Commissioners wait to rule on hospital board's request to expand

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Putnam County Commissioners have delayed a decision on whether to expand the Putnam County Hospital Board from five members to seven.

At Monday night's commissioner meeting, Dr. Ernst and attorney John Zeiner, representing the hospital board, asked the commissioners to consider adding two more members to the board.

The reason, Dr. Ernst said, is two-fold: first, the board has had trouble achieving a quorum when one member is absent. Quorum refers to the number of members a board is required to have in order to vote.

And second, adding two members would increase community representation on the board, according to Dr. Ernst.

Zeiner said the board has some names in mind should the commissioners agree to grant the two extra members.

He also said state statute allows the commissioners to expand the number of members on the hospital board.

But the decision didn't come Monday night.

Commissioner Jim Baird appeared to be reluctant to grant the request.

"I think this is an extremely important board for this community," he said.

Baird asked that the commissioners hold a special meeting to discuss the request before making a decision. They plan on meeting either next Tuesday, July 29 or Wednesday, July 30 at 9 a.m. They weren't sure which date to select until they found out how quickly they could get the meeting advertised in the Banner Graphic.

Meeting dates are posted in the classified section of the newspaper, under legal notices.

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