On Tuesday, the Tahoe Forest Hospital District Board of Directors voted against appointing a labor negotiator for a potential renewal of CEO Bob Schapper’s contract, citing that negotiations should not be made before a new board is elected in November. Chair John Mohun also publicly stated that he did not think Schapper should continue as CEO and encouraged the board to discuss Schapper’s contract in open session in front of the public.
“If Mr. Schapper wants to ask me, personally, whether I think he should continue to work here ― from what I know and where I sit and what I’m privy to ― the answer is no,” Mohun said. “So I’ll make that perfectly clear. So I’m not going to vote in favor of getting a negotiator for that reason alone.”
The board voted 4-1 against appointing director Karen Sessler as labor negotiator. Director Larry Long, who made the motion, was the lone “yes” vote. Both Sessler and Director Roger Kahn noted they voted no because the discussion of the contract should not happen before a new board is appointed. Kahn resigned as the board’s previous negotiator before the motion was made. Kahn and Director Larry Long, whose seats are up in the Nov. 4 election, are not seeking re-election.
The heated meeting focused on whether a labor negotiator should be appointed and whether or not Schapper’s contract, which is good through June 30, 2015, should even be renegotiated at this time. The new hospital board would have the options of renewing his contract, allowing his contract to expire, or terminating his employment. While his current contract includes an 18-month severance package, there are nine months left on the agreement.The severance would only cover the amount of time left on the contract.
Within the last month, hospital administration also asked the hospital’s personnel committee, an advisory committee composed of directors Long and Kahn, to approve new contracts for Chief Operating Officer Virginia Razo and Chief Financial Officer Crystal Betts. The personnel committee declined to approve the contracts, which both included 18-month severance packages. The combination of Schapper’s, Betts’, and Razo’s requested contracts could have saddled the hospital district with more than $1.2 million in severance package liability for its top three administrators right before the election of new board members.
At the board meeting, Schapper said he wants the courtesy of knowing whether or not the board would like to renew his contract, and has asked for a letter from the board stating if they want to renegotiate his contract.
“As CEO, with the experience that I have, I would like the opportunity, if the interest is not there, to be able to pursue other opportunities in a timely fashion and leave the organization in good hands because we have a succession plan here,” Schapper told the board. “All I ask for is ‘are we still on track?’ Give me the courtesy of understanding whether we are. I have spent my life – my life – in trying to build excellent health systems. I have spent a decade here ― more than a decade, it will be 12 years next month ― trying to help this system develop what it wanted to in its strategic plans, and I’ve had outstanding performance reviews essentially every year. All I’ve asked to do is get clarity on whether there is an interest in continuing in that succession plan and for me to stay.”
Schapper at first denied that he had retained a lawyer to represent him in contract negotiations with the hospital, saying that his attorney only represented him in the investigation over Schapper’s potential conflict of interest involving his wife’s employment at the hospital district. But Schapper backtracked when Mohun produced a draft contract that had been sent to the district under the name of Schapper’s attorney.
Schapper said contract negotiations in the past have been “simple and uncomplicated” but that he hired a lawyer to draft a new contract because “things are getting a little unusual.” He also accused Mohun of creating a “hostile environment” and said he would only meet with Mohun if the human resources director or district counsel were present.
“It has become complicated for reasons that I, quite honestly, don’t really understand other than perhaps for political reasons,” Schapper said. “If you don’t want to continue with me, just let me know for crying out loud. My loyalty to this organization is unquestionable … If you don’t want me to continue, just let me know.”
Mohun suggested that the board hire a third party lawyer to help with the negotiations since Schapper had hired his own attorney. The rest of the board agreed that the district’s counsel, Steve Gross, would suffice in helping with negotiations as he has in the past, citing concerns about spending more district funds on lawyer fees.
“Every time I look at that bill, I think ‘That’s healthcare that’s not going to someone in this community’,” Sessler said, referring to outside attorney’s fees. “It’s wrong for us to spend money that we should be spending on healthcare.”
During public comment, seven people spoke, and most urged the board to wait until a new board was elected to discuss Schapper’s contract. Several people also asked that the negotiations be done in open session.
“In some ways, things have prematurely moved ahead,” said hospital district candidate John Falk, referring to negotiations of Schapper’s contract. “Wait until you seat a new board. You could have a majority of new folks sitting there. I question why you need to go into closed session in the first place. For things that don’t require it, default to open session.”
Earlier in the meeting, Mohun told the audience that the contract drafted by Schapper’s attorney would “be very uncomfortable for you to swallow.” Kahn, who was appointed as the board’s negotiator in January, said he had met with Schapper and Director of Human Resources Jayne O’Flanagan two weeks ago to look at the drafted contract and said he didn’t believe the board would approve it, but that it was a “starting point.”
Mohun said he was also concerned that the board was going to consider, in closed session, paying Schapper’s private attorney fees that related to the investigation over a potential violation of government code 1090. Schapper had hired an attorney when the board was investigating a possible conflict of interest between Schapper and the hiring of his wife, Marsha. In August, the board found there was “insufficient evidence” that there was a conflict of interest. Schapper’s attorney had contributed information to the report that the board based its decision upon.
Mohun said the district should not pay Schapper’s personal attorney’s fees and was concerned that the item was not agendized properly, a violation of the Brown Act, which guarantees the public’s right to attend and participate in meetings of local governments. He said the item was “slipped in” under closed session under the Chief Executive Officer Performance Evaluation.
He asked that the item be removed from the agenda and that discussion of paying the attorney’s fees be agendized in open session.
“I’m uncomfortable and I believe it is a violation of the Brown Act,” Mohun said. “We have to work under the purview of the law.”
To hear the entire meeting, go to this link: https://soundcloud.com/moonshine-ink/tfhd-board-meeting-92314m4a
∼ David Bunker contributed to this report.
