‘It was a very hard lesson’
E L CENTRO — The Local Agency Formation Commission had strong words toward the Heffernan Memorial Healthcare District during a regular meeting Thursday regarding a controversial retreat with the use of public funds in La Jolla during the summer.
“This is taxpayers money and it’s LAFCO’s responsibility to be vigilant and ensure you are compliant,” said LAFCO chair Maria Nava-Froelich. “We are very concerned about the Heffernan District moving forward ... the (HMHD) board cannot behave as if it’s business as usual.”
Heffernan is under close oversight by LAFCO for not providing more health-care based programs to the residents of Calexico.
LAFCO Executive Officer Jurg Heuberger said he raised concerns about the event prior to it taking place when former Heffernan consultant and grant writer Angelica Tellechea invited him to attend. Heuberger said he told her it would be inappropriate for him to attend the retreat.
Sylvia Bernal, who served as HMHD president last year, told LAFCO part of the issue was they were misled by Tellechea. Although she did not take part in the retreat, she recognized it was something that shouldn’t have happened.
“... she put us in this situation with the retreat. I’m sorry that this happened. We were misled very badly. It’s a shame that this happened,” Bernal said. “We have been in a nightmare for the last five months with bickering back and forth with what happened, with this consultant, but it’s a lesson that we learned. It was a very hard lesson.”
Bernal was one of three of the HMHD board members in attendance. Current HMHD Board President Hector Martinez and Bernal told the commission they are aware of their mistake and willing to move on, to focus on providing additional services to the residents of Calexico.
Board member Norma Apodaca was also in attendance. Board members Gloria Romo and Rodolfo Valdez were not present.
Martinez said the board had three new members and the fallout from the retreats have served as a learning experience for them.
“I’m aware that there are some concerns regarding what happened last year and now with a more experienced board, I think we can move forward and provide these services for Calexico,” Martinez said. “We had the right vision and now we’re trying to move in the right direction.”
As previously reported by the Imperial Valley Press, the HMHD board spent more than $13,000 for a three-day special meeting in La Jolla in the summer. Heffernan then faced heavy criticism from the community.
LAFCO also commended Heffernan for not just giving the city of Calexico’s ambulance program a hefty check.
Heuberger said throughout the past couple of weeks, he’s advised the HMHD of the commission’s concerns regarding potential legal issues with HMHD spending $2.1 million over a three-year period for a service that is supposed to be paid by the city of Calexico. He went on to mention the ambulance service is not a required service the city needs to provide and there are other available options to consider other than using HMHD funds.
“This may not be appropriate of your funds and the commission may have some concerns over this and could result in the commission voting in favor of dissolution (of HMHD) because this is not the best use of the funds,” Heuberger said. “We can’t say if there are legal issues, we haven’t reached that conclusion yet.”
The commission also advised the district to look into the possibility of hiring a manager or executive officer to be tasked with handling the bulk of activities, provide direction and make recommendations to the board, rather than relying on advice from others.
The commission agreed to have another meeting with LAFCO in two months to take a closer look into a previously submitted future business plan from Heffernan. At that time, LAFCO will determine if Heffernan’s business plan conforms with its goal of providing health services to Calexico residents.
“None of us are here because we want to dissolve any of the districts that we have to oversee, it is a very long, costly and sometimes litigious process that really none of us want to undertake,” said LAFCO Board member Jason Jackson. “We are here to protect the public and try to help, whichever district it is, be successful … but we will (vote for dissolution) if we have to.”