Grays Harbor Public Hospital District 2 commissioners look the first step on Tuesday to install Grays Harbor Community Hospital CEO Tom Jensen as the district’s new superintendent. The district’s board president said they did not look outside the hospital for other candidates.
Jensen has led the current nonprofit hospital since June of 2010, and has been the public face of the effort to create the public hospital district that will take over operations of Community Hospital.
On Tuesday afternoon, Commissioner Bob Torgerson proposed a resolution that would appoint Jensen as the public hospital’s superintendent effective Jan. 1. The board did not take final action on hiring, as the resolution required the decision to be proposed at one meeting, but not consummated until a subsequent one.
The board voted unanimously to move forward with Torgerson’s resolution.
“We are not appointing a superintendent today,” Board President Maryann Welch stressed to the audience. “The time is so that the board can continue to gather information.”
Welch confirmed after the meeting that there were no other candidates for the position.
“We did have a discussion about recruiting,” Welch told The Daily World. “It’s a long and expensive process to go through.”
Jensen’s familiarity with the hospital and his work with the fledgling public board also played a role, she explained.
“We are satisfied with Tom’s leadership and the sense of continuity was really important,” she said.
After Torgerson proposed the resolution, Welch noted to the audience that it did not include any information about Jensen’s compensation. Welch explained that, if the current plan of taking over the nonprofit is consummated, the board would simply adopt all contracts already in place, including Jensen’s CEO contract.
According to records filed with the state Department of Health, Jensen was paid a base salary of $245,003 in 2013, with his total compensation amounting to just less than $293,000 when retirement plans, non-taxable benefits and other reportable compensation is factored in.
The 2013 reports are the latest available from the state, and do not include the details of his contract, such as possible cost of living adjustments or future incentives.
In comparison, the CEO of comparably sized Walla Walla General Hospital, Monty Knittel, made a base salary of just more than $256,000 in 2013, though other benefits pushed his overall compensation to more than $400,000, according to the Department of Health. Walla Walla is part of the Adventist Health System based in California.
The lead administrator of Olympic Medical Center, which is operated by a public hospital district in Port Angeles, makes considerably less. Eric Lewis was paid a base salary of $180,070 in 2013, with other compensation taking him to just short of $214,000.
All three facilities are Level 3 trauma centers, with Walla Walla and Grays Harbor listing as about a 70-bed capacity, while Olympic is a considerably larger 126-bed facility.
Audience members were split on whether recruiting from outside the hospital was a better choice, with a couple questioning the decision during public comment.
John Farra of Ocean Shores, however, agreed with the board that Jensen’s familiarity with the particulars of the hospital and the public district were the most important factor.
“I see no other solution,” he said.
The board could vote to officially appoint Jensen as early as its next meeting, set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 25, in Grays Harbor Community Hospital’s Conference Room C.
Budget
The commissioners approved the hospital district’s 2015 budget on Tuesday, but not without some dissent.
The budget is only for the public hospital district itself, and doesn’t include the finances of the actual hospital. That budget is still presided over by the non-profit board of directors, and the public district will inherit whatever that board decides on Jan. 1, 2015.
The board began Tuesday’s meeting with a public hearing on its $149,868 budget, and several members of the public weren’t sure approving a budget for the district without at least seeing the multi-million-dollar budget for the entire facility was a good idea.
It was a sentiment shared by Commissioner Miles Longenbaugh.
Torgerson reminded the board that state law dictates that the district must pass a budget by the end of the year. Longenbaugh then asked about cutting the line item for commissioner compensation in half, from about $38,000 for the year down to about $19,000. After hospital Chief Financial Officer Joe Vessey explained that the numbers were only maximum amounts that could be spent without a revised budget, and not necessarily spending requirements, Longenbaugh dropped the suggestion.
Ultimately Torgerson, Welch, and commissioners Armando Juarez Jr. and Dr. Ryan Farrer voted in favor of passing the budget. Longenbaugh voted against it.
Commissioner Andy Bickar was absent from the meeting. Commissioner Pete Scroggs joined the meeting by phone after the budget vote.
Longenbaugh has asked repeatedly at the board’s last two meetings about when the commissioners might see the facility’s full 2015 budget.
“I would think it would have to wait until after it’s adopted (by the non-profit board),” Welch said in response to the question on Tuesday.
“It’s pretty important,” Longenbaugh said.
She then told Longenbaugh that she planned to talk to the non-profit board’s officers about their budget soon.
After the meeting, Longenbaugh said he just couldn’t vote in favor of the district’s budget, however small in comparison, without knowing what the board may be inheriting in the near future.
“Without seeing that budget in it’s entirety, I didn’t want to move forward,” he said.
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