By Dale Woolhiser, Missoula
As an alumnus of the University of Montana who, through charitable giving and volunteerism, supports much within the Missoula community and across Montana, I am offended by the recent decision of the Community Medical Center’s Board.
The Board has reached, after what I believe was an extensive amount of research and due diligence, an agreement with Billings Clinic and RegionalCare Hospital Partners to sell Community Medical Center, a non-profit community focused hospital, to become a for-profit entity. No dissatisfaction there. I think they did their homework and can justify their decision intelligently. My dissatisfaction lies with the Board’s decision, after what I and many others believe to be very little and in most of our opinions, an inadequate and unsatisfactory amount, of due diligence or research regarding the disposition of approximately $75 million of charitable assets from the sale—”our” money. As we now know, the board has decided to give over $10 million to the University of Montana Foundation and use the remainder to create yet another nonprofit organization in Missoula. The process used by the Board, lack of concern for the community’s benefit, and ultimate decision are three areas of great concern.
To my knowledge the board did not undergo any sort of rigorous review of existing organizations with which to partner. Nor did they conduct any sort of meaningful public discussion sessions regarding this matter. They did host a few informational meetings, yet those were not community engagement sessions. Rather, they appeared to be an opportunity to report to the Attorney General that they had “checked the box”. Community Medical Center administration was unwilling to share any meaningful information about disposition of the funds with attendees of the sessions I attended. In fact, in one of them we were directly told the process would remain closed “out of respect to the CMC board”!
I am concerned about the process the CMC Board used in making this decision. Transparency and community focus should have been paramount in this situation. It appears to me that the decision has been clouded by Board members’ personal agendas rather than meeting the public good. Board members appear to be more interested in creating their own personal legacies rather than focusing on the greater good of the Missoula Community and Western Montana. This is evidenced by the many members’ inability to check their personal interests, and in some cases employment relationships, at the door when making this decision. Those relationships weren’t disclosed in the CMC’s conflict of interest documents. The level of review and scrutiny regarding the disposition of charitable assets from the sale seems a mere afterthought, after reaching the sale agreement with Billings Clinic and RegionalCare.
In a letter from the attorney for Community Medical Center to the Attorney General he states that various partnership options were reviewed. I take great exception to this statement. Two highly qualified organizations were invited to make thirty minute presentations to the CMC Board about partnership options. Thirty minutes for a $75 million decision . . . really? It is clear that the Board was going through this step merely to check another box in hopes this would satisfy the AG. The organizations’ presentation times were then reduced to approximately twenty minutes each. I know firsthand that prior to one of the presentations a board member commented that he was confused as to why the presentations were taking place since the Board had voted on the matter the week prior. This
is in direct conflict with the information provided by the Board chair at the public hearing hosted by the AG the night before the presentations.
While the University of Montana is a solid education institution, depositing $10 million in its Foundation does NOT meet the cy pres requirement of providing funds that most closely serve the charitable purpose of Community Medical Center. In addition, the UM Foundation fee structure dilutes the charitable impact of this gift. Community Medical Center was built through community support and community generosity. Funds from the CMC sale should be used for charitable purposes within the Missoula/Western Montana community for the benefit of all members of that community. A gift to the University of Montana Foundation will do little, if anything at all, for any communities in Western Montana other than Missoula. Maybe folks from Hamilton and Polson and Deer Lodge, etc. can weigh in on any real or perceived benefit to them of such a gift. If UM is to benefit from the sale of Community Medical Center, it should be as a grantee as determined by authority of the final repository of assets, not the CMC Board. Allowing the current board members to pick their favorite charity to benefit from the sale proceeds smacks of self-interest. The future board tasked with making grants from the sale proceeds should be the entity making the decision as to which charities receive grants.
I am also disappointed that the CMC Board voted to create another non-profit organization when there are existing organizations with which they could partner—after all, partnering was the solution the board sought in the disposition of the hospital in the first place. What irony! A new organizational structure creates yet more unnecessary administrative structures and cost centers which could be much more efficiently managed by partnering with an existing organization. Two organizations worthy of consideration for partnering are the Montana Healthcare Foundation and the Montana Community Foundation who between them have organizational structures and systems in place that need not be replicated. They happen to be the two organizations the board gave twenty minutes each. My opinion of this part of the distribution nonetheless is that, though it could be improved upon, is at least appropriate.
Which leads to my conclusion: I have contributed to both the University of Montana and Community Medical Center and a multitude of other charitable efforts in Missoula. When I gave to the hospital it was for health care. When I gave to UM it was for education. If I wanted my donation to the hospital to go to the university I would have given to the university, and vice versa. That the Board would not honor my charitable intent, and that the Board would not honor the charitable intent of any/many other (much larger) donors to Community Hospital is simply dishonorable. As for the UM’s part in this deal, I feel they are absconding with funds that rightly belong to the poverty stricken, the aged, the infirm, even the unborn of, not just Missoula, but our entire region. UMs solicitation and acceptance of such a gift is, in a word, unconscionable. To solicit and accept gifts from the willing rich is one thing, to take it from the unwitting and ignorant poor is quite another. Shame on you.
Dale Woolhiser is a founding Board Member of the Missoula Community Foundation and a Board Member of the Montana Community Foundation