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

[Westley Annis]

Well, here we go again:  two steps forward and one step backwards.  Thank
you Council. 

I am no fan of the Meraux Foundation, but they did do the right thing, step
up and offer this land.  It solved one issue for the building of the
hospital.  Why do you want to muck it up at this point?  

Here's an idea:  Instead of abolishing the hospital board why don't we
abolish all of you, Council members?

#2617
 



	
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	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.