HRC Members Vince Taylor and Mike Dell'Ara each wrote a letter to the editor this week, submitted to the Fort Bragg Advocate-News on 4/10/06.

Dear Editor,

The Beacon/Advocate reporter Connie Korbel has written that Cal Mortgage, which insures the hospital's capital bond, is "in charge" of the search for new hospital management. Her article implies that the public can have no role. This is wrong and misleading.

In a conversation, Justine Gartrell, the Cal Mortgage representative, emphasized that she views her role as "ministerial," that is, to provide suggestions, information, and counsel. She said that the hospital is free to look for information and candidates anywhere and that Cal Mortgage wants only to review the records of the final three candidates to see if her firm has pertinent information in its records. She is not attending all board meetings, as Ms. Korbel asserted. Once again, our newspaper is presenting biased and unprofessional reporting on the hospital, to the detriment of the community's need to know the facts.

Vince Taylor
Mendocino, CA

Dear Editor,

The same Board that has led the hospital to the brink of bankruptcy is now preparing to select the next CEO and/or management organization for our hospital. Based on their record, I do not have confidence in their ability to make this critical decision in the absence of public input. The economic impact to our community of the wrong decisions at this point could be catastrophic. The potential bankruptcy of our hospital and over 350 direct jobs are at stake, including the families and businesses they all support. 

I implore the Board to pull back the covers and reveal the true challenges the hospital faces rather than continuing the current public relations cover up that helped lead us to this critical point. Our community has the resources to help solve this problem if the Board would only be more open. If the public is truly informed of the depth and details of the hospital's financial problems, and is allowed to do so, we can all work together to create positive change.  The Board needs to unite us all by engaging us in finding solutions. This means to encourage rather than discourage public input, put down your defenses, listen and engage us in finding solutions, as we are all in this together.  Please check the Hospital Resource Council's website: www.savethehospital.org.

Mike Dell'Ara
Caspar, CA