With the departure of John McKay, Melton Harris appears to have contracted the foot-in-mouth disease that McKay so often suffered from. Harris recently appointed Barbara Dumas-Marshall to the SRHS Board of Trustees, a job she immediately walked away from. Harris incredibly admits to Karen Nelson at the Sun Herald that he made bad choice on purpose, just so he could start a fight and get the lawyers involved.
How much was he advocating the county to spend on the likes of Dogan & Wilkinson or Billy Guice taking another battle to the Supreme Court?
Since when do county supervisors set out to purposefully create situations to engage in expensive litigation?
You have to wonder who has his ear. It certainly sounds like some influence from an attorney who stands to profit from the whole situation.
Nelson has some excellent quotes from Harris. It’s hard to believe that elected officials have the audacity to continually “flip the bird” to their constituents.
Dumas-Marshall’s appointment was doomed from the start. She is in arrears on a significant debt to Singing River, around $11,000 , as documented in bankruptcy court filings. This alone was in violation of the new hospital ethics law. But Dumas-Marshall’s appointment was flawed for other reasons as well. This wasn’t her first go-around with bankruptcy: it was her fifth. Again, we see the appointment of someone to a position of fiduciary responsibility at a multi-million dollar operation while that person is wholly unable to take care of their own finances. The third reason Dumas-Marshall made for a questionable trustee is her long career working for the county. There are times when the needs of the health system are at odds with those of politicians on the JCBOS. Trustees should have the welfare of the system at heart and not that of politicians. With Dumas-Marshall, there would have been great doubt as to where her loyalties lay.
At the end of the day, Dumas-Marshall proved to be much wiser and a more skilled tactician than Harris. She was smart enough to walk away.
Read Karen Nelson’s article about the appointment by clicking here.
You must be careful here because by exposing the facts and the ineptness of Melting Harris you may be accused of financial profiling. Dumas-Marshall has been bankrupt more times than all of Donald Trump’s companies!!! How can an individual file bankruptcy 5 times? Does anyone besides the appointing supervisor look into the back round of people being recommended for these type of board positions? Why is the county attorney or county administrator not tasked with back round checks? Harris should be embarrassed if he knows how. Next up will be his flag vote.I feel certain he will be listening to Curly Clark and other NAACP gang members instead of the voters of Jackson County.
Well well well JCBOS are clearly not listening to their constituents who voted them in
I know for a fact that the way they look at who they appoint is done very informally matter of fact so informal that I wrote a lengthy draft to one of the supervisors on how to make it a more formal process
There should be a set of qualifications that a Bd of Trustee member should possess. Then collectively as a board the hospital board of trustees should fill certain requirements to make sure the board is diversified. I don’t mean just in gender or racial makeup but in their backgrounds
Board of trustees must also go through a formal orientation process and shoukd have quarterly educational sessions
In addition, board of trustee members should also sit on hospital boards and committees and not just attend the once a month board meeting
Why? So that they can truly be involved in the hospital system and know first hand what is occurring in their Coubty owned hospital
A board member should sit on the ethics committee, the quality committee, the nursing council committee, and even the patient satisfaction committee
Board members need to take time to meet and actually talk and listen to the hospital employees
I know for a fact that at the annual émployee of the month luncheon the board members were supposed to mingle with the employed. Some did but the majority did not
It is way past time to make people to the right thing and to take their position as a hospital board trustee serious. It is much much more than going to a once a month meeting listening to others It means truly getting involved
Thoughtful ideas which should be adopted by SRHS. Perhaps an employee ombudsman (selected by employees, not management) should advise the board as well.
Same old thing in Jackson County since Whitehead and Kahyat.
I know some secrets.