Eureka Springs Times-Echo The chair and vice chair of the Eureka Springs Hospital Commission are “negligent in their leadership,” a city council member says.

Rachael Moyer, who has spearheaded efforts to take a deep dive into the hospital’s finances in recent weeks, made the comments during the city council meeting held Monday, June 9, during an agenda item she added to discuss a recent joint workshop between the two bodies.

“I now believe that the hospital commission chair and the vice chair are negligent in their leadership,” Moyer said of chair Sandy Martin and vice chair Brian Beyler. “They continue to misrepresent circumstances and data, and I’m in position of evidence to support that statement. For reasons beyond my understanding, they failed to comply in good faith with requests made of them by this council, but worse than that, they continue to boldly and publicly state otherwise: ‘We’ve provided you with that.’ That is not true. Continuing to support leadership who refuses to act with transparency and fails to provide the necessary oversight is irresponsible.”

Things have not improved and other options to run the hospital should have been considered more than they have, Moyer said.

“It would be one thing if there were no other options, but there have been other options that have not even been given true consideration,” Moyer said. “For example, Dr. [John] House’s proposal. That model would bring less risk, and it could improve community relations. And yet, it has not yet been seriously considered. As public servants, we have an obligation to our community.

“Mayor, you insist that the council is unable to act. I’m actually inclined to motion for discussion of the removal of the commission chair and the vice chair, but I’m putting it back on you. If I were you, I would draw allocations from professional services to have a review and a reconciliation of the commission of the hospital budget, of the hospital’s finances and find out what in the world is going on.”

Instead of putting the removal of Martin and Beyler up for a vote, Moyer led a motion for a resolution to be drawn up by city attorney Justin Eichmann requesting the commission to provide profit and loss statements, a balance sheet and a cash flow statement to the council on a monthly basis “as soon as it becomes available.”

That vote came moments after the council passed three readings and an emergency clause for an ordinance that requires the hospital commission to provide quarterly financial reports as other city commissions currently do.

‘LACK OF CONFIDENCE’ Moyer’s strong statements came after she shared with her fellow council members information on various aspects of the hospital’s budget and number of patients it has served over the years, disputing numbers shared by the commission and hospital chief financial officer Cynthia Asbury at the joint workshop held June 4.

Only three council members attended the joint workshop — Harry Meyer, Steve Holifield and David Avanzino.

“This is really difficult to continue to bring up, but I have literally taken so many calls and gotten so many emails regarding this issue that I feel like it’s important to bring it to the council and have some things publicly addressed,” Moyer said to begin her statement. “There are some comments that were made in the workshop between the council and the hospital commission recently that I feel, and unfortunately, I was unable to be there. I wasn’t consulted before the schedule.

“I know that I’ve been sort of spearheading these conversations, so it was unfortunate that I wasn’t able to be there and participate and support my colleagues who were there and asked great questions, so I appreciate you all. But, there were just a few things that I feel like are important to mention publicly….”

Those things include information that she said goes against what the commission and hospital staff reported at the workshop.

“It seems that some of the facts are contradictory to what the commission reports in their meetings and in the last workshop,” she said. “This is really concerning to me and very concerning to others in our community.

“ … Regarding patient visitation, I think you can easily see a pattern here when you look at patient visitations since 2020. There’s an obvious cycle that appears, and this mirrors tourism in our town. So, I think when the argument is made that we’re just a rural hospital, we’re more than a rural hospital. We are very importantly a rural hospital, but we also serve millions of people who come to this town on vacation. And I think that makes us a little bit different.”

While a pattern of slow months and busy months stayed consistent over recent years, the past year was a bit different, Moyer said.

“I think it’s important to notice the low visitation in January. It always drops in January and it peaks in June and July,” she said. “But, if you look at this last year, you’ll see the lowest number of patients visiting our hospital in all of the five years of data. I think that that says something important. That indicates that there’s something really different happening right now, and if I’m just going off of all the calls and the emails that I receive, I think that this directly correlates to a lack of confidence in the hospital, and in particular, the hospital administration.

“The reasons for that, I cannot comment on. But that is the correlation that I see. …” Moyer’s report, which was added to the council agenda at the beginning of the meeting, went on to discuss hospital revenue and contract labor, again disputing information shared at the June 4 workshop.

