"What really happened? Though I'm now settling into my new off-island home, several people have asked me to provide some perspective on my experience as a public hospital district commissioner.
The first thing you need to know is that the early opposition against me (and Bill Williams) was fueled by our support for easily accessible, low-cost reproductive health services.
Bill and I first crossed paths because we were deeply concerned about making health care on the island more affordable and accessible. In addition to our shared interest in lowering the cost of urgent care, Bill and I were both committed to finding a pragmatic solution to support reproductive health services and comply with WA State law — which we were able to do, even as PHDs around the State were being sued.
My opponent Jenny Ledford was as fiercely anti-choice as I am pro-choice. She was volunteering within EMS throughout the election and, although I know some of the EMTs casually, by the time I won office after a hotly-contested election battle, word had spread that I was somehow an enemy of EMS.
Several of the EMS staff decided to oppose Bill and me — going so far as testifying against us at PHD meetings before we even took office.
I genuinely had not formed an opinion of the EMS organization, except that I knew its future looked dire, given that there had been two failed levy attempts, and shortly before the election,EMS had become a focus of investigation by WA's Attorney General for its billing practices.
What I found upon taking office was an EMS organization with skilled responders but no reserves for capital expenses, a bloated view of its accounts receivable, and no one internal to EMS who seemed to understand fairly basic concepts of budgeting. I also found that no one within EMS really seemed to understand why the levy had failed twice. It wasn't a failure of communication; it was a failure of trust.
EMS needed a credible budget in place before the levy vote, but we ran into internal resistance and ultimately had to bring in an outside consultant and a citizens’ group to help pull a budget together. (The irony is that the hiring of that consultant was later criticized by people within EMS who had no idea how hard he worked to get the budget into shape where it could earn island voters' support.)
Bill and I then worked very hard to get that levy passed - many people didn't want to support it because they didn't trust what had happened under Jim Cole and saw no accountability. We told them - please pass it and we'll work on the budget issues.
I focused hard on the budget issues because I have a strong business/financial background. But the cultural issues were a problem as well. Basically, my view of public agencies is that they exist to serve the public and are held accountable through the oversight of elected officials who answer to the community. Within EMS, I found a bunker mentality culture — where people were defined as “with us” or “against us.”
In my view, Commissioner Michael Edwards fueled this perspective, especially since he and Commissioner Mark Schwinge were so opposed to funding reproductive health services through Planned Parenthood. Basically, anyone who supported Planned Parenthood was clearly the enemy and that crossed over into the relationship with EMS.
I want EMS to be financially healthy and well functioning (and I’m open-minded as to whether it should join with Fire). In any event, I believe the agency itself and the emergency responders in particular are ill-served by a management structure that believes it shouldn’t answer to the community — especially since the community has made clear it supports reproductive health services AND wants a fiscally sound, sustainable EMS organization.
Since EMS viewed ANY questions about its budget as an attack, it absolutely made sense to consider an outsider (with great experience, contrary to what was said about him) who could look at things from a more balanced perspective.
I think the EMS staff needs to reconsider whether it's "us against them" mentality serves them over the longer term. You don't get to a 60% vote (which Bill Williams did) without having a lot of people who support you - and many of those people are unhappy with how Bill was treated.
I left the island for reasons that are unrelated to the PHD, but, like Bill, I have many friends and supporters on the island who are deeply concerned with how this played out and what it means about the organizational health of EMS. I think the EMS staff would be very surprised at who some of the people who have supported us consistently are - in most cases, they are the silent 60%. Many of them think a level of toxicity has grown within the EMS organization that is unhealthy and not in keeping with a public service organization that should be devoted to serving the needs of all islanders.
The bottom line is that islanders want a healthy sustainable EMS and that means a healthy EMS culture combined with healthy, sustainable finances"
Posted on Facebook on 1-29-2018
