Cambria voters have to make right health care board’s blunder

At the Cambria Community Healthcare Board’s special meeting Sept. 21 — and there is no pretty way to put it — the CCHD Board majority (trustees Kristi Jenkins, Bob Putney and Mary Ann Meyer) let us all down miserably.

The issue: Filling recently deceased CCHD Trustee Mike McLaughlin’s vacant seat. The candidates: Dr. Laurie Mileur, a highly educated health care professional with superior credentials and more than 35 years of health care experience versus Jerry Wood, who has no discernible health care experience whatsoever.

The hearing: Overwhelming support of Dr. Mileur by approximately 100 Cambrians (nobody spoke in support of Mr. Wood) and compelling arguments by trustee Barbara Bronson Gray (the sole vote for Mileur) established Dr. Mileur as the only sensible choice.

The crazy decision: The board majority selected Wood, in what appeared to be a prearranged result.

The solution: We have the opportunity to set this straight. At the November election, vote for trustee Gray and Shirley Bianchi to defeat Jenkins and Wood. That’s right — Jenkins and the CCHD Board majority selected Wood as a trustee, circumventing us voters. The board majority’s decision is not only inexplicable, it was undemocratic. Vote for Bronson Gray and Bianchi for CCHD trustees.

This story was originally published October 22, 2016 at 9:16 PM with the headline "Cambria voters have to make right health care board’s blunder."