Decision is a relief for new board member<\/b><\/p>\n
The Valley Medical Center Board of Commissioners will continue meeting at 3:30 p.m., after voting May 5 to rescind a decision to meet at 6 p.m. that effectively could have resulted in the resignation of one of its newest members.<\/p>\n
The hospital board\u2019s 3-2 vote on April 21 meant that the member, Anthony Hemstad, who is also the Maple Valley city manager, would not have had time to attend the board meetings starting at 6 p.m., and still make the Maple Valley City Council meeting at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Hemstad had until June 1 to figure out a solution, which could have included resigning from the board of Public Hospital District No. 1.<\/p>\n
Now he said he\u2019s relieved he won\u2019t have to make that decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe immediate crisis is averted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hemstad had run for the board as a reform candidate, following an annexation election in 2006 that resulted in the levying of huge fines by the state Public Disclosure Commission against two key hospital officials, including top administrator Rich Roodman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want VMC to focus on being on the cutting edge of quality health care, not blazing new trails in limiting oversight,\u201d said Hemstad, who lives in Kent. \u201cRescinding the vote on blocking my participation in meetings is a step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
He ran for office knowing that the board met 3:30 p.m. Mondays for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
Several letters and e-mails were sent to the hospital board supporting Hemstad, including one from former governor and U.S. senator, Dan Evans. Hemstad was a member of Evans\u2019 Senate staff.<\/p>\n
Hemstad said he suspects the \u201clarge amount of public pressure\u201d played a role in the board\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
But board chairman Don Jacobson, who presented the motion to rescind the earlier decision, said that\u2019s not the case. He spoke about rescinding the decision to meet later on Monday before any public or board comment at the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was not the issue at all,\u201d Jacobson said of the e-mails and letters sent to the board.<\/p>\n
In an interview, he again pointed out that it was Hemstad\u2019s own suggestion to move the meeting to later in the day to give the public a chance to comment at board meetings, part of Hemstad\u2019s 10-point reform package.<\/p>\n
Hemstad suggested that the board move its meetings to another day, but the board declined such a move.<\/p>\n
Jacobson suggested a compromise, which the board approved unanimously:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Continue meeting at 3:30 p.m. the first and third Mondays of each month;<\/p>\n
\u2022 Take public comment at 6 p.m., regardless of where the board is in its meeting agenda.<\/p>\n
\u2022 If the other business is completed prior to 6 p.m., the meeting will be temporarily adjourned to 6 p.m.;<\/p>\n
\u2022 If other business is not completed before 6 p.m., the board will pick up with the other business after taking public comment.<\/p>\n
Earlier, it seemed like neither the hospital board nor Maple Valley would budge on changing meeting dates to accommodate Hemstad\u2019s schedule. Each said it was the other\u2019s responsibility to come up with a solution.<\/p>\n
Taking comment at 6 p.m. will allow for better audience comment, Jacobson said. He said he and others have been concerned \u201cfor a long time\u201d about the public comment period.<\/p>\n
Hemstad said in an interview that he will continue to work on what he calls \u201cgood-government reforms.\u201d A top priority is to record board meetings, he said.<\/p>\n
Jacobson said the board already has adopted one of Hemstad\u2019s suggestions, posting agendas and minutes on the hospital Web site. He said the board will address the other ideas one or two at a time.<\/p>\n
Dean A. Radford can be reached at 425-255-3484, ext. 5050, or at dean.radford@rentonreporter.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Valley Medical Center Board of Commissioners will continue meeting at 3:30 p.m., after voting May 5 to rescind a decision to meet at 6 p.m. that effectively could have resulted in the resignation of one of its newest members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10374"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}