The Borough Assembly approved an amended ordinance regarding the membership of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors on its first reading Tuesday night.
If eventually passed by the Assembly, the amended ordinance would allow employees or contractors providing medical care in Wrangell to run for the WMC Board.
It would also allow the Borough Mayor and Assembly to fill a vacancy on the WMC Board until the next annual election, according to the proposed ordinance.
A second reading and public hearing on the ordinance will take place at the next Assembly meeting April 10. Three readings are required on an ordinance before it can take affect.
The ordinance was among three other ordinances considered Tuesday night that deal with the management of WMC, the city-owned hospital.
Those proposed changes include having WMC employees be subject to Borough personnel and grievance procedures, and requiring all excess revenues from the hospital be retained in a separate account managed by the Assembly.
Those ordinances were tabled by the Assembly Tuesday, as Assembly members said it needed more time to consider the changes and have the Borough attorney thoroughly review them. A date for future consideration of the proposed ordinance changes has not been set.
The possible ordinance revisions brought approximately 50 people to the Assembly meeting Tuesday, forcing people to stand and gather near the doorway of the council chambers and out in the hall.
Eleven members of the public spoke on the proposed ordinance amendments, nearly half of them being members of WMC staff or representatives from the hospital’s Board of Directors.
WMC Board Chair Mark Robinson said he took issue with the Assembly proposing such ordinance changes without seeking input from the hospital board.
He said, for months, WMC has pursued trying to schedule a meeting between the board and the Assembly to exchange ideas and discuss issues between the two bodies.
“Instead, the Assembly has chosen a path to enter these crippling ordinance changes without prior input from the medical center board,” he said. “So much for dialogue and open debate.”
If passed, ordinance amendments would harm WMC, Robinson said.
“The assembly would dismantle a remarkable critical-access hospital and replace it with a politically corrupt band-aid station,” he said.
WMC Chief Financial Officer Olinda White said her biggest concern was with the proposed ordinance changes regarding how excess hospital revenues are managed. The Assembly is already shown what revenues exist, as it is regularly given financial reports and statements.
“So you have them all the time, and there is nothing that is not on those statements or on those cash-flow statements,” she said.
White also argued the ordinance changes would cause WMC harm. If hospital revenues were managed by the Assembly, White said that would create a problem when, for example, the hospital has to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to Medicare.
She said WMC revenues need to be in the hands of the hospital in order for the facility to continue to serve the community.
“We have to have our revenue that comes in every month from the third-party payers to stay open,” White said. “That’s what pays the bills, that’s what keeps us open.”
Some members of the public at Tuesday's meeting spoke in support of the amended ordinances, which were introduced by Assembly member David Jack last month.
Resident Bob Maxand commended the Assembly for considering the changes to the ordinances. He said he did not believe the amendments were created to harm WMC, but for the Assembly to get a “better handle” on what is going on at the hospital.
Jerry Buethe, another Wrangell resident, said the hospital, like other borough departments needs to follow the same set of ordinances.
“Whether you are the hospital board, the council, public works, whoever, we all need to go by the same rules,” he said.
A couple of residents also spoke on the perceived ongoing and fractured relationship between the WMC and Assembly.
Linda Bjorge, who is a member of the WMC Board, said the “enmity” between the WMC Board and the Mayor and Assembly has continued for too long. As public servants, the board and Assembly should be acting for the good of the community, she said, and decisions should not be made based on personal opinions.
“Who we personally like or dislike today shouldn’t cause long-range ramifications to citizens of Wrangell,” Bjorge said.
Later in the Assembly meeting, and after the public comment period had ended, Assembly members voted on the ordinance revisions.
Assembly member Michael Symons said he believed the amendments were something the Assembly needed to spend more time considering.
“We can't move forward with this until we realize what all the implications would be in passing something like this,” Symons said. “It’s going to require some more information sharing.”
Symons said he looks forward to the public hearing that will take place next month regarding the ordinance changing who can run for the WMC Board of Directors. While Borough Attorney Bob Blasco did not note any problems with the ordinance revision, Symons said he senses it could create issues with conflict of interest.
Borough Mayor Jeremy Maxand said he did not have any issues with the amended ordinance. As city ordinance states now, many professional health care providers in the community cannot run for the WMC Board.
For instance, Maxand said, the over 50 employees at Alaska Island Community Services (AICS) in Wrangell cannot be a hospital board member. He said having an AICS representative on the WMC Board would not create competition between the two medical providers in the community, despite some public belief.
Maxand said it is difficult to find qualified community members to run for public office in Wrangell. The fact that those qualified people at AICS, for example, cannot participate in the public board at the hospital, needs to be considered, Maxand said.
Assembly member Bill Privett agreed with Maxand’s comments. However, Privett said he wished to table the other three ordinances up for possible revision by the Assembly regarding the WMC.
Like fellow Assembly members, Privett said more time should be spent considering and reviewing the proposed changes.
“I think we need to be very careful,” he said.
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