[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Council could move to abolish hospital board Wednesday

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish Council could move to abolish hospital board Wednesday
by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
Tuesday February 10, 2009, 4:48 PM
The St. Bernard Parish Council will hold a special meeting Wednesday to
consider disbanding the five-member hospital board it created more than a
year ago and appointing replacements - possibly council members themselves.

The measure is the third time since October that the council has proposed a
shakeup involving the parish's Hospital Service District board, tasked by
the previous council in late 2007 with building St. Bernard's first
post-Hurricane Katrina hospital. 

Councilman Wayne Landry, the council's liaison to the hospital service
district, said the council's proposal comes after a series of problems with
the board over the past year, including potential conflicts of interest and
issues in properly advertising contracts. 

Most recently, Landry said he felt the board moved hastily in accepting a
land donation by the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation, a
parish non-profit, when all the details had not been worked out about future
medical development on the site. The parish had also offered the Village
Square area, a tract of decaying Chalmette apartments that will be bought
out, as a potential site for the hospital. 

"I'm not opposed to the Meraux's land at all. However, at the end of the day
I do want to make sure that the hospital is postured to survive for
posterity," Landry said Tuesday. "I do care where the hospital goes, only in
the vein that it goes in the best position possible." 

Landry has suggested at previous meetings that because the Village Square
site is situated in a low-income census tract, the hospital project could
generate more than $6 million in additional government tax credits that
could go toward construction of a medical office building. 

Hospital Service District board chairman Daniel Dysart said he had not
received any calls or e-mails about the special meeting until he saw a copy
of the agenda Tuesday afternoon. 

"This move, at this particular time, is very unforeseen from my standpoint,
and unfortunate in terms of the parish going forward on this project,"
Dysart said. 

Referring to the selection of the Meraux land and the unresolved details, he
said "for that to be cause to shut down the whole operation and retool from
the beginning, it strikes me that there's another agenda involved in that." 

Parish President Craig Taffaro said in an e-mail message Tuesday that he was
"confused" by the council's agenda and had not received anything in writing
about the council's plans. 

"It has been encouraging that the land selection was made. I am hopeful that
the anticipated momentum continues," Taffaro wrote. "This has been a long
and difficult project and parish government is committed to working with the
HSD and seeing the hospital project to completion as soon as possible." 

Landry said the council will discuss replacements for the board members at
Wednesday's meeting. He said appointing five of the seven council members to
the board would put the hospital issue on the "front burner" for the parish.


"Don't think that the HSD board had an easy task by any stretch of the
imagination. It might be unfair to ask a volunteer board to accomplish that
mission," he said. "At the end of the day I don't want anybody to get the
idea that this is a delay. ... We want to just consolidate this thing and
move forward." 

Councilman George Cavignac said he supports the measure. Councilmen Ray
Lauga and Fred Everhardt did not return calls. Councilman Mike Ginart
declined to comment until the meeting. 

Councilman Kenny Henderson said he was leaning against the measure, adding,
"I just don't see this issue coming to a head now, if it didn't come to a
head six months ago or a year ago." 

Council Chairman Frank Auderer usually does not vote on hospital issues
because a conflict of interest issue with a relative. He said Tuesday he did
not have enough information about the proposal. 

He said he approved the special meeting agenda in order to meet the 24-hour
public notice criteria, but could call off the meeting this morning if there
wasn't enough support for the measure.