The Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) Board of Directors has responded to the recall petitions recently filed with the City and Borough of Wrangell.
The petitions ask to recall eight of the nine WMC Board members, including Chair Mark Robinson, Vice Chair Jim Nelson and Linda Bjorge, Sylvia Ettefagh, Jake Harris, Lurine McGee, Dee Norman, and LeAnn Rinehart.
The WMC Board petition response addresses the charges filed alongside the recall petitions, stating the Board had violated the Wrangell Municipal Code in three instances.
The WMC Board petition response was created April 6 in consultation with the hospital’s attorneys, and approved by the WMC Board members via email, according to WMC Board member Jake Harris. The petition response was also distributed at the WMC’s table at the Health Fair Saturday, Harris said.
One of the charges filed with the recall petitions, which were found sufficient by the Borough City Clerk and Borough attorneys, states the WMC Board prohibited the Borough Assembly liaison from entering an executive session.
According to Wrangell Municipal Code, the Assembly liaison is to participate in all WMC Board meetings and executive sessions.
However, this city ordinance conflicts with the Alaska Open Meeting’s law, the WMC Board’s petition response states.
The purpose of one of the Aug. 17, 2011 WMC Board executive sessions in question was to discuss physician privileges, according to the board meeting agenda. And, according to state law, rules regarding executive sessions do not apply to meetings about “professional qualifications, privileges or discipline.”
“This provides protection for individual(s) due to the very sensitive nature of the information discussed,” the WMC Board petition response states.
Another executive session was held during the Aug. 17, 2011 WMC Board meeting to discuss a letter received from a financier, Innovative Capital. Again, the Assembly member liaison to the WMC Board was not allowed in the executive session.
The closed-door meeting involved discussion of receiving legal counsel regarding the potential of the City and Borough of Wrangell taking legal action against the city owned hospital, according to the WMC Board petition response.
Because it was a legal matter discussed during the executive session, “it was not allowable to have the Assembly member participate,” states the WMC Board’s petition response.
In the past, the Assembly liaison to the WMC Board has improved communications between the hospital and the city, the WMC response states.
“WMC will continue to invite the city liaison into executive session when it is legal and appropriate,” it states. “When it conflicts with state law and legal opinions, we have no choice but to follow the law and protect WMC.”
The charges associated with the WMC Board member recall petitions also state the hospital board violated city ordinance when it authorized the hospital administrator to enter into a contract with Innovative Capital for financing, and with American Health Facilities Development.
WMC’s response states the contracts entered into by the hospital were consistent with other actions taken by WMC in the past two decades. The companies have worked closely with the hospital and the City and Borough of Wrangell, and have traveled with the WMC and City to participate in meetings with funders and elected officials, the response continues.
Further, the WMC Board response states, WMC, the City and Borough of Wrangell and Innovative entered a “tri-party agreement” resolving this matter in Dec. 2011.
The third charge associated with the recall petitions states the WMC Board violated the city’s policy on conflicts of interest.
The WMC Board “knowingly allowed a member of the board, whose ‘immediate family member’ has a substantial financial interest in the outcome of legal action this immediate family member is taking against a particular physician, to participate in discussions and action pertaining to approving the privileging of said physician at [WMC],” the recall charges state.
WMC Board Member Bjorge, who is included in the recall petitions, said her husband filed a malpractice suit in July of last year against local physician Greg Salard.
The WMC Board later denied Salard permanent privileges to work at the hospital. However, Bjorge said since the suit was filed in court, she has not participated in any discussions regarding Salard’s privileges.
The only WMC Board member not included in the recall petitions filed with the city is Dorothy Hunt-Sweat.
The eight recall petitions were certified by the Borough Clerk earlier this week.
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