County proceeds with bid review as planned, despite protestors | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Earlier tonight, a crowd of mostly hospital employees chanted "UHS! UHS!" as a procession of Beaufort County commissioners walked from the stage of the community college's multipurpose room to an adjoining private room for the closed-session portion of tonight's special-called meeting on the preparation of the commissioners' planned review of proposals from prospective Beaufort Regional Health System operators.

    On Monday, the Beaufort Regional Health System hospital board voted to recommend that the county commissioners approve merging the financially insolvent BRHS with Community Health Systems of Brentwood, Tenn., over University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, which is the popular choice of BRHS employees. The commissioners will ultimately choose the final affiliate based on the recommendation by the board, as well as the result of their own research.



    Security blocked the door for nearly two hours, as those who came to protest the board's recommendation waited for the commissioners to reemerge, in hopes that they might hold sway over the current tide toward a merger with Community Health Systems.

    In closed session, the commissioners met with two attorneys from Smith, Moore and Leatherwood LLP of Raleigh and Beaufort County Attorney William Mayo to discuss the proper legal procedure for said review of proposals.

    When the commissioners came out of closed session and took the stage, it only took two minutes for Beaufort County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jerry Langley to get the message across:

    Beyond the two, hour-long, public hearings that were held earlier in the bid process, the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners is not planning to allocate any additional time for the public to express their opinions on the matter. According to Langley, the commissioners' regular monthly meeting, scheduled for this upcoming Monday at 5 p.m., will carry on in its customary manner. There will be the normal 20-minute public-comment section, which will be accessible by UHS advocates, but no more.



    "I am quite confident that I will see some of you signed up for the public comments on Monday," said Langley. "So, pick and choose who you want to put before us, because we will stay true to time."

    The commissioners will proceed with the second special-called meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 12, at 2 p.m., again in the BCCC multipurpose room, in order to begin the process of reviewing of proposals. A large portion of this meeting may also be in closed session, and, like the meeting tonight, there will be no chance to hear public comments.

    The Board anticipates reviewing first the proposal from Community Health Systems. Future special meetings of the Board of County Commissioners related to this review process will be scheduled and announced as necessary.