Letter from the Editor

In response to last week’s letter to the editor, I feel some clarity might be of use to our readers. The letter accused us of bias against the Crook County Hospital Foundation and those members of the Crook County Medical Services District’s (CCMSD) board of trustees who support their efforts to move the Hulett clinic into a new building.

Unfortunately, this criticism appears to be an attempt to cover the real issue: a consistent lack of transparency for a project that does not appear to have been properly planned out.

This isn’t about what “sources” we use to keep the community informed, unless the writer of last week’s letter is referring to the fact that, without the determination of some members of the CCMSD board to follow transparency rules, we would all still be in the dark about this project.

We have endeavored throughout this saga to cover both sides, but one faction has chosen to not publicly discuss their point of view. They have even outright admitted to us that they’d prefer to keep discussions behind closed doors.

This occurred before the recent joint meeting between the two boards, about which this newspaper was very nearly left uninformed. We were told it was happening the day before, through an email conversation involving both boards and this newspaper.

The notice came from the chairman of the CCMSD board, who felt it needed to be advertised to the public. This was immediately contradicted by a spokesperson for the foundation, who issued a “correction” that “this is not a public meeting.” Rather, she said, it’s just a joint meeting between the two boards.

In the same email, the spokesperson specifically stated that it would be preferable to hold the discussion in executive session and that the meeting was not intended to be for public consumption. Fortunately, district board members who prefer transparency declined to participate in an executive session that did not meet Wyoming statutes, and so our reporter duly attended the meeting.

It’s not about “telling both sides,” either, because we have reported exactly what happened at every public meeting of the CCMSD board over the past couple of years. All the justifications that exist for the project could and should have been aired during these meetings for the public to hear.

It’s not even about “freedom of the press,” unless the letter writer was referring to the idea that blocking the newspaper from attending those meetings (and we really would have loved to show you the interior of the Hulett clinic, if we hadn’t been told point blank that we weren’t welcome to tag along on the tour) or failing to share pertinent information within a public forum means blocking the citizens of this county from knowing what’s going on.

It’s about the fact that one faction is so determined to push through a new clinic that the thing was half built before there was ever a full meeting about it between the foundation and the district. It’s that, as far as the district was concerned, the clinic project seemed to jump from light discussion of fundraising options to breaking ground with very little in between.

Evidence of any needs assessment, feasibility study or other method of determining whether there would be an increase in patient visitation to justify the cost of the project was not presented at any public meeting. Advocates have instead stated they are pinning their hopes on the idea, “We won’t know until we try.”

If there was ever discussion of the details of how the foundation wanted the clinic to be staffed and paid for, it was certainly not held in a forum that had been advertised to us. Nor has any person on that side of the conversation ever reached out to us with whatever information they believe we are missing.

Again, we have reported on every public meeting that has taken place. We cannot report information that simply doesn’t exist.

We will not apologize if our reporting has made readers aware that, in this instance, the foundation has made itself the decision-making arm of Crook County’s medical services, instead of the elected board, or that certain members of the CCMSD board have gone along with that because it suits their personal preferences.

We have faith in some members of the CCMSD board to be transparent, ensure we are invited to meetings and provide any paperwork relevant to keeping our community informed. We applaud this attitude, which is thankfully shared by the vast majority of Crook County’s elected officials.

But we have also seen for ourselves the attempts made by certain members of the hospital board and foundation to justify keeping the public in the dark. They would prefer to keep things “informal” and just have a chat amongst themselves.

Unfortunately, as was the case for that joint meeting, you can’t have an “informal conversation” when you’ve also got a quorum. Nor should you try, when the topic is a matter of public interest.

We are not here to facilitate negotiations between the two boards. We are not here to babysit boards and ensure they know the laws.

Our role is to make sure our elected officials are following those rules, and to make sure the community knows what decisions are being made on its behalf. It’s as simple as that, and transparency is the only skin your newspaper has in this particular game.

Shifting the blame onto us does make sense, because when your excuses are starting to run thin, the logical next step is to claim the person telling everyone what you’re up to is a liar. It doesn’t matter whether there’s merit to your accusations, because the name of the game is to sow doubt.

The foundation sold this clinic to the public, and donors, on the idea they are supporting the district, but this decision was not made on behalf of the public. This can clearly be seen in the foundation’s threats to bring in outside medical providers if the district won’t capitulate to their demands.

The foundation is supposed to exist to support our medical services, which are backed by the taxpayers of this county. How does it support our district to introduce unnecessary competition or dictate what happens in which community?

My fear is that the people pushing the clinic didn’t want it to come to light that they have built this clinic just because they wanted a new clinic, and the practical considerations were always secondary. When the community of Hulett flourishes, so do we all, and we would love to see that happen.

Unfortunately, the foundation has failed to provide data supporting the need for or the viability of the new clinic and has been dismissive of the very concept of transparency. It’s not surprising that so many many members of this community are now asking themselves why.