P.G. County seeks ouster of 4 hospital board members in exchange for aid - MSN Money

Prince George''s County leaders asked four Dimensions Healthcare System board members to step down as part of a condition that the board agreed to earlier this year for providing additional county money to the ailing hospital network.

During a Thursday executive session of the system''s 11-member board, Michael Herman, chief of staff to County Executive Jack Johnson and a county-designated board member, asked for resignations by June 25 of four board members with close ties to Dimensions Healthcare or its facilities.

The changes affect three designated Dimensions representatives: Donald Foran, board chairman of Prince George''s Hospital Center; Bill Williams, board chairman of Laurel Regional Hospital; and George Bone, representative of the Prince George''s County Medical Society, according to a memorandum of understanding circulated by Herman and bearing Johnson''s name. The county has also required any nondesignated board members who have served longer than five yearsto step down, affecting board Chairman Calvin Brown.

The county goes a step further, calling for those board members being replaced to resign from their officer posts at the hospitals and for the new board to vote to modify its bylaws and building lease agreements to allow for the changes.

Opposing these measures may prove costly for the Dimensions board."

If Dimensions fails to perform any of its obligations under this MOU, Dimensions must return any monies appropriated and received from the county under the FY 2006-2007 budget," the memo reads, "and nofurther appropriated monies under said budget will be expended to Dimensions."

Brown immediately tabled any discussion on the matter and moved to adjourn the meeting, leaving the MOU unsigned and any next steps up in the air. But according to the MOU, the county expects the new board to take office by July 1 after the remaining members elect replacements for the four men during a special meeting."

The ball''s in their court," said John Erzen, a Johnson spokesman. "This is something that was agreed to earlier this year. We are simply looking for them to live up to their agreement. We certainly lived up to ours."

County leaders say their intent is to change the board''s makeup by decreasing the number of designated board spots, mostly representing Dimensions, from eight to five, and increasing the number of board spots open to the public from three to six, allowing for more taxpayer representation to help decide the system''s fate.

The system is enacting one of three conditions, which calls for a reconstitution of the board, that the county laid down in February when it doled out $5 million in emergency funds to the cash-strapped system.

The conditions, which the Dimensions board agreed to after some hesitation in February, were to kick in if the county transferred more money to Dimensions.

In May, county leaders, who have promised to fund the system through June 2008, paid the first $9 million installment of their agreement, although it was unclear then whether the county would enforce the three conditions. Brown had said then that those conditions were not discussed when county officials hadannounced their intent to fully fund the system for the next 15 months.

The county has budgeted an additional $12 million to fund the system for this next fiscal year, totaling only $21 million of the $33 million Dimensions had originally requested through June 2008.Dimensions estimates the county''s budgeted amount will last it through April 2008, but the parties are considering changes in the pension payments for Dimensions employees to help make up the difference.