[StBernard] St. Bernard Hospital CEO Wayne Landry violated dual officeholding ban, attorney general says

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Wed Jun 4 21:56:03 EDT 2014


St. Bernard Hospital CEO Wayne Landry violated dual officeholding ban,
attorney general says
Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
Email the author | Follow on Twitter 
on June 04, 2014 at 12:44 PM, updated June 04, 2014 at 2:27 PM

St. Bernard Parish Hospital Chief Executive Officer Wayne Landry violated
the state's ban on holding two public jobs by also serving on the hospital's
board, the state attorney general's office said in an opinion. Landry
resigned the board seat last month. 

"We determined it to be a dual officeholding violation for a person to serve
on the board of the hospital service district commission of St. Bernard
Parish and also as the director of the St. Bernard Parish Hospital," said
the opinion, written last week to Parish Council Chairman Guy McInnis.

McInnis, who filed a complaint with the attorney general, brought up the
opinion on Tuesday at the first council meeting since Landry stood in front
of the council May 20 and announced his resignation. At the May meeting,
Landry told councilmen that he was resigning because he was "tired of
fighting with all you guys."

The May 28 attorney general's opinion, written by Assistant Attorney General
Jessica Thornhill, said that because Landry has since resigned from the
hospital board, "we consider this complaint to be moot, and we will close
our file on this matter."

The council this week began accepting applications for Landry's vacant
hospital board seat. The council clerk will accept applications through June
23.

Landry said on Wednesday that he was surprised by the opinion.

"We had asked our attorney, whenever it was that I agreed to be the CEO to
carry the hospital, and were told that as long as it wasn't compensated,
that it wasn't a problem," Landry said of serving both as CEO and board
member.

He said the hospital board had never requested an attorney general or ethics
board opinion on the matter.

Landry was appointed as the hospital's CEO in the fall of 2012. His
appointment came after the nonprofit Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady
Health System, which was managing the hospital and had its own CEO, pulled
out in part raising questions about the role Landry and the board wanted to
play in the day-to-day running of the hospital.

Landry consistently has said that the Franciscan's were spending too much
money and that he and the board had felt that hospital operations had to be
run more frugally.

Landry said on Wednesday that volunteering his services as the hospital's
chief executive officer has "saved the hospital about $40,000 a month" and
"was one of the reasons why, on a cash basis, that the hospital made money
in 2013."

At the Tuesday council meeting, McInnis also again brought up a state ethics
board opinion written about a month before Landry's resignation from the
board. That opinion said Landry could serve on the board and volunteer his
services as the hospital chief executive office, "as long as such position,
even uncompensated, does not require an appointment."

While Landry does not get financially compensated for his role as CEO,
McInnis said on Tuesday that "the CEO position at the hospital requires
appointment" and therefore Landry was in violation based on that ethics
board ruling as well.

Landry said, "in my opinion, stepping up to the plate for those reasons (to
save the hospital money) and being appointed are two different things."

"If I had the attention to be the CEO for ever, I would agree that it would
be a violation to be on the board forever and work as the CEO," Landry added
on Wednesday.

In March 2013, Landry said he would have liked for the hospital to hire a
new CEO in three months or less. This week he said he never intended to hold
the top post for this long, and that "running a start-up hospital is a
gamble for some people, for their careers, and it is difficult to find the
right fit."

Landry said the board currently is in the process of talking with some
potential CEOs and "we feel extremely confident that by this year's end
there will be a new CEO in place."

Landry has also criticized council members, saying that when they requested
the ethics opinion about him they did so in violation of the open meetings
law. On May 29, Assistant Attorney General Emalie Boyce sent a letter to the
council members, scolding them for not holding an open meeting and reminding
them of the law.

"If the council, as a public body, is making a decision to take action on
something, such as make a request for an opinion, then such action must be
accomplished at an open meeting in accordance with Louisiana's Open Meetings
Law," Boyce wrote. "Please allow this letter to serve as a reminder of the
obligations of the Open Meetings Law."

Below, you can view and download the three above-mentioned attorney general
and ethics board opinions:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/06/st_bernard_hospital_ceo_wayne
.html




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