Commissioners Court wants to see changes on UMC Board
The head of El Paso’s County hospital is not in good standing with the County Commissioners Court for a variety of reasons, like taking a big bonus while laying off employees and speaking about hospital issues when the board told him not to.
Is Jim Valenti’s job in jeopardy?
ABC-7 spoke with the county judge and commissioners on Thursday and although there was no call for Valenti’s immediate resignation, there could be one for some of his supporters on the UMC board.
“I think there is a feeling amongst a lot of commissioners perhaps UMC could be more responsive to many of our requests,” said frustrated County Commissioner Vince Perez. “The UMC board has been perhaps too autonomous and separated from commissioners court.”
Perez went as far as calling for changes in May of 2016 when Valenti’s contract expires.
“The question is is he the right person to lead us into the next 10 years of UMC,” Perez said. “In my personal opinion, no. I think it’s time for UMC to look for a leader who can repair the relationship with Commissioners Court, with Texas Tech, with El Paso Children’s, who can really lead us into the next decade.”
UMC board chairman William Hanson has called for a special board meeting for Friday. County Judge Veronica Escobar said she’s hoping for some big changes coming out of that meeting, and if not:
“Then i have a letter ready, which I would be glad to share with everyone at that point,” said Escobar, hinting that the letter could call for the resignation of Hanson and other board members, but not the entire board. “I would like to see a change in leadership on the board. I would not ask everyone to resign because I don’t think everyone has the same opinion. I think that the board has a very important decision to make about the direction that the hospital goes in going forward. I hope there are board members that realize the hospital is too important and that they need to take bold action.”
Commissioner Carlos Leon’s predecessor, Ana Perez, appointed Hanson. Leon told ABC-7 he will not reappoint Hanson when his term expires in March.
Hanson did not yet return calls from ABC-7 on Thursday.
