Some of you may have used your internet search engine to look for the site called “Transparent California,” where you can find out what the wages and pensions are for public employees. Usually the information is up to date within a year of the time one is searching. For instance, currently Transparent California should have salaries, benefits, and or pensions in dollar value for public employees from the year 2016.
Fairly recently a resident of the Mendocino Coast went to the Transparent California website in search of just this sort of data for Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH). The searcher couldn't find any information for MCDH after entries for the year 2013.
The following is an email sent to Transparent California by that internet searcher,
“Hello. I am a resident in Mendocino Coast Hospital District. I note that your website does not list any information after 2013. The current Mendocino Coast District Hospital [Chief Executive Officer] CEO Bob Edwards states that our hospital has been supplying payroll information to Transparent California each year for 2014, 2015, and 2016. He says he does not know why it is not posted. Is it possible for you to confirm receipt of this information from MCDH? Will it be posted soon?”
Robert Fellner, research director for Transparent California, shared an email he had sent in August 2016 to MCDH's controller:
“I am requesting a copy of Mendocino Coast Hospital District's Employee Compensation Report for the 2015 year under the provisions of California Govt. Code 6250 - 6270, the California Public Records Act.
“Most California agencies find it easiest to respond to this request by producing a copy of the State Controller's Office (SCO) report that includes employee names. Please provide a copy of the working report, or any other combination of records, that contains the compensation data found on the SCO report alongside employee names.
“Alternatively, please provide copies of any other reports or records that contain information responsive to the purpose of this request: employee name in conjunction with their compensation data.
Please provide the requested materials or, per 6253(c), a timeline along which they will be made available by, no later than ten days from the date of this request.”
The bold points of emphasis are apparently that of Mr. Fellner.
This appears to be a clear and detailed request by Mr. Fellner. It prompted the following brief reply from MCDH's controller in 2016:
“I am currently working on the compensation report for the state. I am hoping to be completed at the end of next week.”
That response came five days after Mr. Fellner's original August, 2016 request. However, in response to the citizen's request in December, 2017, nearly a year and a half later, Mr. Fellner stated via email,
“We have never received the 2014, 2015, and 2016 data, despite multiple requests and promises that it would be forthcoming. If there is someone you would recommend we contact, we are happy to try again.”
In other words, according to the citizen attempting to gather the wages and benefits information from Transparent California, the hospital's CEO Bob Edwards claims this information has been sent out for the last three years, but Transparent California, the entity on the receiving end of that information says they have not only not received it, but they have not received it after repeated requests for the payroll info.
Yes, readers, you could chalk this up as just another falsehood springing from Mr. Edwards. There's a more serious caveat here, however. That little thing called the Public Records Act, alluded to by Mr. Fellner in his communication with MCDH, just happens to be part of the law. If we are to take Mr. Fellner at his word, MCDH has violated the Public Records Act not just once but three times over for the years 2014-2016. On top of that, if we take these emails to be true then MCDH's CEO, Bob Edwards, has lied about a failure to comply with the Public Records Act. If you lie to Bob Mueller you may end up with big federal problems. Lie about your failure to comply with the Public Records Act in California and you just might find yourself facing state charges.
At this point readers might wonder why a majority of MCDH's Board of Directors have defended Edwards for so long. For full disclosure on the local end of things, the citizen who delved into the Transparent California matter and contacted Mr. Fellner is the “life partner” of Dr. Peter Glusker, the only current MCDH Board member who has questioned CEO Edwards for some time. Regardless of the identity of the citizen who contacted Transparent California, the refusal to comply with the Public Records Act, withholding three year's worth of payroll information from the public, and lying about it is a potentially damning collection of evidence against CEO Edwards.
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