“ …Patient revenue … continues to fall,” Moyer said. “And the slight uptick that the commission praises is actually a reflection of the seasonal increase in tourism … not community recommitment. I think that’s a misstatement. “… In a nutshell, the financial impacts of reduced revenue are compounded by increased labor costs. And here’s where I think we get off track. I believe the difference between the staff and contract costs have been dangerously misrepresented by the commission and the hospital administration. Total labor costs are now equal to or higher to when the hospital ran inpatient services as a critical access hospital. The CFO and the chair in the workshop … reported that the costs for salaried employees versus contract labor were equivocal, 5050. This is their exact words: ‘Six of one, half dozen of the other.’ They made a determination of this based on a CBA, they reported, that was done in 2023 when the hospital was still a critical access facility and we were running inpatients. My guess is that staff looked very different.”

Costs remain the same, Moyer said.

“If you look at the expenses … we’re spending the same amount of money to run an ER that we did in 2023 when we ran the full critical access hospital,” she said. “The administration and the chair stated that it was simply easier to staff with contract labor because you didn’t have to deal with call-offs and overtime. This makes me very sad.

“Rural hospitals play a vital role in the local economy. They offer highly skilled jobs, wages, and salaries that contribute to the local economy and support local families, and they attract economic investment in an area. All of these are very good reasons why we would go with salaried employment as versus contract labor.”

Moyer’s last point centered on the hospital’s current bank balance, once again questioning certain budget reports, and why requested information still hasn’t been shared.

“The commission seems to find security in reporting a bank balance of $5 million,” she said. “This is something to consider, a January 2023 balance sheet, which is only the most recent one that I have possession of from 2023, even though I’ve requested this on multiple occasions and never received it, shows a $4 million liability. The commission reports that this is because the accountant wasn’t able to trace where that money went and had to record it as a liability. So much about that is troubling, but there’s more.

“Since September of ’24, there’s been a decrease in the reported bank balances in the amount of $1.79 million, and the hospital only reports losses of $409,000. So, that leaves $1.382 million unaccounted for. The council and myself in particular have repeatedly asked to see a balance sheet and a cash flow statement, the most recent available, which is necessary in order to attempt to reconcile this difference. I’ve not received that. We’ve not received that. And, so the question remains, how is the money spent? What is the holdup in sharing that information? I don’t understand. I don’t understand why the commission would not be compliant with the council request. We’re doing our job.”

To end her report, Moyer questioned the commission’s willingness to work with the council on solutions.

“I share the growing concerns of our community over the hospital,” she said. “Over the past few months, I have operated on assumptions that we all wanted the same thing and that the hospital commission is capable of fulfilling their charge. The council has requested important data, and to be honest, it has either been ignored or the chair’s provided a summary that was incomplete and inaccurate. The data that I’ve used here to provide all of the things that I provided for you in this packet and in the past have actually been provided by way of FOIA requests from other parties. So, I’ve cobbled together this information and this data.

“I’m disappointed to report that nearly every good faith effort has met resistance and points of concern continue to go unaddressed.”

MEYER CONTINUES CRITICISM

Meyer chimed in after Moyer’s report. continuing his criticism of the hospital.

“I spoke on the phone with Dr. Carolyn Crook with Northwest Arkansas Pathology. They were the ones that handled the pathology and the medical director positions at our hospital for 30 years,” Meyer said. “When things blew up last November when an incompetent high school graduate was appointed CEO, things went downhill and they left town fast. They turned in their resignations and said they wouldn’t touch this place with a 10-foot pole, having someone like that as a CEO. I mean, she might be a nice person, but she just does not have the quality, the education and means to do her job properly.

“There’s another thing. The last person that was crowded out of the hospital was one of the 13 people that signed a letter to the commission complaining about problems with the hospital. One by one they have been pushed out for ridiculous reasons. I mean, Becky Burt is a perfect example of that. She should have never lost her job. She’d been there over 20 years. She did a fine job. … They accused her of one thing and then they said she did another thing and then fired her for something completely different. …” Meyer later said that what the hospital is now paying for pathologists is more than four times as much as the amount paid when Crook’s group was in place.

