The Greenwood Leflore Hospital Board made a decision Wednesday behind closed doors, possibly related to its search for a new CEO.
Whether it was, though, is uncertain, as the board opted to not reveal its decision after emerging from the half-hour executive session.
“The board chose not to announce publicly today. I do not know when it may be reported at this time,” said Tom Flanagan, the board’s attorney.
Although it is customary for public bodies, such as the hospital board, to announce any action they take in executive session once they come out of it, it is not a legal requirement that they do so under Mississippi’s Open Meetings Act.
“It’s their right not to announce it, as long as they put it in their minutes,” said Leonard Van Slyke, hotline attorney for the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information.
Those minutes, which must include the individual vote on any action taken, have to be approved within 30 days of the executive session, at which point they become public record.
The five-member board had a full complement of commissioners present for Wednesday’s special called meeting. Freddie White-Johnson had been absent from the previous four meetings this month — one regular and three called ones.
The board began its search for a chief executive in August after firing Subho Basu, who had been serving as interim CEO. Dawne Holmes, the hospital’s chief financial officer, has been holding down the CEO duties since Basu’s departure.
The board has reportedly been weighing whether to hire a permanent CEO or another interim.
This month, it has gone into executive session four times. In the last two closed-door meetings, it has announced that the reason for the executive session was to discuss “an open administrative position,” presumably the CEO.
Joining the board for an executive session held on Sept. 10 was Gary Marchand, the former CEO of Memorial Hospital at Gulfport.
Marchand, 66, suddenly retired last summer after spending more than 26 years with the publicly owned hospital, including 15 years as its chief executive.
It has not been disclosed why the board met with Marchand.
•Contact Tim Kalich at 581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
