Impressions of the regularly scheduled PHD meeting
Okay, EstesTruth was not in attendance today, and I took fewer notes than last time (and last time I took none), so if you are relying on me instead of the video recording of this meeting for your information, you are doing so at your own peril.
EXCLUSIVE: Here is a very intriguing optic from me walking down the hall 3 minutes prior to the meeting: CEO Larry Lemming was having a one-on-one outside his office with former board president Diana Van Der Ploeg. This is an exclusive. No one else saw this encounter but me, and their tete-a-tete quickly broke up as I passed, with promises to meet again in the near future. So good for you, recall board, you got Diana removed entirely from any decision making on the future of the hospital...NOT. Why can't we get Diana physically escorted from the building? Is Van Der Ploeg actually a cipher for Diana Prince (a.k.a Wonder Woman)? What was the point of the recall, again?
There were 30 people in the room. This makes the room full, but it was not standing room only. I don't want this to turn into a "How many people were at the inauguration?" battle, but I think going forward, we ought not to be fooling ourselves into exaggerated notions of how a message of hospital board inadequacy and hospital CEO inadequacy is catching fire based on inflated counts. This was a smaller attendance than the special meeting, with just as much (or more, if you pay attention to the monthly meeting schedule) advance warning. There were probably 40 people there total besides the board, but 10 of them had to be there, representing the hospital staff or the CIO, HR, Foundation president, guy wheeling in coffee, guy filming, etc. I think at least 5 of them besides the board members were there (nailed you, ER doc) just to enjoy the delicious buffet spread - Again, as a taxypayer, I don't want the board or anyone else in the room comfortable. I want them noshing on their own time, not on my dime. This is not a planning committee meeting for the annual neighborhood block party conducted over a couple of pulled-together tables during happy hour at HoJo's.
One person notable by his absence was Tom Street, the EstesTruth troll (I now feel quite comfortable calling him that, because he wasn't there) and wet blanket who "needs to investigate things for himself" before making a decision. We call him "Doubting Thomas", but at least the original was present to doubt.
One person who was in the room and didn't have to be (or actually has to be as an independent advocate, but it's a long story, major advertiser, blah blah blah) was Zach Clemens from the Trail-Gazette. He left after the public comments portion of the meeting, but either his texts or a pre-arranged schedule then brought Lieutenant Dan into the meeting shortly thereafter, during the boring Raymond James investment strategies portion (note to Raymond James - We are not paying you, apparently, until the Fed increases the interest rate (at which point we will be paying you plenty), but that doesn't mean you have to subject us to prescriptive death-inducing slides interpreted over the telephone that cannot be read because they are too detailed. We get it, our $14 million parked with you is a slam dunk because you have to invest in low-risk securities, but it's not like we are shopping around, because, if you can be believed, you work for free, so stop taking precious 30 minutes telling us about your prowess investing in low-yield bonds and CDs - I know six year olds equipped to do the same (hell, if it's just button pushing, I can push buttons), and their presentations are much more enjoyable (see, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1npkEoEtos )
Okay, so let's get to the meat of things: The first or second public speaker (after CEO Larry Lemming let us in on his two-week cruise, and how overwhelmed he was after returning from his two-week cruise, and how the best way to move forward was to hire an independent third party (hired by the hospital, so how do you think that is going to turn out?) to examine all the evidence, because he was certainly too overwhelmed following his two-week cruise to start looking into it himself) was, surprise, Dr. Mark MacElwee himself, who is very soft-spoken and (this is the best part, you absolutely have to see the video of this) who MayBilly R.F.D. didn't even recognize. The other board members were quick to cover for his mistake in not being able to recognize Dr. MacElwee's name, but I actually believe Bill didn't recognize the human form in front of him - in any event, he felt so guilty he was compelled to admit he hadn't seen him for 2 years, which is exactly what you want in a board president, especially one who had been charged by the public a week ago to look into the matter.)
Dr. MacElwee even standing up to speak in front of a "supportive but not really" board and really unsupportive CEO took guts, but he was not cowed, and spelled out clearly and without bias the events as they unfolded beginning one day prior to March 9 (Dr. K's official "Drop Kick a Co-Worker to the Curb" day), gently sprinkling in observations of failure to follow due process, libelous and slanderous characterizations being placed in his permanent file, and the bombshell that, get ready:
Even today, CEO Larry Lemming had been too busy to talk with him in person.
Let me repeat that for dramatic effect: Even today, 24 hours after returning rested, tanned, and relaxed from his two-week cruise (he certainly wasn't letting anything going on back at the hospital bother him), CEO Larry Lemming had no time, none, to talk with Dr. MacElwee in person. He found time to talk with resigned (to avoid being recalled) former board member and former board president and pinch-CEO Diana Van Der Ploeg, but not to a physician currently employed in his hospital.
