Hamilton County Commissioner Randy Fairbanks recently was talking about Erlanger Health System's transition from a government entity to a private, nonprofit corporation, but he might have been talking about a number of issues in our community and the country today.
"Something this major always has, normally has, pushback," he said.
In the case of Erlanger, apparently, the public seems to have expressed a giant "ho hum." The thinking seems to be to just let the experts handle it. After all, what could go wrong?
Nothing, we hope, but even if members of the public cared, there's little they could do. No public meetings to discuss the transition were held, as leaders promised, and the negotiations were handled by lawyers for the county and for the hospital.
The 50-page agreement that emerged contains 13 covenants the proposed new nonprofit must adhere to - if approved by county commissioners - since the health system's business will no longer be in the public purview.
Several of the covenants say "reasonable efforts" will be made to retain one status or another, but lawyers don't say that's not leaving the hospital wiggle room but is only written in because regulatory terminology could change through the years.
Other covenants say they want to provide services "consistent with similarly situated tax-exempt safety net providers in Tennessee." To us, that says the health system doesn't have to provide services as they are now, or as they've been over time, but just "consistent" with other Tennessee hospitals like it.
Health system officials say the new governance will help them operate in a quicker, more nimble way and offer more opportunities for collaborations or partnerships to make Erlanger stronger.
We hope it all works out, but we hope one day the public is not wondering why nobody said anything when things changed at the area's only public hospital.
The city of Chattanooga, meanwhile, moved quickly to tell everyone there was nothing to see here about busloads of immigrants stopping in the Scenic City supposedly en route to Washington, D.C., where they'd been dispatched by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
These aren't illegal immigrants who have come over the country's Southern border uninvited, the city rushed to say. They're only following "the legal process of asylum."
Yet, according to an article in this newspaper, the immigrants don't all continue on to Washington. Dade County (Ga.) Sheriff Ray Cross said some of them get off the buses or are encouraged to get off the buses to stay in the area, and an official with the city of Chattanooga said "we are coordinating a multi-agency response to ensure these individuals are able to connect with their families and safely arrive at their final destinations."
Of course, their final destinations are in the interior of the country, with immigrants already here and away from any contact with authorities about their "asylum," which is immediately forgotten.
Chattanooga, of course, is not the only city in the country where buses with immigrants are stopping and where some of them are connecting with families and moving out of the oversight of government officials. It's how the record number of illegal immigrants coming into the country under the Biden administration are being handled.
As Fairbanks said about the hospital, normally there is pushback.
The city also made news recently with raises of up to 34.6% for eight high-ranking police administrators, but we're told it's just part of an ongoing process, part of the "thoughtful" "reorganization" of the department under new Chief Celeste Murphy, and the money's already in the budget.
Asked by the newspaper how the salary increases would help gun violence, a spokeswoman for the police department demurred, saying after additional promotions are made, Chief Murphy could address the implementation of her plan for gun safety in the city.
Meanwhile, a local 16-year-old high school student was shot and killed Friday when a vehicle pulled up to a residence on Seventh Avenue and began firing, a man was shot and killed at the Rosemont Apartments in Glenwood Sunday night, and then a woman was found dead Monday morning in what police called a homicide.
On the positive side, we read of the continuing good work of the YMCA Community Action Program (Y-CAP), which works primarily with elementary and middle-school children who have been identified as at-risk. The program recently received $300,000 from $3.7 million distributed by the city from its allocation of federal American Rescue Plan funds. With the money, it plans to expand to a fourth site and serve more children.
But what happens when the one-time money for Y-CAP and other worthy programs for at-risk youth runs out? One would think, as Fairbanks again suggested about Erlanger, there would be pushback, or questions. But while everyone's flush with government money, while nobody's thinking about matters down the road, we all seem to have a strong lack of interest in asking questions.
We might regret it.