Editor’s note: This column by William “Bill” Bohnert is being rerun this week because, due to a production error, half of the column was inadvertently not printed. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Republic-Monitor.
My name is William “Bill” Bohnert, and I am the current chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) for Perry County Memorial Hospital. This letter concerns a recent article in this paper regarding disagreements on the BOT. I want to set the record straight. There is one side of the board that consists of Gwen Schweiss, Dr. Hutchinson and myself. When we were elected in sequence to the BOT in 2022, 2023 and 2024, we promised the citizens that we would ask tough questions, demand truthful answers, and be open and honest with the taxpayers of Perry County. The problems come in with other previous and current BOT members, along with previous PCHS administrators, who apparently disagree with us.
One point I want to make clear is that the BOT knows that Mercy Hospital is here in Perry County to hopefully stay, and we have no problem with that. It is too late to do anything about it now, even though we tried. I was the only BOT member who actually voted against the merger because of the $50 million in potential rent money that was given to Mercy. Even the current county commissioners voted to take the lower rent amount of $160,000 a year instead of $2.4 million a year. It would have been nice to give the taxpayers a break on the hospital tax, but I digress.
Since the merger with Mercy, Perry County Health Systems (PCHS) is a defunct organization that has gone out of business. There was approximately $2.5 million set aside to close down PCHS over a period of several years, and the funding was to be used only for costs associated with closing down PCHS.
At the time of PCHS closing in September 2023, there were two BOT members who sat on the PCHS board, as had been the practice for the last 20-some years. The BOT would vote two members onto the PCHS board to serve on both boards simultaneously. The BOT members had access to the PCHS records to make sure the money was spent properly. With Gwen Schweiss winning the election in 2024, the majority was swinging over to the newest members elected who were demanding transparency. Imagine our surprise when, just two hours before Gwen Schweiss was sworn in, the BOT was contacted by the PCHS attorney, who informed us that PCHS had just changed its bylaws by unanimous vote and was no longer allowing BOT members to sit on the PCHS board.
This sudden change in the bylaws denies the BOT access to the financial records of PCHS. The two BOT members who were sitting on the PCHS board and apparently voted the BOT off were Pat Naeger and Beth Guth. It would have been nice if Beth and Pat had asked the other members of the BOT for their opinion before voting on this. It was almost as if they were hiding it from us. Of course, Mr. Naeger said that he had quit the PCHS board and did not vote on the bylaw change. There is no record in the BOT minutes where Mr. Naeger informed the BOT that he had quit the PCHS board, but he must have conveniently forgotten to tell the rest of the BOT. If he had, the BOT would have voted another member onto the PCHS board. Beth Guth is now conveniently the head of the PCHS board, along with Linda Buerck.
Since the BOT members have been removed from the PCHS board, we have no idea how much in funds they have taken in or spent for closing down PCHS. The BOT has several concerns that the budgeted PCHS funds are disappearing much quicker than anticipated. The PCHS and BOT boards both have their own attorneys. I do not know if the PCHS board actually meets or if it exists in name only. They have never accepted the BOT’s invitation to brief us on the finances. In fact, the BOT has to contact our attorney to contact their attorney to get an answer on anything. What a waste of funds!
The following are just a few of the financial concerns the BOT would like addressed. In 2022, when I was elected to the BOT, Daryl Niswonger was the treasurer of the BOT. Imagine my surprise in my second meeting when I learned that Mr. Niswonger did not ever produce a treasurer’s report for the BOT, even though we supposedly had hundreds of thousands of dollars on hand. This lack of a report had apparently been going on for years under previous BOT members. No one cared! There was even a Republic-Monitor reporter at that meeting who did a fine job of reporting and documenting the mess (May 2022). The current BOT majority would need access to the PCHS financial records to have a forensic audit conducted but has been denied. The BOT still has no idea if any funds are missing.
Another cost the BOT is concerned about is a lawsuit between two doctors and a former CEO of the hospital. PCHS was not named in the lawsuit. The BOT received information that the PCHS board was paying the legal bills for the doctors, even though PCHS was not involved in the lawsuit. How is paying the legal bill a closing-down cost? Again, the BOT is denied access to the financial books, and no one will tell us anything.
The next concern involves a lawsuit filed by Mr. Barry Naeger against PCHS. As most people know, Mr. Naeger is the father of current BOT member Pat Naeger. This lawsuit was settled in August 2022, at the same time Pat Naeger was a BOT member. Upon recently finding this out, my first question was why the BOT was not notified by Pat Naeger about this lawsuit and his conflict of interest. The BOT was told that there was a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) signed by both parties and that the BOT has no right to know the financial details of the lawsuit. Because the BOT members were voted off the PCHS board, they have no access to the PCHS records. The picture is starting to get clearer why the BOT members were kicked off the PCHS board.
Another concern the BOT has is that when PCHS was leaving the premises and Mercy was coming in, information was received that PCHS was giving pay raises and/or bonuses to certain employees. We do not know who, what, where, the amounts or which employees received these raises or bonuses. Were these payments identified as closing-down costs? When Chris Wibbenmeyer was asked about it, he replied that the BOT had no access to this information.
The taxpayers of this county need to know that any funds left over from the PCHS closing-down costs are to be turned over to the BOT and used for health care services in the county. I have been on the BOT for four years, two as board chairman. BOT members do get frustrated as we try to do right by the taxpayers of this county, only to have roadblocks placed in our way, and that usually leads to disagreements.
The PCHS board was not elected, and it is unknown how its members were appointed. My proposal to clean up this mess has been, and still is, for the PCHS board to close down, disband and turn all records and funding over to the BOT.
