CCMSD trustees spar over executive session

During Tuesday’s regular meeting, a trustee for Crook County Medical Services District called into question the protocol followed when the Board of Trustees conducted an executive session earlier this month, leading to a brief but heated debate.

Trustee Joey Kanode stated his concern that the agenda was not followed, the scheduling was not made transparent and the meeting may not have been necessary at all.

“Our last meeting has been called into question – our special meeting, or emergency meeting, whatever it was,” he began. “We didn’t follow the agenda.”

To be specific, Kanode commented that the agenda only mentioned discussion of the contract with management firm Health Management Services (HMS), but that, “We talked about other things too”.

Board Chairman Sandy Neiman and Trustee Connie Lindmier disputed this, stating that the agenda included more items than just contracts. Neiman listed other agenda items including board signatures for checks, discussion of a recent strategic planning meeting and legalities regarding the hospital foundation, adding that the board’s attorney, Kyle Ridgeway, had seen the agenda before the session began.

What, then, was the purpose of it being an emergency executive session, asked Kanode, when there was no reason for the topics to be discussed privately.

Kanode called for the contents of the meeting to be released to the public. Neiman protested that legal contact was involved in the meeting and Lindmier added that, while a certain amount can be released, the question of what needs to remain private should be addressed to Ridgeway before doing so.

Commenting that there was nothing on the agenda that couldn’t have waited until the regular board meeting, Kanode asked what the purpose of calling an emergency executive session had been.

“There were no emergencies or anything like that,” he said.

Neiman responded that, aside from discussion of the legalities of the district’s contract with HMS, it was to “inform people of what was going on” and that she had, for example, felt it was important to let the rest of the board know that an issue was being experienced with computer security at the hospital.

“We had to have legal counsel from Kyle, also, and we did that,” she said.

Kanode also brought up that the meeting was not advertised in a transparent manner.

“It’s our due diligence to be transparent to the public,” he said.

The meeting in question was held on Tuesday, October 8.

As an executive session, no information was provided to the public regarding what would be discussed during the closed door meeting.

Notice was issued before the meeting took place, but, commented Kanode, was not submitted in time to be published in an issue of the newspaper prior to the meeting date.

Kanode, feeling that this was not sufficient, stated his belief that a lack of transparency is problematic because it’s how you get “rumors floating around”.

“That’s what raises comments and causes issues,” he said.

Lindmier, however, noted that there will always be rumors and these should not be a main focus. With that final comment, the board moved on to the next item on the agenda.