“When those pathologists left that had a 30-year relationship with the hospital, they were only charging the hospital $700 a month. I got this from Carolyn Crook,” he said. “Now, they’re spending $3,000 a month for the pathologists, and then they have to pay extra for the medical director. … “

OTHER COUNCIL BUSINESS City public works director Simon Wiley told the council that his department was scheduled to repair a leak at 12 Main St. downtown on Tuesday, June 10, forcing a row of businesses to be without service for a period of time.

“… We’re going to have to do some excavation to fix that,” he Wiley said. “We were hoping that we could shut the water off [Monday] and fix it real quick. But, there were some issues getting that done. So, we pushed it back until [Tuesday].

Water would have to be turned off from Mud Street Cafe to the Grand Central hotel, Wiley said.

“Today we went door to door and we’ll probably do that again [Tuesday] and try to make sure everybody knows what’s going on down there,” he said.

The plan was to have the service off during the slower time of the day for businesses affected, Wiley told council members.

Public works is hiring for a deputy director, with a starting salary of approximately $60,000 and a tech position, which will start somewhere between $16 to $20 an hour, Wiley said.

“For the tech position, somebody with some construction background and that is a problem-solver,” he said. “We have to figure out problems pretty quick on the fly, so we have to be a pretty fast problem-solvers.

“The deputy position will be more of a management position. We have a lot of big projects coming up. Well, a couple of great big projects coming up with Black Bass Dam and the sewer plant rehabilitation project. So they’ll pretty much be my right-hand person to deal with some of those projects and then deal with day-to-day operations.”

The council also approved a proclamation read by Berry saying June was “Pride Month” in Eureka Springs.

“The city of Eureka Springs recognizes the importance in promoting a diverse and inclusive community where all residents feel valued and respected,” Berry read from the proclamation. “The LGBTQ-plus community has played a vital role in shaping our society and enriching our cultural landscape. … Whereas June is the time to celebrate the history, achievements, and ongoing struggle for the equality of the LGBTQ-plus community, the city of Eureka Springs is committed to fostering a welcome and affirming environment. For all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity … “We encourage all residents to embrace the diversity, celebrate inclusivity, and stand in solidarity with our LGBTQ-plus neighbors in their ongoing pursuit of equality and acceptance. We affirm our commitment to creating a community where every resident can live freely, authentically, and with dignity, and where all voices are heard and valued.”

‘MR. MEYER ACCOSTED ME’

Resident Stacey Humphreys told council members during public comments that she was recently “screamed” at by Meyer over a sign issue at her property.

“My husband and I bought two homes here in Eureka Springs approximately one year ago, a forever home,” Humphreys said. “… There was something about Eureka that drew us here. For us, it is eclectic, magical, inclusive and welcoming, every time we visit it.

“That is until my interaction with Mr. Harry Meyer, the man sitting next to you on the dais. Our homes are on the hill at the intersection of Flint and Jackson Street, behind the Grand Central hotel. When we bought the homes, there were multiple no-parking signs along the property lying adjacent to both Flint and Jackson Street. We went and did our survey, and the property in front of those two homes are indeed ours. So therefore, I placed a sign because I couldn’t get any parking. Whenever I came back and put a sign that said towing will be involved, several weeks ago, Mr. Meyer accosted me over those signs. He yelled at me, screamed at me, demanded that I remove those signs, telling me that they were illegal, that I can’t have towing.”

An investigation was then started into her possibly violating the city sign ordinance, Humphreys said.

“I subsequently learned that at his behest, an investigation was initiated on our violation of sign ordinances and short-term rental ordinances,” she said. “That investigation concluded that we, in fact, do not violate any code, ordinance or law. The day that we had the issue where he drove up and started screaming at me, I said to him: ‘Let’s start over. My name is Stacey. What is yours?’ You decided to yell again and get the parking sign and drive up that hill very fast. I’m not sure where my signs went. I can’t blame anybody. But my signs disappeared at that moment.

“That is some welcome in Eureka Springs. A council member screaming at me like I was a child in public. And, then behind my back … sent out an investigation on me for alleged illegal actions. I wonder if Mr. Meyer would have taken the same actions he did on me that day if it was my husband. I think not; bullies don’t act like that. They only act that way to those that they perceive are weaker than they are. Well, Mr. Meyer made a serious error in judgment, I am not weak.”

Meyer did not address Humphreys’ comments during the meeting.