Mt. Diablo Health Care District hires director - San Jose Mercury News
by admin on Nov.23, 2011, under Life and Health insurance
A small central Contra Costa health district on Monday hired an interim executive director — its first since it lost its hospital in 1996 — in the board’s latest move to save itself from dissolution.
The Mt. Diablo Health Care District board voted 3-0 to negotiate a six-month contract with retired Petaluma Health Care District CEO Daymon Doss.
Chairwoman Grace Ellis and directors Jeff Kasper and Nick Adler voted in favor of the hire. Director Frank Manske was absent. Director Roy Larkin abstained, saying he was not present for last week’s interviews.
Doss’ pay was not discussed, but the outcome of the negotiations will be brought back to the board for a vote. He is expected to start work Dec. 1.
Bringing on board an executive director is the latest in the district’s dramatic uptick in activity, including the retention of an outside attorney under a no-cap contract and the launching of a reinvigorated community grant program to spend some of its $700,000 in reserves.
The agency also cut a deal with former board member and Concord Vice Mayor Ron Leone, who agreed to shift his health coverage to the city for as long as he is eligible. Rather than pay Leone’s full premium of $1,700 a month, the district will instead cover his required contribution of $580 a month.
The second district board member eligible for health care, Ellis, has qualified for Medicare and has said she will switch. The district would continue
to cover her premiums but it is expected to cost far less than the nearly $2,000 a month paid now.
The health care district board hopes its actions will favorably influence a county regulatory agency’s expected vote in February on whether to dissolve the district.
But the hiring further aggravated the board’s critics.
“Just like it has done in the past, this board is undertaking a flurry of last-minute activities in an effort to appear relevant,” said Contra Costa Taxpayers Association Executive Director Kris Hunt. “It is inappropriate.”
Four grand juries and the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association have called for the district’s elimination, arguing that it spends a high percentage of its tiny budget on elections, overhead and health insurance benefits.
Voters created the district in the 1940s to build and operate a hospital in Concord. When the district suffered financial woes in 1996, voters turned the hospital over to John Muir Health.
The district remains in place but it has little money of its own and few residents even know it exists.
The district encompasses about 200,000 residents in Concord, Martinez, Clyde, Pacheco and portions of Lafayette and Pleasant Hill. It collects roughly $240,000 a year in its share of property taxes.
Contact Lisa Vorderbrueggen at 925-945-4773, lvorderbrueggen@bayareanewsgroup.com, www.ibabuzz.com/politics or at Twitter.com/lvorderbrueggen.
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