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After weeks of public tension, town councilors say they want to start fresh with Massena hospital board

Posted 1/21/19

By ANDY GARDNER North Country Now MASSENA -- Following weeks of tensions between the Town Council and hospital Board of Managers that have spilled into public, the two boards met in closed-door …

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After weeks of public tension, town councilors say they want to start fresh with Massena hospital board

Posted

By ANDY GARDNER

North Country Now

MASSENA -- Following weeks of tensions between the Town Council and hospital Board of Managers that have spilled into public, the two boards met in closed-door session on Monday to try and get on better terms.

The meeting took place at 3 p.m., prior to the regular Massena Memorial Hospital Board of Managers meeting. The discussion was in executive session. MMH CEO Charles Gijanto said the discussion involved business plans that could hurt the hospital if details were to get to competitors.

At the regular hospital board meeting that followed, most MMH board members didn't talk about the closed-door session. However, town councilors said they feel the two bodies took a step towards repairing the damaged relationship.

"I feel that considerable progress was made in bringing the two boards together because we are not at odds on the objective," Councilor Albert Nicola said. "If we play this out in the press ... it is counter productive when we all have the same goals."

"I'm ready to go into a room tomorrow at 8 o'clock and hold hands until" we reach an agreement, Councilor Tom Miller said. He later clarified that "tomorrow at 8 o'clock" was rhetorical and there is no actual meeting planned.

An MMH physician in attendance said during public comment that he was encouraged by what he heard from town officials.

"A lot of things going on in the media that's spoiling your relationship ... People like me, we're trying to put the town board and hospital board in a room. Sit down in a room, close the doors, and come up with a decision," said Dr. Birinder Singh, an MMH nephrologist. "Put your pride aside please. This is a hospital. We take care of patients here."

Councilor Melanie Cunningham, a former MMH trustee, said she is tired of the tensions between the hospital and town.

"The finger-pointing is done. We are moving forward in a positive direction," she said. "We have a goal here, an obligation, everybody does ... hopefully we can still meet, like we talked about, both boards."

A big part of the tensions between the two boards has to do with the ongoing asset transfer and affiliation negotiations. MMH is trying to privatize and at the same time pick a future affiliate. The MMH board voted last month to recommend affiliating with Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center/Crouse Hospital. Although they haven't indicated an affiliation in public, hospital board members and employees have said the town supervisor has indicated a preference for an affiliation with St. Lawrence Health System, but he has never confirmed or denied that.

Both Cunningham and Miller said they are reserving judgement until they can get more information from both.

"Show us the proof. Show us we're going to be viable, show us we're going to be viable in five years," Cunningham said to applause from the 30 or so MMH employees and town residents in attendance.

"I asked each and every one of you to judge me by my vote ... I have no facts if Crouse is best or Canton-Potsdam," Miller said. "I'm about the same thing everybody in this room is about ... keeping the hospital here, keeping the jobs here, minimizing the debt."

When asked by North Country Now if he is committed to ensuring MMH remains a full-service hospital, O'Shaughnessy said yes.

"Who wouldn't be?" he said.

While town councilors voiced commitment to working with the hospital board going forward, MMH board member Real "Frenchie" Coupal voiced frustration with the supervisor. O'Shaughnessy last month decided to not reappoint former MMH board chair Scott Wilson, and is now in the process of trying to fire current chair Sue Bellor.

"You ask us to do a job and we're doing it the best way we know how' ... Let us do our job," Coupal said. "You can interfere a little bit, but damn it, don't go public."

O'Shaughnessy repeated his frustrations he voiced at a lengthy public comment session at Wednesday's Town Council meeting where about a dozen MMH workers and town residents voiced frustration with the ongoing MMH saga.

"Never today before 3 o'clock do I remember meeting with the Board of Managers," he said, adding that residents and MMH trustees can come speak with him at his office anytime he is in. "Nobody comes down to see me. I'm the loneliest guy in the Town Hall."

Bob Elsner, MMH director of imaging and cardiac services, questioned how O'Shaughnessy could be out of the loop when the former CEO gave detailed presentations at monthly MMH meetings.

"Anytime we had a department head meeting ... we were briefed what the town board" provided at their monthly meeting the previous Wednesday, Elsner said. "We weren't allowed to know who the affiliates were.

"Bob Wolleben had a timeline ... Why you don't have access to that is beyond me. It charts exactly what processes they were following."

At 1 p.m. Tuesday, Bellor will have a hearing in the Town Hall before her termination from the board will be finalized.

North Country Now asked O'Shaughnessy if he would reconsider, given that his treatment of Bellor is a source of tension with MMH and councilors said they want to go forward with the hospital on a positive note.

"I really don't want to comment," the supervisor answered.