There are six candidates with wide ranging resumes for two openings on the John C. Fremont Healthcare Board of Trustees.
The three current board members will interview the candidates at a special board meeting on May 20. They were expected to appoint the two new board members at the meeting.
Those applying for the two open positions include: The hospital’s current hospital Chief of Staff, Dr. Kenneth Smith; Marshall Long, a former Mariposa County Supervisor; David Williams, a former JCF employee; Rob Fox, a board member of the JCF Hospital Foundation; Jon Wurl, the former president of Mariposa Friends of the Library; and Dr. Joseph Rogers, who previously served on the hospital’s board.
A couple of the candidates have potential conflicts of interest that would need to be resolved if they joined the board.
Dr. Smith acknowledged in his application that he would likely need to resign as hospital Chief of Staff. Likewise, Rob Fox said he would need to resign from the JCF Hospital Foundation, a charitable non-profit that supports the hospital.
David Williams’ wife works at JCF as a lab scientist and he would need to recuse himself from decisions that could directly affect her. Williams, the former manager of imagining, also said in his application he “parted company” with JCF in 2022 “under less than favorable conditions.”
The board has a series of boilerplate questions it will be asking each candidate on May 20, including their understanding of California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, the health and safety code and their knowledge of public governance structure.
The two appointed candidates will replace former board chairperson Wendy Ryder-Priola and Craig Burchfiel. Both suddenly resigned last month from the board.
In her April 27 resignation letter, Ryder-Priola cited “egos, personal agendas and toxic behavior” on the part of an unnamed board member. She had been chairperson for three and half years.
The vacancies come at a critical time for JCF as it deals with escalating financial losses, billing cycle troubles and construction of a new hospital to meet California earthquake standards.
During a public forum last week to educate prospective applicants, the new board chair, Rose Fluharty, recalled what she had been told before joining the board: “I’d be there to make decisions, not friends.”
“I’ve seen this role of governance confused with management,” Fluharty said. “No single person has the authority to direct staff.”
The prep time commitment for the board positions is expected to be 10 to 15 hours a month, with perhaps a larger time commitment at the beginning to get up to speed, Fluharty explained.
The two appointed positions will be temporary, six-month assignments. Both seats are scheduled for a November election to serve a four-year term. A third position will be available to serve a two-year term left vacant by the resignation of Suzette Prue last September.
The candidate filing window for the November election opens July 13 and closes Aug. 7.
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