When I ran to serve on the Park Hospital Board last spring, it was on a platform calling for transparency and accountability, among other things. I called for fewer executive sessions and – following the example of the Estes Park Town Board – public email accounts for the members of the Park Hospital District Board so that people of our community could have easy, open access to their elected representatives.
The Park Hospital District, a political subdivision of the State of Colorado, is a local government entity created by state law to provide local governance and deliver specific public services to its community.
I believe the public’s business must be conducted in public. Since being elected six months ago, I have stressed the importance of open meetings and transparency, and I have opposed inappropriate executive sessions. I have been thwarted by Board leadership in my efforts to call for transparency and accountability of the Park Hospital District’s business.
In an attempt to muzzle me from asking hard questions and expressing serious concerns with the way the Board and the hospital’s administration conduct its business, the Board passed a conduct resolution. This resolution effectively was an attempt to silence me and disenfranchise the people of the Park Hospital District who voted for me.
As Board members, we should all be familiar with the content of the Colorado Open Records Act, § 24-72-201 et seq., C.R.S., and the Open Meetings Law, § 24-6-402, C.R.S., and be able to compile an appropriate meeting agenda. However, whoever makes up our agendas – the chair, the vice-chair, or one of the hospital’s attorneys – does not appear to understand the importance of public accountability and transparency.
I have made it clear to the members of the Board many times that:
- It is not appropriate to enter into an executive session to avoid difficult, unflattering, or uncomfortable discussions.
- It is not appropriate to include a boilerplate legalese statement on the agenda to justify entering an executive session, as this Board has done more than 150 times over the last three years. According to Colorado law, the reason for an executive session needs to be limited and as specific as possible.
- The draft agenda for meetings must set out clearly the subjects to be discussed, and
- The agenda must be posted at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting.
The agenda for the meeting on Thursday, November 13, was misleading and should never have been approved. It used the boilerplate legalese statement to rationalize entering into executive session: “Entertain a motion to enter Executive Session pursuant to Section 24-6-402(4)(f) C.R.S. for the purpose of discussing a personnel matter; and pursuant to Section 24-6-402(4)(b) C.R.S. to conference with an attorney for Estes Park Health for the purposes of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions.”
According to Colorado’s Open Meetings Law, public notice must be given prior to all meetings where the adoption of any proposed policy, position, resolution, rule, regulation, or formal action occurs or at which a majority or quorum is expected to be in attendance.
The majority of what was discussed in the executive session did not qualify as appropriate content as outlined by the state’s Sunshine Law for moving a meeting into a private, executive session.
Last Thursday’s meeting was little more than an administrative to-do list. No specific legal advice was provided, no strategy was outlined, and there was very little, if any, discussion of a personnel matter.
This entire agenda was misleading, incomplete, and a violation of the OML. Thursday’s meeting should have been cancelled, and a new meeting should have been scheduled and publicly announced, along with a new agenda, at least twenty-four hours prior to the new meeting, as required by law.
The Park Hospital Board is not being managed in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Colorado Open Records and Open Meetings Laws, and as a result, the people of the Estes Valley have not been well served.
By failing to act with accountability and transparency, the Board’s leadership has failed in its fundamental duties of care and loyalty in exercising its authority for the benefit of the public as stewards of public trust and resources.
The community has the opportunity to express its concerns at the next public meeting of the Board, scheduled for Thursday, November 20, at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Town Hall boardroom.