The Issaquah City Council voted unanimously Monday night to terminate the city’s contract with Issaquah Valley Seniors, ending the nonprofit’s management of the Issaquah Senior Center and rolling back a decision in December to allow the organization to make improvements under probation.

“I really wanted to make this work,” Councilmember Paul Winterstein said.

The decision put a period on the end of the long, rambling and occasionally offensive sentence that was the controversy surrounding the senior center throughout 2015.

Officially, that controversy began early in 2015 when Issaquah Valley Seniors Executive Director Courtney Jaren filed criminal trespass orders against member Regina Poirier in February and center Board Member Dave Waggoner in April. Signed affidavits obtained by senior center leadership after Poirier’s and Waggoner’s banishment claimed the two had participated in the harassment and elder abuse of Lee Scheeler, who later died April 21.

Unofficially, Poirier, Waggoner and supporters like former City Councilmember David Kappler say the problem began much sooner, when the latter two started asking questions about the senior center’s finances. They spent the months after the banishment encouraging the city to examine Issaquah Valley Seniors finances.

The situation reached a fever pitch when a June 30 newsletter from Issaquah Valley Seniors claimed “a small group” had “bull[ied] a vulnerable senior to death.” Both sides in the conflict retained lawyers; Inez Petersen, the attorney representing Poirier, Waggoner and others, recently filed a defamation suit against the nonprofit.

The city council remained largely mum on the issue until the beginning of 2016 budget discussion in October, when councilmembers began publicly questioning the city’s continued relationship with Issaquah Valley Seniors.

The city council agreed in December to continue the city’s contract with Issaquah Valley Seniors under several conditions, including an extensive audit and public disclosure of its bylaws.

But after exiting a closed executive session Monday night, Winterstein said changes to the bylaws made as recently as Dec. 8 revealed the senior center had acted to “eliminat[e] accountability and transparency” even as they were working alongside him and Council President Stacy Goodman.

“It’s disappointing,” Goodman said. “[Winterstein] and I worked on this very hard over the past couple of months. … Unfortunately, it looks like the city needs to go in another direction.”

The council did not elaborate on how the city senior center will be managed without Issaquah Valley Seniors. In December the Services and Safety Committee examined the possibility of a city-run program, noting that the plan was complicated by Issaquah Valley Seniors’ lease on the senior center through 2022.

Comments by Councilmember Mary Lou Pauly suggested the city might look toward another third-party provider.

“I want the city to move towards working with a transparent and collaborative service provider,” Pauly said. “… I want to challenge this council to do a better job.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the type of trespass orders filed against Regina Poirier and David Waggoner. They were civil trespass orders.