Trustees meet before election

The Cedar County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees introduced their attorney, Janae Graham at the meeting on March 20. The meeting was held in the hospital cafeteria on a first come, first serve bases, with the overflow to hear and see the live stream of the meeting provided by the hospital in the atrium. The hospital’s live stream wasn’t working well, though many people did stay in the atrium. The cafeteria was full of people as was the hall outside the cafeteria.

All the board members were present: President Marvin Manring, Secretary/ Treasurer David Bozarth, Michell Leroux, Katie McGee and Harold Fugate. Hospital CEO Terry Nichols was present as were CFO Carla Gilbert and CNO BreAnn Jackson.

The meeting continued as usual with reports given by various department.

During the course of the evening, Trustee Katie McGee mentioned that the hospital had accepted a Telehealth proposal. That information had never been shared with this newspaper. It was voted on in the executive session of Feb.21, 2024. Those minutes were just shared at the March 20 meeting.

Janae Graham of Janae Graham LLC, Fair Play, MO.

Close to the end of the open session Truste Harold Fugate had asked to address the board. His request had to be pre-approved for him to be able to speak. He started to read a prepared statement and was cut off several times by Ms. Graham.

This newspaper asked Mr. Fugate if we could have his original comments and he agreed. The next day we were told that he couldn’t give them to us, because he had presented it in closed session and according to the board’s own rules, anything presented in closed session stays there.

There are 22  regulations the trustees have imposed upon the themselves and the public to control interaction with people in open session and themselves in closed session.

They moved to go into closed session. There was no information from that session.