Medical center lease subject of meeting

MAGNOLIA — The City Council has scheduled a meeting Aug. 13 to discuss a lease with Magnolia Regional Medical Center.

Rex Jones, the center’s chief executive officer, said thecouncil wasn’t able to vote on the lease Monday because a notice for the ordinance had to be posted seven days in advance.

“They had the notice of what was required for the ordinance to be published, and I think there was still some discussion or question about a couple of things on the lease, that maybe the mayor wasn’t comfortable with, so they didn’t post the notice for the ordinance,” said Jones during a center board meeting.

Since May 2019, the medical center has worked to gain a 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and has run into some hiccups with the council along the way. The council agreed to move forward with lease discussions last September; however, this fell through the following month as the City Council didn’t meet to go over the lease.

“There are now lease discussions, and I’ve made several attempts with the subcommittee of the City Council to ask for a meeting,” Jones said in October. “I asked if [the mayor] was coming and he said, on the advice of his city attorney, none of the city council would be attending the meeting.”

During Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Parnell Vann stressed his concerns over a $500,000 buffer to the medical center. The buffer allows the center to buy furniture, fixtures and equipment for use in the hospital during the term of the agreement. The buffer was originally $1 million, but was brought down to $500,000 during the meeting.

The money to pay off any expenses used by the buffer would come from the revenue of two local sales and use taxes: a 1.125% sales and use tax levied by the city, which was approved by voters in 2007; and a 0.25% sales and use tax levied by the city approved by voters in 2004.