BREAKING: Kootenai Health Votes To Become 501c3 Non-Profit Entity — Matheson The Only Trustee To Vote Against, Citing Politicization & Transparency Issues
When Criminals Are Elected To Office, They Tend To Make Crime Legal
Today, Kootenai Health, a publicly funded Hospital District that was created by the citizens of Kootenai County over 65 years ago, voted to essentially steal the hospital from its citizens.
Kootenai Health Hospital District, will be “conveyed” or transferred to the Kootenai Health Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit corporation. The trustees that are currently sitting on the board will remain, but for how long we don’t know.
Unless by some act of God, or the county prosecutor, brings about a substantial change in the situation, there will never again be a public vote for Hospital Trustees.
The change of governance structure will be executed, according to the recently published whitepaper, in order to “fulfill the Hospital Districts 2030 Vision.”
As previously reported, the hospital is on the brink of financial collapse, with (now former) CFO Kimberly Webb warning that they could face a potential default on their debt service to bond holders by as early as May 2023.
This change of governance structure will not solve the hospitals financial predicament, as any debts and obligations will merely be transferred to the non-profit corporation.
To make matters worse, last week, Kimberly Webb stepped down from her position as CFO, adding yet another layer of complication to this already complex situation.
The resolution, which passed by a 6 to 1 vote, included a narrative about how this change came about. This narrative is deeply flawed.
Deconstructing The Narrative
Here is just one of many glaring examples of inconsistencies, between the Hospitals narrative and reality, that was embedded in todays resolution:
“Whereas to provide full transparency, and further discussions with an input from Kootenai County citizens and business leaders, the whitepaper has been made available to the public online. The public has been afforded an opportunity to submit questions regarding the whitepaper, and potential conversion transaction, and Kootenai Health has held several public meetings to discuss, review, and seek input from the community regarding the white paper and a potential conversion transaction.”
This entire process was kept quiet, until the Idaho Tribune became aware of this move in late August, breaking the story on September 3rd, three days before any of this had been discussed in any publicly available board meeting.
It was only after our reports on the matter came out that the Hospital began publicly admitting that they were eyeing this move.
Unbeknownst to the Idaho Tribune at the time, hospital trustee Steve Matheson had actually filed a complaint with the Kootenai County prosecutor, alleging that open meeting law violations had taken place.
After the board brought pressure to bear against Matheson, he rescinded his complaint. The contents of that complaint have not yet been made publicly available, and have been actively covered up by the board.
Then, in November, Carla Mattare, then president of the Kootenai County Women Republican Federated, organized a town hall event, inviting CEO John Ness, and all 9 trustees, to dialogue with the public about the potential changes.
Only one trustee attended: Steve Matheson.
It was at this Town Hall that our legislators admitted that they had wrongfully voted in favor of House Bill 603, which is what made this change of structure legal for Kootenai Health. All 3 legislators who took the stage that afternoon, Tony Wisnewski, Ron Mendive, and Vito Barbieri, expressed embarrassment and deep regret for voting for HB603. Representative Barbieri stated:
“I simply didn’t realize the ramifications of the text, and I kind of am embarrassed by that. That’s the reason that we did this is because we did not realize the full ramifications of what we were giving them.”
It was at this meeting where Matheson revealed that he had filed a complaint against Kootenai Health, and also disclosed the upcoming whitepaper, which at the time was supposed to be released to the public on November 21st. That whitepaper did not become publicly available until December 2nd, the same day that the Board of Trustee’s request for public comment was closed.
Citizens were given less than 24 hours to read and understand the whitepaper, before the deadline to ask questions.
The trustees then held one poorly attended public information session at the Best Western Inn, where they answered softball questions, and intimidated dissenting citizens with a standing police force. Every question was rehearsed.
Matheson, the only trustee to attend both public sessions, did not sit with the rest of the trustees, instead, was relegated to the back of the room, surrounded by police.
We fail to see, with these facts in mind, how the Hospital District was in any way “transparent” or open to public input about this change. In fact, just the opposite. The totality of information shows how the vast majority of trustees and the CEO, John Ness, actually hold the citizenry in contempt.
The Political Motiviations Behind This Anti-Democratic Agenda
There has been a clear narrative, spun by liberal organizations along with the Coeur d’Alene press, characterizing Republicans as “extremists,” “fascists,” or any number of names that have come to define the vocabulary of the Modern Left. This narrative couldn’t be further from the truth.
Conservatives from all over America have fled to Kootenai County, as a haven, where people can have big families without worrying about high crime rates, increasing political violence, and liberal indoctrination.
Unfortunately this mass-migration has triggered an authoritarian streak in left-leaning Idaho natives, who have been conditioned by the media to fear Conservatives and Christians. We have seen these people lashing out at institutions like North Idaho College, where just recently, someone pulled a fire alarm, causing the board meeting to be suspended, and the building to evacuate.
