The method of appointing Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s five board members may soon change if the Greenwood City Council and the Leflore County Board of Supervisors can agree with an attorney general’s opinion issued on April 20.
The opinion says the city and county must change the current method of the city appointing two hospital board members and the county, three. Instead, the city and county should appoint two each and jointly appoint the fifth.
A spot for a fifth appointee is currently open on the hospital board.
On Tuesday, Mayor Carolyn McAdams and three council members showed up at a Board of Supervisors meeting to talk about the opinion, which was prompted by a letter from City Attorney Don Brock.
Brock asked the state Attorney General’s Office if Mississippi code, rather than existing bylaws, should govern the appointment of hospital board members and, if so, should the balance between city and county appointees be adjusted.
“We just brought the AG’s opinion to their attention,” McAdams said. “We’re just trying to say that why we consulted the attorney general is that the hospital is a 50-50 partnership and that under Mississippi statute, there should be two hospital board members appointed by the city, two by the county and one jointly agreed upon.”
The matter has current relevance since Larry Griggs’ term on the hospital board has ended and he has said he will not serve again.
County appointees occupying the board at present are Emma Bell and Freddie White-Johnson. City appointees are board president Brian Waldrop and vice-president Sammy Foster.
The fifth appointee, replacing Griggs, could be a tie-breaker when opinions are divided, and Griggs suggested in a recent letter to the Commonwealth that board members are sometimes unduly influenced by the government body that appoints them. He was a county appointee.
When McAdams and the council began discussing the process for filling the board in recent months, it appeared no one knew why things were set up the way they are. They consulted with the Attorney General’s Office, asking if Mississippi law controls the appointment of commissioners to the hospital.
The attorney general’s opinion said it does and the hospital board “has no authority to enact bylaws, rules or regulations which directly conflict with that statute.”
Board of Supervisors President Anjuan Brown said that his board first heard of the matter by word of mouth and that when the attorney general’s opinion was issued, it was sent to County Attorney Joyce Chiles.
“There were some things the attorney was researching to find out if this was the case,” Brown said.
Tuesday’s discussion between city and county officials took place in executive session.
Brown said Chiles is double-checking into information that came out of the executive session now, and that the county intends to follow the law.
Brown said there was information out there that said the 3-2 structure had been in place since the 1940s, but no one is sure why.
Local historian and physician Mary Carol Miller said the hospital was King’s Daughters, a charitable nonprofit until 1931 when it was “about to go under during the Depression.
“At that point, the city and county came in and took it over.”
Miller said that until around 1948, the hospital was run by four commissioners and, at that time, a new set of bylaws was instituted, establishing the 3-2 split, even though the hospital was equally owned by the city and county.
“All I could figure is that they were going on the basis of population, and more people resided in the county at that time.”
Neither the city nor the county is arguing for equal demographic representation, but both are scrutinizing existing law that could change the way they have done things for a very long time.
The attorney general’s opinion is clear about what should be done, given that the city and county are equal owners of the hospital.
“... the Owners shall appoint a five (5) member board of trustees, which will have two (2) appointments made by the County and two (2) appointments made by the City. The fifth appointment to the Board of Trustees must be agreed to and appointed by both governing authorities.”
Whether city and county officials can agree on a joint appointee is a question that won’t be answered until both entities agree first about what the law requires.
nContact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@
gwcommonwealth.com.
