TAMMY MAYGRA & THELMA BONAR - HOSPITAL DISTRICT:

Tammy Maygra and Thelma Bonar approached the Board regarding their concerns with the Hospital District.  Thelma presented an initiative to the Board that would dissolve the new district and eliminate the taxes being collected.  They asked that the Board put this on the ballot for the voters to decide.  John stated that there is a process built into the statutes to do this but he will need to review them before making any recommendation to the Board. 


Thelma and Tammy went over their reasons for this request.  Under federal law, a critical access hospital cannot be built within 35 miles of another hospital, using federal funds.  Another issue is the Certificate of Need, which hasn't been filed. 

Commissioner Bernhard asked both if they have been involved in the process since it started years ago.  Yes, both before and after this went to the voters.

Moving on, Tammy stated her concern with the district collecting tax dollars from the citizens for something the district can't build.  In all fairness, they should step up and state that they can't build the hospital, stop collecting the taxes, and start the process over from the start.

Thelma is not happy that the new district picked up the debt of the old district and understands from the statutes that they did not even have to form a new district, just used the old one.  Commissioner Corsiglia stated that they may not have been required to, but could chose to.  John felt their reasoning was to get a higher tax rate.

The land they are buying from the Port of St. Helens, with an assessed valued at $970,000, will be somewhere between $1.34 million and $1.37 million to purchase.  Tammy's point is that the cost is now up to $15 million to build this facility, which is much more than they told the voters.  The collection of these tax dollars need to stop now!  This facility, even if it was built, would just continue to need more tax dollars to keep it operating.

Next is that election cost the county $63,000, but the district only paid $18,000 back.  Commissioner Corsiglia stated that was addressed when the district came before the Board and there was an agreement to share that cost.

Another issue, the district is supposed to do an annual audit and submit it to the County Clerk and the State.  There were a number of years that they didn't do this.

They didn't qualify as a low risk under federal rules.

The old hospital district sold the hospital in 1984 and, at that point, they were required to go through a process to change their name. They should have dissolved the district at that point and then form a new one and it would have had to go to the voters for that.

Thelma pointed out that, when this district was formed with the new tax rate, Skip Baker told the Board that he didn't care if they agreed with this or not, he just wanted it put on the ballot.

In summary, Tammy and Thelma stated that they are not opposed to good health care in this county and recognizes the need, but would just like to see this district start over and do it right.

The Commissioners would like to have copies of the paperwork from Tammy and Thelma so that they can review all the information that was discussed here today and get some answers to the concerns brought up.

Georgia Keiper, 34403 Sykes Road, St. Helens:  She agrees with Tammy and Thelma and would like to see a deadline for this initiative so the collection of these taxes will stop.  Also, as a voter, she cannot support any more taxes or closed door meetings.