We know that our county hospital is in financial trouble.
Wanting to be an informed and engaged citizen as the Times suggested recently, I decided to read some of the minutes of the recent hospital board meetings.
The last set of minutes that they have posted on their web site is for the June 16, 2014 meeting. Since then the board has met more than 15 times. It’s kind of hard to be informed when here we are in November and we cannot read about what they have done since June.
Their finance committee’s activities are a special area of concern. Unfortunately their last minutes are for April 24, 2014.
I guess they will let us know when they need more of our money.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
These are the members of the UMC board of managers, who have not been managing very effectively:
– William Hanson, Chairman
– Tracy Yellen
– Laura Ponce
– Brother Nicolas Gonzalez
– Monica Salaiz-Narvaez
– Jim Volk
Unless the seventh director position is filled by Jim Valenti, there is currently an opening.
What qualifies any of these people to serve on this board?
These are the people who just awarded Valenti a $119,000 bonus for the period in which so many problems surfaced and so many UMC employees lost their jobs. That brings his annual compensation to more than $580,000. Simply by foregoing his bonus, Valenti could have save the jobs of three or four people.
It’s humorous that UMC is having financial problems and accounts receivable issue, considering that Chairman Hanson is a CPA.
What is not so funny is the fact that he sat on the board of the Children’s Hospital while also serving as chairman of UMC’s board. He was undoubtedly familiar with the financial dealings between the two entities as well the financial issues that led to the current dispute. He served on the CH board from November 2013 through April of this year. That timing is more than a little bit interesting.
I would be interested in knowing which of the board members have received money for services provided to UMC. Do any of them provide paid consulting services to UMC or to companies that are suppliers to UMC?
This is a link to the Board’s standard operating procedures, which speak more to limiting information and pubic comment than to the public sharing of information.
http://www.umcelpaso.org/webshell/umcep.nsf/BOARDSOP.pdf?OpenFileResource
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