More about that $20,000 "cost" of the Winneshiek Medical Center Open Meetings Law complaint

--by decorahnews.com's Paul Scott

The atmosphere at the Winneshiek Medical Center board meetings in the last three months has been radically improved.  Still, there are moments that revert back to the board's old way of doing business.

So it was at the most recent board meeting when hospital officials announced the "cost" of defending an Open Meetings Law complaint filed by decorahnews.com was $20,000.

I had intended to just let the comment slide because I think overall the board is headed in a much better direction.  But several people have asked me about the news story by Decorah Newspapers that reported the $20,000 cost figure.  So here are a few more details, designed to provide you with "The Rest of the Story."

1) The $20,000 figure is not the real cost to the hospital.  Hospital officials said the $20,000 represented a total of lawyer's fees and the estimated cost of time spent by existing staff people on the complaint. 

But when asked how much of the $20,000 was in lawyer's fees and how much was in staff time (salaries that would have been paid no matter what the staff was working on), hospital officials "couldn't answer."

That means, in effect, that the $20,000 figure is largely imaginary.

2) The money spent on lawyer's fees brought the hospital back into compliance with the Iowa Open Meetings Law.  There would not have been an investigation by the State Auditor's Office if the agency hadn't thought the concerns raised by our complaint weren't legitimate.

Furthermore, the hospital board has made a number of changes since the State Auditor's Office investigation--changes designed to bring the hospital board into compliance with the Open Meetings Law.

Is the hospital board contending that money spent on complying with state law is money wasted?

3) The hospital board's concern about wasting "$20,000" is admirable.  But it's a little ironic, given that the Open Meetings Law complaint was filed with the State Auditor's Office because of a meeting held in secret in which the hospital board voted to write off money it overpaid to Mayo Clinic Health Systems.  That amount was over $2 million--or more than 100 times the "$20,000" the amount that Open Meetings Law complaint "cost."