It's rare that public officials side with journalists and citizens on the issue of transparency and open meetings.
We mean really side with us -- not just talk the talk, but also walk the walk.
But in the case of Erlanger hospital's board of trustees meeting in a closed session to discuss executive bonuses and salaries, Hamilton County's legislative delegation not only stepped up, they took the lead. And with their juice, we the people won.
State Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, some weeks ago asked Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III to issue a formal opinion on the legality of the closed meeting, which Erlanger executives and trustees had maintained did not violate the state's open meetings law because "no deliberations took place" about Erlanger Health System's incentive plan.
Slatery's opinion, however, not only begs to differ, it flatly slaps the Erlanger board, which in a no-discussion vote following the Dec. 4 "no-deliberations" closed meeting granted $1.7 million in bonuses to executives and management for performance in a year that had been fraught with red ink:
"The plain language of the statute only authorizes the board of a public hospital to meet in a closed session to 'discuss and develop marketing strategies and strategic plans,'" Slatery writes in the opinion. Further, he said: "If studies are considered by the board in the adoption of a specific marketing strategy or plan, those studies shall be made available for public inspection at least seven days before any public meeting of the board to adopt the strategy or plan."
The board's tone-deaf decision on bonuses and rather blatant disregard for the statute riled rank-and-file hospital employees, local officials and especially local lawmakers who had gone out on a limb in 2008 to give public hospitals an exception to the Open Meetings Act. The lawmakers had penned an amendment to the act to give public hospital boards a so-called more level playing field with private and nonprofit hospitals when it came time to discuss and develop marketing strategies and marketing plans.
Bonuses and pay for publicly employed hospital executives clearly doesn't fit the "develop marketing strategies" definition -- especially not when it is voted on in public with no further discussions mere minutes after the closed meeting ends.
Trustees should have known better. Their stealth move to shield discussion of the incentive payouts backfired.
In the aftermath, when the vote met with outrage from both the public and lawmakers, board members put the bonuses on hold. Then when the board's hired law firm -- Spears, Moore, Rebman and Williams -- said trustees did not violate open meeting laws, members decided to proceed with the bonuses.
Carter and state Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, have learned from their misplaced trust. Now they have introduced a bill seeking to remove the 2008 Open Meetings loophole.
The public and taxpayers have won this round. Thank you, Rep. Carter and Sen. Gardenhire!