Pat Giles will chair the board of directors of Riverside Health Care Facilities Inc. for a fourth consecutive year after members agreed to suspend a bylaw that restricts the same person from holding that position for more than three.
At its annual general meeting last Thursday at the Emo Legion, a majority of the roughly 125 members on hand supported the motion (Riverside has 305 members altogether).
Acting CEO Liz Clark said the move was aimed to help maintain continuity with Riverside during its restructuring. But not everyone felt it was the right thing to do.
“Because you’re setting a precedent and that’s a bad thing to do,” one Emo resident said at the meeting, noting each of the board members had been at meetings and was capable of taking the position of chairman.
“Is the issue of continuity to do with the loss of Paul [Brown]?” questioned Cindy Judson.
With the board answering “yes,” Judson stressed she felt it was important that it make that distinction.
Brown gave a year’s notice last December that he would be leaving as Riverside’s CEO after the board failed to support his recommendations on an administrative restructuring.
But the board then decided to up that date to the end of March of this year. Giles noted they still had to pay out Brown’s full contract although he did not disclose the amount.
Meanwhile, Riverside has hired a consulting firm to look at “right-sizing” its administration, with a steering committee to meet to look over the consultant’s recommendations on an administrative study.
Although the initial recommendations were done behind closed doors, Giles said the final recommendation would be coming back to the board.
“We’re going to be looking for a CEO soon,” he noted Friday.
Meanwhile, the board will see three new faces after Percy Champagne (Barwick), Cecil Ogden (Emo), and Emily Watson (La Vallee) were elected at the annual meeting along with incumbent Larry Armstrong.
Sharon Tibbs lost her re-election bid while Ann Sullivan and Janet Young both decided not to seek a second term.
Each term runs three years.
The membership also approved removing all board sub-committees except the governance one. Instead, the board will start meeting twice a month (on the second Monday and fourth Thursday) beginning in September).
The aim is to keep the whole board better informed of the ongoings of Riverside on a more regular basis.
At a board meeting immediately after the annual general one, the new board:
•elected Giles as chairman and Craig Sanders vice-chairman; and
•approved an additional $20,000-$30,000 ($130,000 was budgeted) for new equipment for the mammography unit at La Verendrye hospital that has a stereotactic biopsy capability to detect breast abnormalities that are not palpable.
Riverside is in the tender process for this equipment.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