It is clear that Dr. MacElwee had only one news outlet to thank for bringing this to light, and that was Estes Truth (imagine, a discredited website providing information the town desperately craved) and that he was journaling all of this (if that isn't advice from a lawyer, I don't know what is). Dr. MacElwee is not a loose cannon or a rabble rouser or a "cheese slid off his cracker" kind of guy, he will look very believable in front of a jury. I'm afraid his kindness and his moral compass and how life has treated him up to this point will not take him down that path, but if I were a lawyer, and had access to the video from today's meeting, I would be planning a very lengthy cruise of my own.
So then it was the march to the microphone for all of Dr. Mac's supporters (and this is the only thing I would caution if this continues to be a public display of affection, which it should be - Tone down the J.C. stuff a bit - I hear you preaching, sister, and I tolerated it last week, but this is not the Mennonite Christian Hospital, and no board members, not a one, is a practicing Christian (meaning doing more than just humming along to the hymns and pressing flesh at the potluck, and this probably when they first arrived, so they could plant their names on voters' foreheads), so you are slightly diluting the message when you attempt to engage in call and response on God Bless America), the last three of which were absolutely the most effective, because they pointed out the hypocrisy in bringing in an independent third party when the parties we have hired or elected haven't even begun to look at the security camera footage or interview the witnesses, and pointed out that the board shouldn't be striving to "get this behind us", they should be working to "make this right". And gently reminding, if the board needs further reminding, they are the public's representatives and the public's advocates. Again, Bill and the band covered for Bill saying "get this behind us", but one thing is absolutely clear to everyone except Bill's most ardent supporters: Bill needs to step down as board president, because four people in the audience are more qualified, and, in a stretch, probably one other person sitting at the table with him. He is coasting on sympathy and fumes. Government is not a private company, and Bill generally skips the part where citizens get to have a say in how they are governed. I don't need to hear the "telephone" analogy from grade school, because that is a cop-out: No person ever got an opening statement to pass along correctly or incorrectly, because the board remains silent, and is still working behind a smoke screen.
But Bill is not going to resign, and because I'm a results-driven guy, I would gently implore the voters not to nostalgia vote for him when he runs again in four years. There are other available, less high profile, less "impactful on people's lives and careers" positions on the Make America Bloom board, or the Bighorn Viewing Brigade board.
CEO Larry Lemming is not going to resign, so I would less gently implore concerned citizens to continue attempting to drive a wedge between Bill and Larry (hopeless, but nonetheless fun, Larry spent most of the public comments portion, especially when he was being directly attacked, fiddling with his tablet), and especially to focus energies on attempting to peel off other board members from the cult of Larry, even though they are all on the same team.
And I very much doubt if Dr. MacElwee is ever going to get that apology he deserves, so all the angry people in the room can claim they are going to continue attending board meetings until Kingdom come, but attendance has already dropped off 40% from last week, and the peak season is coming, when relatives arrive to visit and excuses are even more at the ready.
Two other things happened after most of the folks left the room: (1) Spirited debate from public citizens forced the hospital board to admit they had already made a decision prior to holding any public information sessions on the "right-to-die" legislation that passed back in November 2016. Both the previous board and the current board have talked this issue to death and done nothing about it besides saying no one at the hospital is qualified or wants to do it. BS. Either hire someone more effective at getting a referral system in place, or hire a doctor that is qualified/willing to write the prescriptions and get them filled. That doctor may be already working at your hospital. If other staff or physicians resign because of it, that is akin to other staff or physicians resigning because they don't like following the will of the taxpayer or the voting public at a publicly-funded hospital. Retire, find a private hospital, or risk getting escorted out by Dr. K and his bouncers. End of story. No more excuses.
