Hospital board votes to increase its size

Alexis Barker
NLJ Reporter
 
The Weston County Health Services board of trustees will be adding two members after a March 21 vote to change its bylaws. 
During their regular board meeting, the trustees discussed expanding from five members to seven. Because six people expressed interest in joining the board in February, trustees elected to add two more seats. 
“My thought is, I would like to see the board bigger, but I am not sure if we have enough interest out there right now to maintain a seven-person board,” said Georgenna Materi, board vice president. “I know we had the interest this time, but that is pretty unusual.”
Materi said she is unsure if the interest will be there at the next election for enough people to run for the expiring board seats. Board members whose terms expire in 2020 are Jimmy Long, Connie James and Mike Ratigan (who recently was appointed to fill an unexpired term). Board members whose terms expire in 2022 are Materi and Jeff Virchow.  
Trustee Connie James asked what would happen if there was not enough interest to have five people elected. While Trustee Jeff Virchow asked how the board would return to five members, if needed. 
“There would be a vacancy(ies) and then you would have to try and appoint members,” said Jim Peck, the WCHS attorney. 
“You would drop back down to five in the same way you go up,” Peck said. He also said the board should have an uneven number of members. 
“This is a specialized board and that is the biggest number, this time, I have ever seen turn out. Maybe that is a sign that more people want to be involved in the community,” Peck said. “The question is, if you can keep that momentum. If, when you do have four up for election at once, if you are going to have at least four wanting to run. That is the $100,000 question. If there will be enough interest at future elections.” 
Long said that he believes having two additional board members will “break things up” easier among the members, not putting as much work on the current five members. 
“We have not done some of the things we originally wanted to because we don’t have the people,” Long said. The board had discussed getting involved with several committees but found that there aren’t enough members to go around, he said. 
“It would be easier to have those and not work everyone to death,” Long said.
James agreed with Long, saying that it would be nice to have more people on the board, specifically noting that there would not be an issue if board members had to miss a meeting. 
“I like the idea of going to seven. We can go back down if we get into that position,” Virchow said. 
Peck presented a resolution and change in the bylaws that would increase the board to seven members. He said that the board could approve both documents immediately if they wished and could even go as far as appointing two new members that evening. 
The board approved the resolution and decided to advertise for interested parties to submit applications for the positions. Applications are due April 12. Two new members could be seated as early as the board’s April 18 meeting.