Maverick County Hospital District Board Re-elects Officers and Raises Transparency Questions
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
The Maverick County Hospital District Board of Directors held their regular meeting on Wednesday, February 26, 2014, with Board members Juan Manuel “Chuco” Farias, Maverick County Treasurer Rito J. Valdez, III, and Humberto “Beto” Duran voting to re-elect themselves to another year as Officers of the local hospital district.
United Medical Center’s Clinic Manager and Board member Humberto “Beto” Duran made a motion to re-elect and keep the same officers as the previous year with Juan Manuel “Chuco” Farias as President/Chairman, Maverick County Treasurer and Board member Rito J. Valdez, III, as
Vice-President, and himself as Secretary-Treasurer while Valdez seconded the motion. Board member Ricardo E. Calderon then raised a point of order to Chairman Farias stating that the Robert’s Rules of Order required that each Officer position be nominated, discussed, and voted upon individually and not as a “political faction or group.” Board member Joaquin L. Rodriguez was absent. Duran accepted Calderon’s point of order as an amendment to his motion and then moved that Farias be re-elected as President and Valdez seconded it. Chairman Farias quickly called Duran’s motion to re-elect himself for a vote without allowing discussion with Farias, Duran, and Valdez in favor and Calderon against stating that the Maverick County Hospital District required new leadership as President because every year that Farias has been President of the Board the Hospital District has approved deficit budgets of millions per year. Calderon asked Chairman Farias how many years is it that he has been President with his re-election, but Farias refused to answer Calderon’s question stating only that “more than one year.”
Board member Duran then made a motion to re-elect Maverick County Treasurer and Board Vice-President Rito J. Valdez, III, as Vice-President and Farias seconded the motion. During discussion, Board member Calderon stated that he opposed Valdez’s re-election as Vice-President because he was serving as Maverick County Treasurer and running for election to the same position causing a potential conflict of interest on dual incompatibility of conflict of interest and there was a pending request for a Texas Attorney General Opinion regarding Valdez’s conflict of interest as well as approving deficit budgets at the Hospital District since his election in 2010. Farias, Duran, and Valdez voted in favor while Calderon voted against.
Next Board member Calderon nominated Board member Joaquin L. Rodriguez for Secretary-Treasurer, but neither Farias, Valdez, or Duran seconded the motion for purposes of discussion. Then Maverick County Treasurer and Vice-President Valdez nominated United Medical Center’s Clinic Manager and Secretary-Treasurer Humberto “Beto” Duran for re-election to another year as Secretary-Treasurer and Chairman Farias seconded the motion. By now the coup-d-etat was complete. Farias, Valdez, and Duran voted in favor while Calderon voted against.
According to the Maverick County Hospital District website, the local Hospital District has sustained significant financial losses in the millions almost every year, requiring the Farias, Valdez, and Duran Board majority dip into the Hospital District’s reserves to artificially balance it while depleting the reserves.
Another item on the February 26th Board meeting was “Discussion with possible action to post Agendas and supporting documents online as requested by Mr. Calderon.” Board member Calderon eloquently presented a proposal to his Board members to satisfy the Texas transparency laws of public records by posting the Hospital District Board Agendas and supporting public records, except those exempt by state law, on the website to inform and provide notice to the public and citizens of Maverick County the public business being transacted at each Board meeting similarly to the current practices of the City of Eagle Pass and the Eagle Pass Independent School District. Calderon proposed posting the agenda and supporting documents on the same date as publicly posting the agenda on the Hospital District’s website. Board member Duran concurred with Calderon, but Chairman Farias and Vice-President Valdez disfavored posting the agenda’s supporting documents simultaneously. Valdez prefers to post the public records after the Board meetings stating “that’s why the people elected us and they trust us to make decisions. They can decide not to vote for us….” Chairman Farias only prefers to post the Agenda on the website, but not the public records stating that if anybody wants to see the documents they can come to the District’s office under state protocol. After discussion, Calderon made the motion to post the Agendas and supporting documents on the Hospital District’s website simultaneously as posting the notice of the meeting and agenda and Duran seconded the motion, but Chairman Farias and Vice-President Valdez opposed it, stifling full and complete transparency at the local Hospital District.
