Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
It’s not a private hospital.
Apparently, Whitman Hospital and Medical Clinics employees and commissioners need to be reminded that they work for the taxpayers. But, from the way the Whitman County Public Hospital District No. 3 Commission meeting was conducted March 20, it appears they’ve gotten too big for their britches.
From our perspective, the leadership at the hospital may have violated several provisions of the state Open Public Meetings Act at last week’s meeting.
Let’s start with the basics.
The hospital district is a public taxing authority. As such, all employees and commissioners work for hospital district taxpayers. Commissioners are publicly elected as representatives of district voters.
I’ll repeat, the hospital is not private. As such, under Revised Code of Washington 42.30, all commission meetings and major decisions are to be made in an open public meeting, with public knowledge and input.
So, it should go without saying, that when the discussion over allowing elective abortions or closing birthing services was put on the March 20 meeting agenda, it was the responsibility of commissioners and other hospital leaders to ensure the meeting venue could accommodate an expected larger-than-normal turnout. In short, they were responsible for making sure the public could attend.
According to the Open Public Meetings Act, “All meetings of the governing body of a public agency shall be open and public and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting …” For hospital officials that don’t know the meeting of the word “attend,” it is defined as “to be present.”
Not only are they required to make sure the public can be present, they cannot place any conditions on attendance — such as creating the blatantly illegal list they used to determine who could attend in person March 20.
State law (R.C.W. 42.30.040) clearly states “a member of the public shall not be required, as a condition to attendance at a meeting of a governing body, to register his or her name and other information, to complete a questionnaire, or otherwise to fulfill any condition precedent to his or her attendance.”
And no, telling the public to go elsewhere and watch the meeting on Zoom does not necessarily meet the intent of the law, especially after the hospital filled many of the limited meeting seats with employees and selected invitees.
The actions, which clearly violate both the spirit and intent of state law, left the public out in the cold.
To reinforce the attempt to close the meeting, at least one employee blocked entrance to the public meeting with his arm across the doorway.
Even our reporter, Teresa Simpson, was blocked and told she was not allowed in the meeting. She only gained access when one of the very few non-hospital employees present volunteered to give up his seat so she could attend.
And what about the go-elsewhere-and-watch demand? That’s not exactly allowed, either.
Yes, a lot of elected boards are using digital platforms for “remote” or “virtual” meetings. But the law (R.C.W. 42.30.230(6)) only allows them to do so in cases of emergencies or if an elected board was regularly hosting virtual meetings prior to March 1, 2020.
Last Wednesday’s meeting certainly didn’t qualify as an emergency under the law, and prior to March 1, 2020, reporters and the public attended hospital district commission meetings in person.
Apparently, the board and its employees need a refresher on the Open Public Meetings Act.
Ironically, state law requires commissioners to be trained in open meetings and records laws within 90 days of taking their seat on the board. Moreover, the commissioners are required to undergo public meetings and records training every four years (R.C.W. 42.30.205). And if commissioners truly are interested in serving the public, they will ensure employees are thoroughly trained on public meetings and records laws, too.
We want to remind commissioners that each one faces personal fines of $500 for every violation of the Open Public Meetings Act that occurs while they are meeting.
It’s not enough to just admonish hospital leaders for conducting themselves shamefully March 20.
Going forward, transparency needs to reign.
That goes for commissioners — who are elected by county voters — and managers and employees, whose paychecks are funded by taxpayer dollars.
Individual commissioners should be openly talking to members of the public. They need to remind staff that accommodations for public access are paramount, as is transparency. And when a quorum of commissioners is present, they need to go out of their way to keep the doors of communication open.
As for other hospital leaders, they need to keep in mind who they work for — the taxpayers. As with all public employees, they need to respect their public bosses, whose taxes make having a local hospital possible. And they need to adopt a customer-service attitude from the CEO down to the newest entry-level worker.
Whitman Hospital and Medical Clinics is not a private hospital, and the actions and arrogance on display March 20 are not acceptable.
— Roger Harnack is the owner of Free Press Publishing. Email him at [email protected].
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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