Friday – and I’m not in love (this time)
Last week, the Heffernan Memorial Healthcare District – which is in charge of secretarial duties for the new Imperial Valley Healthcare District – announced the first meeting in which the new members will take the oath of office, in addition to making statements about their philosophy related to this new agency.
The new district, which has caused controversy among certain sectors of Imperial County, was created after the signing of AB 918 by Governor Gavin Newsom last October. According to the law’s content, the new district must meet a series of deadlines for the creation of this agency to take place, which, in theory, seeks to save the region’s hospitals to continue providing medical services to the population.
The Heffernan District said that, in addition to the oath, new district board members will appoint several officials who will be in charge of running the sessions, among other topics.
However, the problem lies in the time and date the session will take place. At the outset, Heffernan announced that the meeting would be held at 6 pm this Friday, February 2. On that day, Imperial Valley families are already resting, at dinner or elsewhere outside the county enjoying a well-deserved rest. Worse still, many reporters will be doing the same thing, since our news outlets will have already closed for the weekend. With rare exceptions, the details of the event will not be released, at least not immediately so that the public knows what happened in this historic meeting.
Despite what one might think, calling this meeting has been very difficult. In the first instance, the Heffernan District has been waiting for County Supervisors to appoint representatives of the communities to the west of the Valley, such as Seeley or Ocotillo. According to the law, the board of directors of the new district must have seven members, but in the absence of the county’s appointment, only six will be sworn in this Friday. The good thing is that county supervisors are expected to appoint Tuesday a representative to this important body.
To convene this inaugural meeting, the Heffernan District must have a quorum so that the decisions made are under the law. However, it seems some new board members care little about the work they will do since the agendas could not be adjusted and there was only the opportunity to hold the session until this Friday evening.
The Heffernan District proposed holding it elsewhere during the previous weeks, either in Calexico or El Centro, but again some members’ agendas could not be compatible with those of the rest of their colleagues. At some point, it was thought to hold the meeting at the same Heffernan District facilities, but space is limited to just over 20 people, according to fire regulations. As if that were not enough, Imperial County Superior Court Judge William Quan, in charge of administering the oath, was unavailable as well.
The only choice was to call this important and historic meeting for this Friday which, in reality and according to the content of the AB 918 law, should have been held in January.
Although the meeting will not be broadcast live, Heffernan District staff hopes to record the session and make it public through social networks starting next week, so that the community can witness what happened.
For now, those involved leave this issue so relevant to the life and history of the Imperial Valley in a bad light. Perhaps I am wrong in my assessment, but everything seems to indicate that appointed officials to this important organization have not taken seriously the role they will play for the lives and health of the entire population of the Imperial Valley.
Hopefully, the work of the members of the new district will be better as time goes by.