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CHCC board adjust quorum to 2
The Commonwealth Health Care Corp. convened yesterday with only two board members. (Erwin Encinares)
Despite having only two board members, the Commonwealth Health Care Corp. board insists it still has a quorum that would allow it to make decisions for the corporation. The CHCC board usually consists of five members.
CHCC board chair Lauri Ogumoro was joined by lone Saipan representative Polly Masga yesterday for a board meeting that discussed matters related to CHCC chargemaster updates.
When asked if the two board members were enough to form a quorum—which means the least number of board members needed to make any decisions made at a meeting valid—special assistant attorney general and board legal counsel Nancy Gottfried clarified that the bylaws were adjusted with the intention to allow the CHCC board to operate without the regular quorum of three members.
“…We have an emergency provision in the bylaws that, when there are fewer board members than required for a quorum, then the quorum is adjusted accordingly,” she said in an interview.
In this case, the quorum was adjusted to only two.
“…This is a hospital and we need our medical staff to be privileged and credentialed,” Gottfried said, adding that it was also a Center for Medicaid/Medicare Services requirement for safety-net hospitals.
“…The board is the final body that makes that determination [adjusting the quorum numbers]. If the board cannot make that determination, the hospital cannot continue to function,” she said.
The emergency provision yesterday took effect as only two members of the supposedly five-member board remain.
“We look forward to the Senate to act on the nominations of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres,” Ogumoro noted.
Torres nominated last April 5 Corrine H. Santos to serve as the Tinian representative on the CHCC board He appointed Elizabeth A. Paeda as the Rota representative last April 11, 2019. Both nominations are pending with the Senate Executive and Government Investigations Committee.
Previous Tinian representative William M. Cing vacated his position in January 2019, while Rota representative Dr. Larry Hocog resigned last year.
Torres has yet to appoint a third Saipan representative on the CHCC board.
