Nick Twietmeyer
ntwietmeyer@ptleader.com

Jefferson Healthcare’s Board of Commissioners has agreed to get legal advice on whether board members acted appropriately in asking a commissioner to discontinue his audio recording of public meetings.

The issue dates back to a March 2014 board meeting, when Commissioner Matt Ready attempted to record the discussion topics for later reference.

Other commissioners and hospital administrators present during the meeting pushed back, stating that it would place the hospital district in a compromising position by requiring it to maintain his recordings as public records.

Ready declined subsequent requests to stop recording by both board and administrative staff members.

In the years following the initial incident, Jefferson Healthcare has begun publishing on their website the audio from meetings going back to 2017.

The issue came up again at a special session last week that had one agenda item: a self-evaluation for the hospital district board.

Commissioner Jill Buhler Rienstra said she thought the board had established an adequate policy that properly addressed the matter of board members recording meetings, but added that some questions still remain.

“I think that what’s left on the table is … were your rights violated early on?” Buhler Rienstra asked Ready during the Jan. 24 meeting.

“Do you feel that this is resolved going forward?” she asked.

“I do not think really critical questions have been answered,” Ready replied. “I don’t see how we can move forward without feeling like we have adequate legal support to the board … it shouldn’t be this hard to get questions answered.”

At multiple times throughout the meeting, Ready and others referenced a series of questions drafted by Ready and sent to the board members in advance of the meeting.

(The hospital district did not respond to The Leader for a copy of the questions before the newspaper went to press Tuesday.)

During the Jan. 24 meeting, Commissioner Kees Kolff said the board should seek legal assistance in answering Ready’s lingering questions in order to encourage the board members to move past the matter.

“I would strongly recommend that we just go ahead and get a written legal opinion, right now, using Matt’s questions,” Kolff said. “I will make that motion, because I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere discussing the past any further.”

“I think we owe it to Matt to allow him to ask his questions and we will all learn from it,” he added.

The motion was seconded by Ready.

Just before the board voted, Commissioner Marie Dressler said she was worried about the costs of pursuing legal answers to the questions raised by the commissioner. 

“You can probably get several different opinions from several different lawyers, so that is a concern of mine because they’re pretty expensive,” Dressler said. “If this is the final adjudication of these questions, then I think that’s reasonable.”

The board voted unanimously to get the questions answered by a lawyer.

Board Chair Jill Buhler Rienstra said she hoped settling the matter would lead the group to “being a cohesive board that’s dedicated to going forward for the best of the district.”