyes have it. Okay. Presentations. We have a presentation from the senior scams and elderly crime prevention detective Tyler Olson from the Napa Police Department. Is he here? Oh, there he is. Okay. There we go. He was hiding over there. Yes. I was hiding over there and I got moved to yourself. Uh thank you for having me. My name's Tyler Olson. I'm a detective with the Napa Police Department. Uh my main focus is on elder independent adult abuse as well as missing persons, and we're all generalists, so anything else that gets thrown at me, um, I handle as well. Um I was asked by uh Linda to come present on kind of the state of of financial abuse for seniors, focus more on scams and frauds, um, how the Napa police department's involved in that, um, and just kind of what it looks like for our our seniors in our in our city. Um I I give a a presentation here and there, I've done it in the senior center a few times, just what they went at Rianda House in St. Helena, um, a few of the homes uh here in Napa, and um so I've kind of parred that presentation down a little bit, that way it's still educational for you, but still gives you an idea about kind of what's going on in in the city of Napa.
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