OCH Regional Medical Center supporter Frank Davis confirmed he and others seeking signatures to force a potential hospital transaction to a vote have restarted their efforts after the original document’s language was called into question.
Oktibbeha County is seeking an opinion from Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood’s office on the validity of the petition and is also asking if the county can place such a referendum on the ballot during Nov. 7’s special election for chancery clerk.
That letter was sent to the AG’s office last week, but Davis said the grassroots petition effort reset in December.
Specifically, Davis said, language citing state law moving hospital transactions to the ballot box if a number of qualified petitioners called for such an election was added to the document. The original petition did not cite the Mississippi code.
Exactly who called the previous petition’s language into question is unknown — on Wednesday, Davis said the change was made at the behest of other hospital supporters — but the pro-OCH group had already reached the 1,500 signature minimum to force the issue to a vote.
Now, Davis said it has received about 650 signatures and volunteers will go back and revisit residents who previously signed the original document.
“We’re trying our best, and I’m hopeful. I want the people of Oktibbeha County to be the ones that make the decision whether to keep OCH as is or to sell or lease it. I don’t want that to be done by three people,” he said. “My thoughts have been if we do sell or lease it, in a year or two — when we find out we’ve made a terrible mistake — we can’t go back to having it.”
Trainer questions petition’s need
District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer, who has been at the center of the process examining OCH, confirmed Wednesday the county has not yet received a response from the AG’s office.
He could not forecast when such a response would arrive.
Since Davis and other hospital supporters began collecting signatures last year after supervisors approved a hospital assessment — the first step required by law before a governing body can explore a transaction — Trainer has questioned the need for and timing of the petition drive.
The board, Trainer said, has neither voted to issue a request for outside proposals for OCH, nor committed to selling or leasing the public health facility.
“I think the public needs to understand, especially with that petition floating around — I’m afraid that it might be invalid,” Trainer said. “Even the letter we received from the business community, the one that says leave the decision to hospital trustees — that’s contrary to the law. It’s up to the board to make that decision.”
Since the Tennessee-based firm Stroudwater and Associates’ report suggested supervisors begin an RFP process soliciting bids for the hospital, OCH supporters have ramped up their efforts to force the issue to the polls.
On background, a majority of the board of supervisors have agreed that a countywide election will likely be the deciding factor for any sale or lease if three supervisors agree to give up control to an outside entity.
Even Ted Woodrell, a consultant hired by the county to guide it through the hospital analysis, recommended in a December email to supervisors that the county put the transaction question to a public vote.
“This is a huge decision for Oktibbeha County. I believe in the democratic process. Let the people vote,” he told The Dispatch.
Butler Snow expected in Feb.
After no OCH discussions emerged during Monday’s board meeting, Trainer said lawyers with the Jackson-based firm Butler Snow are expected to brief supervisors on “potential engagements” dealing with the hospital on Feb. 6.
Earlier in the month, the board voted 3-2 to invite the firm for an initial consultation about how to continue the hospital process. During that meeting, Trainer said the county is not expected to incur any expenses for the visit.
District 1 Supervisor John Montgomery and District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard voted against inviting the legal team, and Howard said he was troubled by the lack of clarity offered on the proposed meeting.
The board order set no parameters for such a conversation, but Trainer said he doesn’t see the need to hold the talks behind closed doors in executive session.
“The first meeting should be about seeing whether they’re capable of handling these deals — and I know they are because they have an extensive history of doing these things — but when you get off on the details of an RFP, that’s something where you want to assemble a team and give it thought,” Trainer said. “(An engagement) could be full scale should the board decide to move forward.”
Supervisors could also broach extending Woodrell’s contract for services, as Trainer said his work on guiding the board through the hospital analysis has concluded.
Woodrell’s original deal came with a base cost of $10,000 for advising.
Stroudwater report
Stroudwater’s 2016 report suggested the board “explore transactions as soon as is practical” while OCH continues to improve its sustainability in case a sale or lease option isn’t available.
It suggested the hospital has an annual $3 million to $4 million gap between current operating levels and the amount needed for capital investments to occur, but OCH Chief Executive Officer Richard Hilton refuted those claims and said the analysis was filled with misleading data that failed to follow generally accepted accounting principles, understated the hospital’s income and overstated its revenues.
Stroudwater suggested the hospital could fetch between $20 million and $60 million in a transaction, but state law would require proceeds first retire about $25 million worth of outstanding debt.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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