(2) For some ungodly reason, a discussion item was placed on the agenda about the upcoming election and how to conduct it. Watch the video, and note that the discussion would have ended up with a reversal of policy previously decided from a mail-in ballot to a day-of walk in vote, had not other board members besides MayBilly R.F.D. (who was attempting to deny any discussion from the rabble) stepped in and allowed public input. As was pointed out by someone who didn't exist (paradoxically) MayBill was already on record (he will be more circumspect in the future, I'll bet) one month earlier as saying that a mail-in ballot was much more representative of the public will, so why had he suddenly decided that a walk-in election was the way to go? Because he saw how many people had filed, and how he could save money but just going through the formalities of democracy the cheapest way possible. (Note how, the older he gets, the more MayBill R.F.D. resembles Vladimir Putin?) You have a write-in candidate to thank(?) (admittedly, your mileage may vary) for forcing Bill to spend money on any election (Bill prefers patrilineal monarchy) and then forcing him to honor his word. (If nothing else, MayBill R.F.D. apologists, you have to admit that Bill is quite "pragmatic", and I mean that in a less-than-glowing sense, especially when pragmatism causes someone to change their core values from one month to the next) - I wonder who that write-in candidate could be? Was it CDIV? No, that's not right. Art Messal - No, he and Bobbsey #2 are running for EVRPD. The head of EstesTruth? No, his responsibility is not getting other candidates to file. Any former members of the first recall board? No, (if they can be believed, and I'm starting to have my doubts) they are waiting for the hospital to collapse, so they won't be blamed for it. Scientists, architects, and archeologists have examined the building, and estimate, without repairs, the hospital will collapse in two centuries. It sure won't collapse financially in the next six years, even with manhandling half of the staff physicians to the parking lot, even though the CFO claims they only have operating expenses to last six months. What kind of catastrophic scenario do you envision where the hospital would receive no income for six months, yet would keep paying staff full salaries and keep providing utilities to the entire complex and not lay anyone off, not even prepare fewer meals each day, despite the fact there were no paying customers to eat them? We are not in kindergarten, so start treating us like this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOzrAK4gOSo
If the remaining members of the board were so worried about spending $33,000 on an election versus $9000 (neither of these numbers are likely accurate, they were manufactured from thin air by designated disgruntled election official Julie Yaden, who, incidentally said she would be there on the last day to file until 4:30 p.m., but, hey, it was Friday, and so a box outside the door worked just as well), one of them could obviously remove their name from the ballot, and then no election would be necessary. ($0)
The message here is (and I already see readers agreeing, and then turning around and doing exactly what I advocate not doing): If you want real change at your hospital sometime before 2055, stop giving money to the hospital where you are not required to do so. Stop buying things from the Elizabeth Guild. Stop donating your crap to the Elizabeth Guild. Stop going to the clinic for routine matters where you will be grossly overcharged compared to valley hospitals. Will the hospital suffer if any of these suggestions are carried out? Yes indeed. Will CEO Larry Lemming stop receiving bonuses and taking two-week cruises if any of these suggestions are carried out? Bingo. A word to the wise is sufficient, except in Estes Park you have to write that word on a napkin, watch it be crumpled up in front of you 10 seconds later, witness the hearers recant three times while you are standing there giving them encouragement and voice prompts, and have enough patience to stick around to teach the remedial course. 14 times.
And thus the meeting came to a close, except for entering executive session, and we know from last week nothing ever gets decided in there.
There were 30 people in the room. This makes the room full, but it was not standing room only. I don't want this to turn into a "How many people were at the inauguration?" battle, but I think going forward, we ought not to be fooling ourselves into exaggerated notions of how a message of hospital board inadequacy and hospital CEO inadequacy is catching fire based on inflated counts. This was a smaller attendance than the special meeting, with just as much (or more, if you pay attention to the monthly meeting schedule) advance warning. There were probably 40 people there total besides the board, but 10 of them had to be there, representing the hospital staff or the CIO, HR, Foundation president, guy wheeling in coffee, guy filming, etc. I think at least 5 of them besides the board members were there (nailed you, ER doc) just to enjoy the delicious buffet spread - Again, as a taxypayer, I don't want the board or anyone else in the room comfortable. I want them noshing on their own time, not on my dime. This is not a planning committee meeting for the annual neighborhood block party conducted over a couple of pulled-together tables during happy hour at HoJo's.
One person notable by his absence was Tom Street, the EstesTruth troll (I now feel quite comfortable calling him that, because he wasn't there) and wet blanket who "needs to investigate things for himself" before making a decision. We call him "Doubting Thomas", but at least the original was present to doubt.
