The Kern Valley Healthcare District board of directors would have been more happy had they had an audience full of people who agreed with them as only four of the five board members showed up, as Secretary of the board, Bradley H. Armstrong was noticably missing from the
Group.
Armstrong's long terms on the board lead right back to decision he and the board of the time, the late 1980's, made which allowed this small hospital to be swallowed up in debt.
That's what happened here and has lead to one disaster after another, not including the poor reasoning of the KVHD board of directors, who have spent much money trying to get the community to pay for the sins of their predecessors who unwisely gave up, interestingly enough, 22 million in bonds which is only one reason this hospital hasn't prospered.
Also missing in action was new Cheif of Nursing, Mark Gordon, board counsel, Scott Nave, and Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Finstad.
With the board resolution to put a 22 million dollar property tax increase on the Kern River Valley residents and businesses, it was obvious the Kern Valley Healthcare Distric Board of Directors were doing everything including accepting a much disputed survey to get the public support for a "bail out."
Hands went up all over the room, but the board, who when asked to have an item pulled from the agenda were unsure and unfriendly about having to do this as their time was of issue. Not being familiar with the laws regarding the board, much ado was made, as something was asked to be pulled off the consent agenda: the minutes from the "Special meeting" where the board tried to get the bond thru last week.
Members of the audience were eager to ask questions, but the chairwoman of the board, Victoria Alwin, made it clear that the board was not going to stay there for two days answering to the community. Many questions and remarks were rushed and dismissed, as audience members were concerned about the survey provided by Caldwell, Winters and Flores.
One audience member explained she recieved calls from the survey, but felt they were all leading questions designed to gain a positive answer.
Another community member said she was called three times in a week. From what I've heard, as I never recieved a call as a registered voter and someone in the phone book, there were various heavy handed methods used and the representative from CFW, had little to say in regard to the complaints.
As Kay Knight asked the audience of they understood what the monies were going for and how the ballot was written, Bob Jamison, the board member who utilized his radio station position to defend the hospital from the elder abuse charges, took it upon himself reading word for word the the three page KVHD resolution for the bond.
He sipped some water and read the resolution fromt the district peppered with the health and safety codes, California constitutional codes, election codes and when asked to explain them, he continued reading.
Afterwards when asked for a full explanation of the document none of the board members could answer. "No," Jamison said defiantly.
Jamison was told to look it up on his computer as he sat in front of the unit, typing in "tweets" or who knows what, but he did not know the document he read and there was no sign other board members wanted to admit to their ignorance regarding their own legal document.
But during the CFW report on the bond numbers, this speaker was protected as questions flew out as to how they could even say that these numbers were closed to correct.
What he did say though was the numbers were amazing for supporting the hospital, some as high as 75%.
In 2006, before our current depression era and with the hospital supposedly under surrender to the state for not being seismically safe, this same company was paid before to do a survey, which showed a much lower percentage of support.
As I was not allowed to ask what the previous years figures were and the script that went along with it, due to the fact the board or at least the chairwoman, wanted to quickly put this on the ballot as they needed to give a raise to the CEO with the specious argument that if we had overspent in the past, then this would be the time to over spend again, but for a worthier cause.
Chuck White, who introduced himself as "Charles" White, had been closely associated with the plans for the last bond in 2006, Measure M. He gave his support to the board without any questions and chided those who disagreed.
White was part of former CEO, and elder abuse charged, Pamela Ott's team to put Measure M on the ballot even with architectural plans which were faulty, and unusable and an amount of money which was not even close to the amount needed for the measure that if it had passed, the hospital would still be coming to the community for this new GOB.
People spoke about the survey, the impact, the ideas of leasing to another company which would cost nothing, but the eager residents were on the losing end of getting their questions answered, as I could not get anything in that didn't have to be fought for.
Murmurs came from the crowd, information about new raises for doctors were noted by one of the audience members. It was not a happy or unified night by any means.The only ones unified were Victoria Alwin, Dr. Robert Gross and Bob Jamison as Knight questioned but much like the audience recieved answers that were vague and seemingly unwelcomed.
The lawyer on the phone tried to tell Knight who asked that with all the lawsuits could this money be used to pay off these outstanding debts, that some of it could be caught in the hospital's not only financial, but legal problems.
Only a month ago the CFO, Chet Beedle informed us there was a "waiver" on the debt, but his story suddenly changed and since the Special Board meeting on July 28, 2010, the board and adminstrators have begun to beg for money admitting to no contigency plan.
As the board won the fight against the arguments from the audience about using caution and possibly waiting for a special election, the community members became restless.
This was refuted as the hospital didn't want to spend the money it wanted to and was going to go ahead no matter what seemed to be asked. However, last month at the board meeting that very question was answered differently as they were encouraging a "special election" in February or March of next year.
And I'll be you dollars to doughnuts that if they don't get the bond this time, suddenly the special election will reappear.
Then in a heat of rage about something, Alwin, justified giving the CEO a raise, not just a small cost of living beyond his 200K salary, but suggested he deserved another 30,000. Finally, as members of the audience feeling alienated from the process, left the building and had an interesting meeting outside.
Alwin also blamed Chet Beedle who looked sheepish as he had to listen to the grandious amounts of wasted monies to Sycamore Management more than two miliion and then to former, Nursing Home Director, Tracy Brown, who was to be fired when McGlew came aboard as part of his contract, according to Alwin.
More on the issues...will the hospital clarify the ballot:: my guess, unlikely.
No hardship recourse for seniors and disabled, stated axed program last year.
Hospital administration admits to editing minutes to meetings, as that is the only way, insurer, Cal Mtg., has been monitoring the financial stability of the hospital.
(new documents show the bond was discussed and the community kept purposely in the dark about the hospital financial problems.)
Videos, details and the much misunderstood "ballot wording."