Instead, Chairman Farias then made a motion to post only the Agendas in the District’s website and Valdez seconded the motion. Farias, Valdez, and Duran voted in favor while Calderon abstained because it was not full and complete transparency to local citizens.
Another agenda item discussed was an update by Judith Escamilla of Time Warner Cable Business Class regarding the connection and transmission of the Hospital District’s Board meetings live on cable access channel to provide transparency to Maverick County citizens regarding the public business being transacted at the Board meetings. Escamilla told the Board members that it would cost approximately $15,000 to construct and connect cable at the District’s conference room, $999 per month for 20 Mbps bundle, $50 per month recurring charge, $150 one time installation charge, $448 per month for 5 Mpbs video transport and monthly recurring charge, $1,534.95 total monthly recurring charge, $200 Live-Feed for each Board meeting, and other costs. No action was taken. Similar service on the internet through Live Stream or U-Stream is available at a significantly less cost, such as between $200-$300 per month. Meanwhile, the Hospital District hires a local cable access videographer to videotape the Board meetings and show them on local cable on a delayed-basis. No action was taken.
An item which raised eyebrows was the Building and Grounds Committee’s recommendation hiring Realtor Jose “Pepe” Aranda, Jr. and Realty Executives of Eagle Pass to assist the Hospital District sell its real property located at Bibb Street in Eagle Pass contrary to the Board of Directors previous decision several months ago not to use a Realtor, but instead to use Chief Executive Officer Elcira Bares to handle this sale. Aranda made a presentation to the Board of Directors during the Visitors Recognition part of the Agenda renewing his services offer for a commission fee to the Hospital District.
The Hospital District Board had previously requested CEO Elcira Bares to handle the sale of the real property in order to save the District money. According to the Building and Grounds Committee, comprised of Chairman Farias, Board member Joaquin L. Rodriguez, and CEO Elcira Bares, Aranda was the only Realtor who approached the Hospital District offering his services. Board member Calderon reminded CEO Bares that the Board had decided not to use a Realtor because the District has to follow certain bidding or auction procedures which General Counsel Celeste Lira had provided a memorandum detailing those procedures and asked Bares if the District had advertised for Requests for Realtor Services, which she replied “No.” Calderon pointed out that the Board had previously approved to advertise the sale of the property in local and out-of-town newspapers requesting bids with a deadline of March 2014. Calderon expressed his concerns that the Hospital District has not yet advertised the request for bids for the Bibb Street property in newspapers despite requesting it one or more months ago. The Building and Grounds Committee recommendation clearly contradicts previous Board action, raising serious governance, legal, and lack of transparency questions. No action was taken since it was only a report for discussion purposes.
Chairman Farias placed an Agenda item titled “Recommendations for a balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2014-2015” for discussion purposes in light of the Hospital District’s annual budget deficits. CEO Bares posted on the projector a graph showing how the Hospital District has reduced the tax rates from 18 cents to 7 cents per $100 valuation and collecting approximately the same amount of revenues during the past 10 years or so. Calderon pointed out that the Board were not provided a copy of Bares’ graph nor any other material in support of this agenda item. Calderon recommended reviewing all professional contracts approved by the Board and requesting new proposals to decrease expenses and hire outside consultants to evaluate the operations and programs of the Hospital District to determine where it is losing money and how to balance the budget. Duran stated he opposes raising taxes. Staff recommended increasing revenues and decreasing expenses but offered no specific examples.
An interesting Agenda item discussed was “to transfer funds in General Funds category to “Restricted Funds” for specific use in the future. CEO Bares stated the Hospital District still owes Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center (Universal Health Systems) approximately $16 million until 2025 for uncompensated care and perhaps the District should restrict some of its funds for paying this debt. A Board member raised concerns that if the Hospital District “restricted” some of its funds, there will not be sufficient funds to pay for the annual budget deficits. No action was taken.
Chief Financial Officer Terri Contreras presented the December 2013 Financial Reports showing expenses over revenues (deficit) of $204,513 for the month. Contreras was prepared to present the January 2014 Financial Statements but Administration failed to post it on the Agenda postponing their presentation until the next meeting.
The Board went into Executive Session and then returned into Open Session authorizing CEO Bares to submit a written offer of employment to a new physician.
Maria Santos of the Wintergarden Women’s Shelter requested the Board for an office to house the non-profit organization in Eagle Pass. No action was taken.