One person who was in the room and didn't have to be (or actually has to be as an independent advocate, but it's a long story, major advertiser, blah blah blah) was Zach Clemens from the Trail-Gazette. He left after the public comments portion of the meeting, but either his texts or a pre-arranged schedule then brought Lieutenant Dan into the meeting shortly thereafter, during the boring Raymond James investment strategies portion (note to Raymond James - We are not paying you, apparently, until the Fed increases the interest rate (at which point we will be paying you plenty), but that doesn't mean you have to subject us to prescriptive death-inducing slides interpreted over the telephone that cannot be read because they are too detailed. We get it, our $14 million parked with you is a slam dunk because you have to invest in low-risk securities, but it's not like we are shopping around, because, if you can be believed, you work for free, so stop taking precious 30 minutes telling us about your prowess investing in low-yield bonds and CDs - I know six year olds equipped to do the same (hell, if it's just button pushing, I can push buttons), and their presentations are much more enjoyable (see, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1npkEoEtos )
Okay, so let's get to the meat of things: The first or second public speaker (after CEO Larry Lemming let us in on his two-week cruise, and how overwhelmed he was after returning from his two-week cruise, and how the best way to move forward was to hire an independent third party (hired by the hospital, so how do you think that is going to turn out?) to examine all the evidence, because he was certainly too overwhelmed following his two-week cruise to start looking into it himself) was, surprise, Dr. Mark MacElwee himself, who is very soft-spoken and (this is the best part, you absolutely have to see the video of this) who MayBilly R.F.D. didn't even recognize. The other board members were quick to cover for his mistake in not being able to recognize Dr. MacElwee's name, but I actually believe Bill didn't recognize the human form in front of him - in any event, he felt so guilty he was compelled to admit he hadn't seen him for 2 years, which is exactly what you want in a board president, especially one who had been charged by the public a week ago to look into the matter.)
Dr. MacElwee even standing up to speak in front of a "supportive but not really" board and really unsupportive CEO took guts, but he was not cowed, and spelled out clearly and without bias the events as they unfolded beginning one day prior to March 9 (Dr. K's official "Drop Kick a Co-Worker to the Curb" day), gently sprinkling in observations of failure to follow due process, libelous and slanderous characterizations being placed in his permanent file, and the bombshell that, get ready:
Even today, CEO Larry Lemming had been too busy to talk with him in person.
Let me repeat that for dramatic effect: Even today, 24 hours after returning rested, tanned, and relaxed from his two-week cruise (he certainly wasn't letting anything going on back at the hospital bother him), CEO Larry Lemming had no time, none, to talk with Dr. MacElwee in person. He found time to talk with resigned (to avoid being recalled) former board member and former board president and pinch-CEO Diana Van Der Ploeg, but not to a physician currently employed in his hospital.
It is clear that Dr. MacElwee had only one news outlet to thank for bringing this to light, and that was Estes Truth (imagine, a discredited website providing information the town desperately craved) and that he was journaling all of this (if that isn't advice from a lawyer, I don't know what is). Dr. MacElwee is not a loose cannon or a rabble rouser or a "cheese slid off his cracker" kind of guy, he will look very believable in front of a jury. I'm afraid his kindness and his moral compass and how life has treated him up to this point will not take him down that path, but if I were a lawyer, and had access to the video from today's meeting, I would be planning a very lengthy cruise of my own.
So then it was the march to the microphone for all of Dr. Mac's supporters (and this is the only thing I would caution if this continues to be a public display of affection, which it should be - Tone down the J.C. stuff a bit - I hear you preaching, sister, and I tolerated it last week, but this is not the Mennonite Christian Hospital, and no board members, not a one, is a practicing Christian (meaning doing more than just humming along to the hymns and pressing flesh at the potluck, and this probably when they first arrived, so they could plant their names on voters' foreheads), so you are slightly diluting the message when you attempt to engage in call and response on God Bless America), the last three of which were absolutely the most effective, because they pointed out the hypocrisy in bringing in an independent third party when the parties we have hired or elected haven't even begun to look at the security camera footage or interview the witnesses, and pointed out that the board shouldn't be striving to "get this behind us", they should be working to "make this right". And gently reminding, if the board needs further reminding, they are the public's representatives and the public's advocates. Again, Bill and the band covered for Bill saying "get this behind us", but one thing is absolutely clear to everyone except Bill's most ardent supporters: Bill needs to step down as board president, because four people in the audience are more qualified, and, in a stretch, probably one other person sitting at the table with him. He is coasting on sympathy and fumes. Government is not a private company, and Bill generally skips the part where citizens get to have a say in how they are governed. I don't need to hear the "telephone" analogy from grade school, because that is a cop-out: No person ever got an opening statement to pass along correctly or incorrectly, because the board remains silent, and is still working behind a smoke screen.
But Bill is not going to resign, and because I'm a results-driven guy, I would gently implore the voters not to nostalgia vote for him when he runs again in four years. There are other available, less high profile, less "impactful on people's lives and careers" positions on the Make America Bloom board, or the Bighorn Viewing Brigade board.
CEO Larry Lemming is not going to resign, so I would less gently implore concerned citizens to continue attempting to drive a wedge between Bill and Larry (hopeless, but nonetheless fun, Larry spent most of the public comments portion, especially when he was being directly attacked, fiddling with his tablet), and especially to focus energies on attempting to peel off other board members from the cult of Larry, even though they are all on the same team.
