Cloud over CEO finalist at Memorial

When Dr. Robert Kelly lastmonth made the cut to be one of four finalists for the CEO post at Memorial Healthcare System, board members made clear that to advance in the process, he’d have to better explain his sudden departure as president of New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.

Yet lastweek, in narrowing the field to two finalists— Kelly and Aurelio Fernandez, 63, Memorial’s interim CEO and chief operating officer— the board offered nary a word about the answer to the big question: What happened?

According to the New York Post, Presbyterian has said only that Kelly, 60, “resigned for personal reasons.” Hospital employees were told he did not leave for health reasons. Even board members said they didn’t know why the respected administrator and doctor suddenly vanished froma $3million post at the prestigious hospital.

You would think the board of the South Broward Hospital District, in the process of selecting a CEO for the taxpayer-supported system called Memorial, would have asked the question, gotten an answer and told the community whatwas learned.

For in the absence of information, people think theworst. We’re not going to speculate on the possibilities, but it’s not good to have imaginations run wild before handing someone the reins to a public hospital system that spends $1.8 billion per year.

It’s possible boardmembers knowthe answer, though, for despite the advice of an attorney hired to advise them on best practices for conducting a public CEO search, they held one-on-one meetings with the finalists. That attorney, former Sen. George LeMieux, said if they held such meetings, they could not use anything learned there in their decision-making— unless itwas shared in public.

“The safest method is to do it all in public,” LeMieux cautioned the board. “If in those private meetings you start deciding that this candidate is not going to be one that you are going to feel favorably about going forward, and then when you have your collegial meeting, those reasons, those discussions, those thought processes of why you’ve eliminated this candidate are not available to the public, one could take the view that the actual decision-making process happened in the shade.”

Nevertheless, board members went forward with one-on-one meetings. And nowit appears information learned there— information not shared in public— has influenced their decisions. For in narrowing the field to two finalists, no one has said aword about the big question looming over Kelly.

So either no one asked the question— which is impossible to imagine— or itwas asked and answered, without the taxpayers — the people who own the system— getting to hear.

In his first-round interview, Kelly told the board he left his job for “personal family reasons,” though he also clashed with the new CEO, with whom he’d competed for the top job. But why would “personal family reasons” lead to a nondisclosure agreement that keeps him from explaining what happened on the job?

It almost seems as though Kelly is hiding behind this nondisclosure agreement, not a good first step for someone who seeks a top public job in Florida. By doing so, he’s created a cloud over his head.

The shame of it is, we hear Kelly is a good guy, with a good resume. We hear the same is true of the other finalist, Fernandez, who boasts an impressive record of leadership in the Memorial system.

Before making its final choice, the board plans to bring Kelly back formore private interviews today. On hearing that, this editorial board raised an objection and through our lawyer, asked the board to end further private meetings. We also want the substance of past interviews put on the record in an open meeting.

“The board’s actions in this regard are evasive and deny the public the opportunity to witness and participate in the hiring process,” said our lawyer, Mark Caramanica, in a letter to Memorial’s legal team. “As the Florida Supreme Court has noted, ‘one purpose of the government in the sunshine lawwas to prevent at nonpublic meetings the crystallization of secret decisions to a point just short of ceremonial acceptance.’”

Crystallization of secret decisions and ceremonial acceptance is exactly how this process nowlooks.

What is being asked in these private meetings that boardmembers don’t want the public to hear? Might they be looking for certain promises or assurances? We understand the desire to develop a personal rapport with the candidates, but interview schedules have included public events, including a cocktail reception and dinner, that allow for personal interactions.

Fromthe start, awhiff of secrecy has surrounded this CEO search. To avoid Sunshine Law requirements, board members first tried to screen candidates without knowing who theywere, where they worked or where they went to college. Before we objected to the process, it had become clear some boardmembers did not want to interview two popular internal candidates. Later, at a public meeting, the system’s key transplant surgeon said board member Laura Miller told him the next CEO would be an external candidate, something she denied. But if the doctor was right, howwould Miller knowthat? After all, the Sunshine Law prohibits board members from talking to one another.

Against this backdrop, remember that certain board members, all of them appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, have said they want to get more involved in the business of the hospital, much like the board at the North Bro ward Hospital District, which now faces great turmoil. By contrast, during his 28 years running the district, former CEO Frank Sacco, who just retired, is widely credited with keeping politics at bay, though not without making some critics.

At the same time, we’ve heard from multiple sources that a private company called Ar dent Health Services is preparing a bid to purchase Memorial, a public system no one has said is for sale. An Ardent spokeswoman told us Wednesday the company does not comment on plans it “may or may not” be considering. It’s well known, however, that Scott does not like taxpayersupported hospital systems.

Given the landscape possibly awaiting the next CEO, it’s important the public hear the detailed questions being asked of the two finalists. For Memorial is going to need a strong leader capable of navigating powerful political forces ahead.

Unlike Broward Health, Memorial is a financially successful hospital system not in need of a turnaround. Fromthe start of its CEO search, a sizable number of medical, staff and community leaders have asked the board to choose an internal candidate who would preserve its best-places-to-work culture.

The board was right to do a national search to see if an external candidate would be a better fit.

But as they prepare to meet Tuesday to pick Memorial’s next CEO, the choice comes down to a strong internal candidate or an external candidate with a cloud over this head.

Given what we know— and what we don’t know— Aurelio Fernandez is the better choice.