Terrible start to Broward Health CEO search
With all eyeswatching, youwould think the board of theNorth BrowardHospital Districtwould ensure a process above reproach in picking the nextCEOof the public health care system knownas Broward Health.
For history shows the person who gets this job will wield enormous influence in deciding which companies get contracts worth millions of dollars, some lasting for decades, some without going out to bid.
Given the money at stake, there’s a lot of local interest in whose name next inks the contracts and signs the checks. Plus, in today’s rapidly changing health care landscape, the nextCEOwill make big decisions about the future of this 75-year-old system of four hospitals, three urgent-care centers and12 primary-care centers for the poor.
The last time the district found itself in this position— after then-CEOFrankNask announced his retirement in October 2014 — the board ran the search through its human resources department, rather than through an outside firm. In that case, all three finalistswere internal candidates, and stories abound about intense lobbying from downtowntypes. In the end, the board choseDr. Nabil El Sanadi, then-director of emergency medicine, who tragically killed himself in January.
This go-round, board members considered enforcing a strict no-lobbying policy, but gotwaived off by Commissioner ChristopherUre, who didn’twant to forego input. At a later committee meeting, however, Ure and others agreed theywouldn’t be influenced by lobbying efforts. Right. Regardless, lobbying interests are not the reason BrowardHealth’s search process is flawed fromthe start and should be quickly launched anew.
The process is flawed fromthe start becauseUre, who chairs the search committee, single-handedly conducted the hunt for a search firm, which expects to receive a $300,000 contract.
In the end, Ure presented two firms, B.E. Smith out of Kansas City and Diversified Search out of Philadelphia. He says he contacted five companies, though the district has no record ofwhomhe contacted, what he communicated or what responses he received. And that’s not all. To solicit bids, Ure asked theHRdepartment for a draft “request for engagement” letter. The standard letter calls for a “cone of silence” that prohibits bidders from communicating with board members. However, Ure told colleagues he changed the letter before sending it out. What changes he made are not known. Urewas not available for comment, but in a text message Friday, he promised to swiftly pull together the documents for us.
It is disturbing to learnUre personally handled the solicitation, rather than running it through the district’s procurement office, which regularly handles such things. Given the ongoing state and federal investigations of howBrowardHealth awards contracts, board members should be setting an example for howto do things right.
Imagine the reaction if a city or county commissioner overstepped administrators and sent out requests for proposals to people of his choosing. This is no different. It doesn’t pass the smell test.
Besides, BrowardHealth’s charter makes clear that board members are supposed to limit themselves to oversight, not operations.
So we applaud Commissioners Joel Gustafson andMaureen Canada for voting against the Diversified contract atWednesday’s board meeting. Frankly, wewere disappointed to see Commissioners Sheela VanHoose, RockyRodriguez and Linda Robison joinUre in awarding a pivotal contract under such a cloud.
Not surprisingly, complaints aboutUre overstepping his authority have reached the district’s compliance officer, aswell as Florida Chief Inspector GeneralMelinda Miguel, who is conducting an exhaustive review of the board and contract awards.
Miguel should include the search firm contract in her review. The district’s internal auditor should similarly take this matter seriously.
Remember, too, thatUrewas publicly accused of influencing the administration to hire the public relations firm of Hill+Knowlton Strategies a couple of months back, a charge he has denied.
But shortly afterH+Kwas hired, its vice president sent the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board an op-ed onUre’s behalf. Wewere told hewanted to counter a submission he expectedwewould receive fromanother commissioner, something that never happened.
In his piece, Ure noted, among other things, that the inspector generalwas concerned about whether “any boardmember has operated in a management role” and whether the boardwas acting as “a whole body and not through the actions of any individual commissioner.”
Urewould be wise to heed the red flags raised in his own piece.
While legitimate questions remain about whetherUre overstepped the charter’s boundaries for board members, it’s unlikely he broke district policies or procedures.
Much to our surprise, the district does not require a formal request for proposal when seeking professional services such as consulting, marketing, advertising, finance or audit. Given that BrowardHealth almost awarded a no-bid advertising contract worth $71million in January, changes to the procurement code are clearly needed.
It’s equally disturbing to learn that the district has no policy— no accepted practices at all— for howto contract for professional services. “We’re going to have to put this on fast-forward,” an equally surprised interim CEO Pauline Grant told us Friday. “We have to. We have to have some guidelines of howwe acquire these services. You havemy commitmentwe’re going to get this done.”
It maywell be that Diversified is the best firm to help BrowardHealth find its next CEO, but it’s hard to trust a process built on shaky ground.
Plus, we’re bothered that Diversified wants BrowardHealth to pay its nextCEO $950,000 a year, plus benefits— a figure it used to calculate its fee. Clearly, this company doesn’t understand the political landscape in Florida. And why is some unknown candidate worth so much more than Dr. El Sanadi, who made $675,000, plus benefits?
We’re also concerned about the call for confidentiality in Diversified’s engagement letter.
It says: “During the course of this assignment, Diversified will provide you with various information on potential candidates. Much of this information is gained in confidence and therefore should be regarded as highly sensitive. Accordingly, it is understood and agreed that dissemination of this information shall be limited to employees of BrowardHealth who are directly connected with this specific search, or whoma reasonable personwould agree have a need to know.”
As readers of this pagewell know, this editorial board cares very much that BrowardHealth followthe Sunshine Law and conduct a transparent search for the next head of this community treasure.
In recent months, we’ve heard board members promise to be transparent, but we’ve also heardUre say hewould like to exploreways to conduct the search “in the shade.” That iswhy, fromthe start, we have encouraged BrowardHealth to publicly advertise this contract and give companies familiar with Florida’s Sunshine Lawthe chance to bid.
Much is riding on the selection of BrowardHealth’s next chief executive. Today’s commissioners will likely face no more important decision during their fouryear terms.
It is better to do things right than to do them fast.
To ensure the confidence of a community that pays property taxes to operate this public health care system, we encourage BrowardHealth commissioners to quickly start theirCEOsearch over and this time, do it right.