On the issue of a joint open meetings between the Jackson County Board of Supervisors and the Singing River Health System Board of Trustees, Mr. McKay responded to us on Scott Taylor’s blog:
Today at the BOS meeting I brought up the issue of a joint meeting with the BOS and BOT. I suggested we meet for a work session and even suggested we do this quarterly or semi annually. None of my fellow BOS members spoke in support. In fact, none of them said anything. Like I said, I got no support at this time. However, I believe that the board will be open to this in the near future after some of the legal battles have been resolved.
Which seemed fair enough until we reviewed the audio recording of today’s meeting, wherein Mr. McKay proposes and shoots down the idea in the same breath. A transcript (emphasis added):
I’ve been asked “would we consider a work session with the board of hospital trustees?” I think that’s a good idea at some point, this is not the point right now. But I think that possibly quarterly, semi-annually we need to have an open work session to talk about what’s going on in the hospital. To keep us more informed on a daily basis of what’s happening. And so, I would support that 100%; having a work session with the hospital system and allowing you to sit there and listen to it. (unintelligible) Of course you couldn’t talk about the legal matter and other things like that, but there are a lot of things we could talk about. A way to go forward and keep us more informed than we have in the past.
Likely the reason the idea got no support from any other board member is because Mr. McKay himself didn’t support it. We have replied to Mr. McKay, hopefully he will square his words to us with what he actually said in the meeting.