And I very much doubt if Dr. MacElwee is ever going to get that apology he deserves, so all the angry people in the room can claim they are going to continue attending board meetings until Kingdom come, but attendance has already dropped off 40% from last week, and the peak season is coming, when relatives arrive to visit and excuses are even more at the ready.
Two other things happened after most of the folks left the room: (1) Spirited debate from public citizens forced the hospital board to admit they had already made a decision prior to holding any public information sessions on the "right-to-die" legislation that passed back in November 2016. Both the previous board and the current board have talked this issue to death and done nothing about it besides saying no one at the hospital is qualified or wants to do it. BS. Either hire someone more effective at getting a referral system in place, or hire a doctor that is qualified/willing to write the prescriptions and get them filled. That doctor may be already working at your hospital. If other staff or physicians resign because of it, that is akin to other staff or physicians resigning because they don't like following the will of the taxpayer or the voting public at a publicly-funded hospital. Retire, find a private hospital, or risk getting escorted out by Dr. K and his bouncers. End of story. No more excuses.
(2) For some ungodly reason, a discussion item was placed on the agenda about the upcoming election and how to conduct it. Watch the video, and note that the discussion would have ended up with a reversal of policy previously decided from a mail-in ballot to a day-of walk in vote, had not other board members besides MayBilly R.F.D. (who was attempting to deny any discussion from the rabble) stepped in and allowed public input. As was pointed out by someone who didn't exist (paradoxically) MayBill was already on record (he will be more circumspect in the future, I'll bet) one month earlier as saying that a mail-in ballot was much more representative of the public will, so why had he suddenly decided that a walk-in election was the way to go? Because he saw how many people had filed, and how he could save money but just going through the formalities of democracy the cheapest way possible. (Note how, the older he gets, the more MayBill R.F.D. resembles Vladimir Putin?) You have a write-in candidate to thank(?) (admittedly, your mileage may vary) for forcing Bill to spend money on any election (Bill prefers patrilineal monarchy) and then forcing him to honor his word. (If nothing else, MayBill R.F.D. apologists, you have to admit that Bill is quite "pragmatic", and I mean that in a less-than-glowing sense, especially when pragmatism causes someone to change their core values from one month to the next) - I wonder who that write-in candidate could be? Was it CDIV? No, that's not right. Art Messal - No, he and Bobbsey #2 are running for EVRPD. The head of EstesTruth? No, his responsibility is not getting other candidates to file. Any former members of the first recall board? No, (if they can be believed, and I'm starting to have my doubts) they are waiting for the hospital to collapse, so they won't be blamed for it. Scientists, architects, and archeologists have examined the building, and estimate, without repairs, the hospital will collapse in two centuries. It sure won't collapse financially in the next six years, even with manhandling half of the staff physicians to the parking lot, even though the CFO claims they only have operating expenses to last six months. What kind of catastrophic scenario do you envision where the hospital would receive no income for six months, yet would keep paying staff full salaries and keep providing utilities to the entire complex and not lay anyone off, not even prepare fewer meals each day, despite the fact there were no paying customers to eat them? We are not in kindergarten, so start treating us like this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOzrAK4gOSo
If the remaining members of the board were so worried about spending $33,000 on an election versus $9000 (neither of these numbers are likely accurate, they were manufactured from thin air by designated disgruntled election official Julie Yaden, who, incidentally said she would be there on the last day to file until 4:30 p.m., but, hey, it was Friday, and so a box outside the door worked just as well), one of them could obviously remove their name from the ballot, and then no election would be necessary. ($0)
The message here is (and I already see readers agreeing, and then turning around and doing exactly what I advocate not doing): If you want real change at your hospital sometime before 2055, stop giving money to the hospital where you are not required to do so. Stop buying things from the Elizabeth Guild. Stop donating your crap to the Elizabeth Guild. Stop going to the clinic for routine matters where you will be grossly overcharged compared to valley hospitals. Will the hospital suffer if any of these suggestions are carried out? Yes indeed. Will CEO Larry Lemming stop receiving bonuses and taking two-week cruises if any of these suggestions are carried out? Bingo. A word to the wise is sufficient, except in Estes Park you have to write that word on a napkin, watch it be crumpled up in front of you 10 seconds later, witness the hearers recant three times while you are standing there giving them encouragement and voice prompts, and have enough patience to stick around to teach the remedial course. 14 times.
And thus the meeting came to a close, except for entering executive session, and we know from last week nothing ever gets decided in there.
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