Wellness clinic still open, for now

♦ County commissioners approve the contract but city officials are reviewing potential conflicts.

City employees can still use a joint city-county wellness clinic despite the fact the Rome City Commission tabled a vote concerning the extension of the contract with Redmond Regional Medical Center earlier this week.

The Rome Floyd Wellness Clinic, free to city and county employees and overseen by Redmond Regional Medical Center, was put in place as a way to help offset medical benefit costs.

City commissioners are likely to vote on the measure during their March 22 meeting, but the question remains how many of the nine will be able to vote on the measure.

At this point several commissioners — including Mark Cochran and Bill Collins, who have business

relationships with Redmond competitor Floyd Medical Center — have questioned whether they would need to recuse themselves from the vote.

City Manager Sammy Rich said Thursday he’s unsure what the next move is for the board. He plans to talk to City Attorney Andy Davis to find out if they have enough commissioners who can vote on the agreement.

If the city does not have enough commissioners able to even take a vote, Mayor Craig Mcdaniel said, the existing agreement with Redmond would continue as it currently stands, with no changes.

There’s also a question of whether the city commission will have to send the recommendation back to its General Administration Committee for revisions before they take a vote.

A staff committee, comprised of both city and county employees, looked over five different proposals, including options from both Redmond and FMC, before recommending the joint facility stay with Redmond.

The Floyd County Commission approved the contract at its Tuesday meeting in a 3-1 vote. Commissioner Rhonda Wallace voted against it and Commissioner Scotty Hancock, who is employed at Redmond, recused himself.

Wallace said she voted against the proposal because the contract was not completely filled out. She said Redmond hadn’t sent back answers concerning a few of the points in the document.

Floyd County Finance Director Susie Gass, who served on the staff committee that chose the Redmond contract, said the uncompleted portions were month-by-month estimates regarding services provided by the clinic.