Pulling for Bozarth to attend meetings

Editor:

I had several people contact me about your recent news story who felt David Bozarth had been steamrolled at the Hospital Board meeting and they wondered how ethical or legal it was. I can tell you that I was on the Board meeting call and the board did indeed vote on Aug 19th to change the time from 11:30 to 4:30 to accommodate Michele Leroux’s new job despite David’s explanation that the new time wouldn’t work as well for him and could conflict with his job.

Keep in mind that Michele was very vocal during the election that she did not want David on the board but he won the seat in the election despite her objections. Michele had won her seat by default in the previous election since nobody ran against her.  I, for one, voted for David to be there… as a matter of fact, he won by a significant margin. I believe the citizens of Cedar County were sending a clear message that they wanted someone who would stand up for them and that is now going to be very difficult for David to do if he isn’t able to attend the meetings. I’m also very disappointed in the other board members who voted against David and chose to accommodate Michele’s new schedule instead.

I then had to wonder why an extra meeting was scheduled for August 30th at 9:30 AM instead of the newly imposed 4:30 PM that was done to “accommodate Michele’s new job schedule”. It just puzzles me how things like this KEEP happening. I have to agree with the people who contacted me with their concerns, this does seem pretty unethical and maybe some are right and it is illegal. I guess that would be for the attorneys to decide but it sure looks shady to me and several others.

I’m reminded of the Democrats in Texas who left the state so they wouldn’t make quorum on a bill they knew they would lose the vote on. In this case they just changed the meeting time to one that doesn’t really work for the newly elected board member. Ah, politics!

I believe the CCMH Board of Trustees should revisit this decision and consider an arrangement that will accomodate ALL of them or put the time back to what it was if that can’t be done.

Thank you for your time,

Cindy Malone