Board splits on appointments
By Steve Herring
Published in News on November 16, 2016 10:00 AM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Wayne County Commissioner Joe Gurley, right, reacts Tuesday as Chairman Joe Daughtery comments that the board should not reappoint people to the Wayne Memorial Hospital board who have created a contentious relationship with commissioners.
Wayne County Commission Chairman Joe Daughtery Tuesday morning justified tabling appointments to the Wayne Memorial Hospital board as a way to keep people off the board who have created a contentious relationship with commissioners.
Daughtery also chastised his fellow commissioners, saying they are putting the concerns of the boards they serve on ahead of those of the commission -- singling out the hospital board for special attention.
There is a conflict there, he said.
"The reason for that (tabling) is this, why would you turn around and replace back on the board the same members who have created the controversy and in fact, are not wanting to live up to their responsibility?" Daughtery said. "This board appoints those individuals. I think it would be unwise to continue have the same people representing the county on that hospital board."
Commissioner Joe Gurley, who represents the commission on the hospital board, told the News-Argus he was "appalled" at Daughtery second guessing the hospital board.
The appointments might not yet be dead.
Gurley said he plans to make the same motion at the board's Dec. 6 session provided he is still Appointments Committee chairman and the issue resurfaces.
He was referring to the board's tradition at its first meeting in December to elect a new chairman and vice chairman. The chairman then appoints committee chairmen.
Gurley also disagreed with Daughtery's assertions that the hospital board has been contentious in its relationship with commissioners.
"That is a huge organization," he said. "Someone just can't look from the outside and look in and make decisions not knowing the inner works of that organization. That is a very dedicated, hard-working group of board members out there, and they go above and beyond their normal monthly meeting with the other committees they are assigned to.
"Their mission out there is to provide good community health care for all of the people of Wayne County. They work extremely hard to provide indigent care and get the best needs to our county. For someone to second guess them, not knowing, is appalling to me."
Gurley and Commissioners Ray Mayo and Wayne Aycock said they disagreed with Daughtery and that their loyalty is just to the commission.
"My loyalty is to the citizens and taxpayers of Wayne County," Aycock said.
Mayo and Gurley said they feel the same.
Daughtery made his comments as Tuesday's meeting was winding down and effectively cut off any response by adjourning the meeting.
Along with splitting on the hospital board appointments, commissioners also split on a resolution defining the indigent care they expect the hospital to provide.
Indigent care has been a sore spot for some commissioners, particularly Daughtery since the hospital billed the county some time back for health care for an inmate in the county jail.
It also has played into the commissioners' deliberations on funding for WATCH -- the hospital's free health care clinic.
At the center of the controversy is the 1985 contract that transferred all of the assets of what had been a county-owned hospital to the nonprofit organization that now owns and operates the facility.
The contract stipulates that the hospital is responsible for providing indigent care as defined by county commissioners.
A resolution passed Tuesday included inmates in the category of indigent care. It was the first time the board has defined indigent care.
"Indigent was defined in that (contract) as indigents that were under a certain federal law that was providing information and money to hospital," County Attorney Borden Parker said.
That law no longer exists, he said.
However, the agreement says county commissioners can define indigent care, he said.
"The proposal is that you define indigents as those that were treated as indigents at the time the hospital was conveyed (in 1985)," Parker said. "Also those treated as indigent by the hospital on Jan. 1, 2015, and Jan. 1, 2016, and detainees of the Wayne County sheriff minus any insurance, Medicare, Medicaid they might have."
The 1985 agreement also indicates that the hospital will indemnify the county for any legal actions brought against the county when the hospital is named as a defendant, he said.
The hospital works diligently in trying to identify indigent care, Gurley said.
"How are we progressing with negotiations with the hospital with the contract," Gurley said.
County Manager George Wood said the indication he had received from commissioners was to break off the negotiations.
"So we have," he said.
Wood said the indigent care proposal was not discussed with hospital officials.
Daughtery stopped the discussion saying that he thought the board was "skirting" on disclosing items that had have been discussed in closed session and did not think they should be discussed "openly."
Commissioner Ed Cromartie made the motion to adopt the resolution.
It was approved 5-2 with Gurley and Aycock voting no. Daughtery, Mayo, Cromartie and Commissioners John Bell and Bill Pate voted yes.
Earlier in the meeting Gurley, who chairs the commission's appointment committee, made a motion to reappoint Jack Best and Terry Jordan to the hospital board and make Dr. Samer Kasbari a new appointee.
Daughtery amended the motion to instead table the vote.
The amended motion was approved 4-3 with Daughtery, Bell, Pate and Cromartie voting yes.
Gurley, Aycock and Mayo voted no.
"I am somewhat perplexed by the issue in regard to members of the board that are serving on boards and commissions that evidently are weighing more heavily on the exterior board or commission that they are on and taking positions that are contrary to them serving on those board," Daughtery said during his comments at the end of the meeting.
"We were elected to represent the best interest of the citizens of Wayne County, and if you are appointed, or are on another board, you should be representing our position on that board, not taking that board's position if it is contrary to this board."
For example, commissioners appoint the hospital board, Daughtery said.
"That board for some reason has taken on a very confrontational position against this board, and we must defend the contract and the position of the county of Wayne," Daughtery said. "I go back to the agreement that was made in transferring the hospital over to a board.
"Item three of that contract specifically states as expressed consideration for the county's agreement to convey the hospital property the corporation agrees to continue to furnish indigent care. That is the only payment to the citizens of Wayne County for those properties that were transferred to them (corporation)."
Daughtery said that provision is very clear and that he does not understand why it is so hard for the hospital board to understand that.
"I would hope going forward that the hospital board recognizes their responsibility to the citizens of this county and steps up and does what it should be doing and that is providing indigent care and the cost of that and not billing the citizens back for it," he said.
"This has been an undercurrent for over a year, and we need to put it to rest."