This narrative can be seen clearly in an editorial published by the Coeur d’Alene Press by Ex-Kootenai Health Trustee Ernest Fokes, who argues why Kootenai Health should make the switch to a 501(c)3 non-profit. Fokes writes:
“There are two institutions vital to our community: Kootenai Health and North Idaho College. Both are in jeopardy. This is due to the fact that both boards are vulnerable to takeover by persons of ill will...”
This ridiculous sentiment was reiterated again at todays board meeting, by appointed (not elected) trustee Robert Colvin, who stated:
“I believe the faster we go on this… the quicker we move, the better. When I look at what’s going on with North Idaho College right now, it’s a disaster. It’s creating severe issues with morale, amongst the faculty and staff. Can you imagine if that kind of approach was laid over this organization, and thousands of employees that are doing life and death work are having to worry about their job, and their future in the organization? The Bottom line is that we move to the right model, which is the 501c3 not-for-profit, we can protect ourselves from some of that disruption…”
Fortunately for the Hospital, there aren’t angry mobs of conservatives disrupting their board meetings, shouting threats at elected officials, doxxing trustees, and pulling fire alarms causing evacuations at the hospital, but this is precisely what left-wing radicals are doing to conservative teachers, students and elected officials at North Idaho College.
Colvin has also apparently already forgotten about the time that “thousands of employees… were worried about their job and their future in the organization,” when the Kootenai Health board of trustees imposed mask and vaccine mandates on their staff.
Employees who were close to retirement, retired, while others quit. This caused a labor shortage at the hospital, causing the cost for contract workers to skyrocket from $7 million per year, to over $6 million every single month.
The truth is that these people don’t care about our community. They don’t care about our health. They don’t care about education. They never cared about “trans rights” until they found out about the obscene profit margins they could gobble up by offering “gender affirming care.”
All these people care about is lining their pockets with your money, expanding their power, and controlling the populace with fear.
They hate democracy, they hate conservatives, and most importantly they hate you.
After all, you’re just a “hater,” right? That’s what I read in the Press about you, anyway.
Matheson’s Dissent
Just before the board took their vote, every trustee was given a moment to share their final thoughts on this change of structure. We have transcribed Matheson’s comments in full, below the video.
We sincerely hope that each and every person reading this, steps up. Email your legislators. Attend board meetings. Go to City Counsel. Vote for vetted Conservatives.
The stakes are too high to sit on our laurels and allow this to happen to any more institutions in our county and state.
Go talk to a Californian. They’ll tell you what’s in store if Conservatives continue to do nothing but watch Fox News, and bitch about stolen elections.
“I have been consistent my opposition with the approach the District has taken, while simultaneously supporting the effort to earnestly study the advantages of transitioning to a private non-profit model. I believe a better approach would’ve been working collaboratively with our community, and the Idaho legislature, rather than the more expedient route of capitalizing on a legislative snafu.
Many times throughout this process, I have disagreed with the actions of the District, and now, through this resolution, the District is submitting a narrative of what is a current route this evaluation process. Admittedly, I am frustrated, and I’d like to provide an alternative narrative to be included into the record.
"This evaluation process begin with discussions of nondisclosure agreements, while conducting secret deliberations in violation of Idahos open meeting laws. Only after filing a complaint with the prosecuting attorneys office, and the beginning of an active investigation by the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, the District began to conduct deliberations and open session.
The political motive for this transition has not been disclosed to the community.
Although many may agree with this political justification, personal fears of [the] electorate is no justification for disenfranchising 150,000 citizens, in order to stifle the influence of a single political group.
I acknowledge the concern, but I don’t believe denying voters is ever the appropriate response. In voting for this, we are suggesting that the national issues impacting healthcare such as nursing shortages, pandemics, and supply chain disruptions, can be addressed simply through a governmental change, or a governance change. From our own white paper, $350 million in capital expenditures, 140% increase in operation revenue, along with the many numerous awards involving patient care, were accomplished under the current governance structure.
Nevertheless, apparently now is the time to pursue this organizational change.
It does not matter that we are in the midst of implementing a significant financial recovery plan, under an optimistic timeframe, while seeking waivers for bond covenants, pursuing workforce expense reductions, executing a new medical record system conversion, and dealing with an already depleted staff. We’re all planning to do this after we welcomed a new CFO just last week.
We should be focusing on limiting our limited staff staffing resources exclusively on meeting the needs of our patients, employees, and improving the financial performance of the District, and leaving governance changes for later.
No one can convincingly argue the community has been given adequate time to thoughtfully consider this conversion. As a trustee, I still have many unanswered questions regarding the proposed new governance structure and the purported benefits.
We are deciding today to convey an $800 million operating company, that was created by the generosity of Kootenai County citizens 65 years ago. We should return the trust the community placed with this governing board, and humbly asked for their consent.
I oppose this motion, and I asked for a roll call vote.”
Watch the full board meeting below: