After nearly four months of publicly displayed friction between members, Park Hospital District board members took a conciliatory tone when they met on Wednesday, March 25.
Saying the friction had become “problematic for the board and possibly the community,” board member Tom Leigh opened the meeting by offering six steps that he said would allow the board to work more “harmoniously” in the future.
Leigh also apologized for the contents included in a March 18 publicly released letter.
“What was meant to be a positive article to help us move forward turned out to be more inflammatory,” Leigh said. “I just want to apologize to everybody, people in the community, people on this board, for not doing a better job of making sure that (the letter) said what we wanted it to say.”
Vice chair Steve Alper joined Leigh in voicing apologies for the tenor of board interactions.
“I want to apologize for some of the things I’ve done on the board because it just was not the right approach or a mature approach,” Alper said.
“Ultimately, we want to make this board successful, and that really means helping any board member if they have a question, or if they’re struggling, or whatever it might be. Our first course of action is to be supportive,” Alper said in apologizing for statements made about Brigitte Foust’s performance as treasurer of the board.
“That was just not an effective or correct way to handle that,” Alper said.
Community member Brian Tseng, a former member of the Estes Valley Fire Protection District board of directors, encouraged the PHD board members to “keep communication channels going” and to seek education on subjects where more information is needed.
While thanking the hospital district board members for serving on the board, Tseng said the disagreements “diverted your attention from the UCHealth partnership…and are not a good use of your volunteer time looking after our community. Please stay on focus,” he urged the board.
Leigh recommended that the board hold a facilitated retreat, revisit the board’s mission and vision statements, provide board education, hold a strategic planning retreat, revisit the decision to potentially hire a special district attorney, and develop a spending policy.
In regular business, the board reviewed initial financial status reports prepared by Foust, who pointed out that not having complete information has resulted in a balance sheet that will need to be revised.
“The district has not yet received a transition financial handoff, including a Dec. 1 opening balance sheet, liability schedule, closing binder, or any invoices. We do not have the county‘s mill levy distribution schedule, so we can’t determine our accounts payable, and there are unknown accounts receivable,” Foust told the board. Once UCHealth provides the information, the balance sheet can be corrected, she told the board.
To solidify their commitment to receiving the information, the board voted to formally request from UCHealth and Hall Render, the district’s legal representatives, a complete transaction financial handoff and a complete closing binder.
Leigh lobbied for swift action on the request saying delay beyond the four months since the transfer of operations occurred was intolerable. The board also voted to investigate adding accounting services to its contracted services.
In other business, the board tabled further action on policies covering board conduct and discipline policy, Colorado Open Records Act requests, and spending.
While the board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for April 22, chair Cory Workman indicated that special meetings would likely be held so that tabled subjects could be addressed.