Emporian Tyler Curtis has filed a Kansas Open Meetings Act complaint against Newman Regional Health.
Curtis had filed an Open Records Act request to learn more about the hospital’s current-year budget and budget-to-actual report. He objected to hospital correspondence indicating the estimated cost would be $30, saying he got multiple sets of meeting minutes without being charged. He says the KOMA request is related but has a different thread.
Curtis says the hospital’s Board of Trustees spends a lot of time in meetings, whether in public or behind closed doors.
Besides the amount of time spent in executive session and the stated reasons, Curtis is also concerned about the development of the Community Healthcare Collective, which led to the hospital buying the then-Haag Pharmacy before a name change to Newman Community Rx earlier this year. Curtis has questioned whether information about Healthcare Collective funding for Newman Community Rx, acquisition procedures for the pharmacy, lines of credit and interest from other organizations were discussed in executive sessions. Curtis has also asked whether details about another agreement, including Newman Regional Health, LMH Health and University of Kansas Health System, were discussed in executive session.
Curtis, an Emporia city commissioner who was not re-elected earlier this month, came under fire late in the general election cycle for the KORA request, in part because the Attorney General’s Office said the hospital undercharged him for his document request.
The City Commission as a whole was criticized for a lack of transparency over the last 18 months. Curtis says transparency should not be a concern for city residents when it comes to City Commission business.
Newman Regional Health administrators are declining comment on the KOMA situation with the complaint under legal review. On the original KORA request, Assistant Attorney General John Harris affirmed Newman Regional Health’s cost policy for reproducing documents.
