JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - When they left at the end of last year, the top three executives at Bartlett Regional Hospital were paid a total of nearly $300,000 in severance costs.
The city-owned hospital paid its former chief financial officer Ken Brough almost $141,000 in severance pay, health insurance and retirement, the Juneau Empire (https://is.gd/rZz0hK ) reported. Brough left at the end of December after a little more than a year on a job that paid $200,000 yearly salary.
Former hospital CEO Christine Harff left with more than $47,000 in severance pay and health insurance. The annual salary for Harff had been $262,500.
Human resources director Norma Adams, whose annual salary was $138,350, ended her employment with more than $90,000 in severance pay and health insurance.
Harff and Adams announced their resignations in September. Brough announced his resignation two months later.
The three executives worked at Bartlett for about one year.
The amounts are noted in separation agreements obtained by the newspaper through an open records request.
Hospital board President Kristen Bomengen said the board is responsible for hiring the hospital CEO, and it negotiated Harff’s separation agreement. Harff hired Brough and was responsible for creating the severance agreements of Brough and Adams, Bomengen said.
City and hospital spokeswoman Mila Cosgrove said the city was not involved at all in the separation agreements with Adams and Brough.
Bomengen said the three executives voluntarily left the hospital, to her knowledge. Severance in the health care industry is commonly paid to top officials regardless of how the person leaves their position, Bomengen and Cosgrove said.
“It costs money to run a hospital and to manage it well,” Bomengen said.
The employment contracts state the three would have to pay back relocation costs if they left before stipulated times. In their separation agreements, the three were forgiven repayment of those expenses.
Hiring the right person for job is always a challenge, especially with Juneau’s isolation, rain and seasonal darkness, Cosgrove said.
“You do the absolute best job you can when you hire people, and you don’t always get a home run,” she said.
Some Juneau Assembly members said they want to know details about the separation agreements and how the terms were determined. Among them is Assemblyman Randy Wanamaker.
“We need to understand what happened here,” Wanamaker said. “This is a public-policy matter for the city and for Bartlett.”
The hospital is now receiving human resources services from a city department, through a shared services agreement that was recently approved.
The hospital plans to hire an interim chief financial officer, and once a permanent CEO is brought in, that person would hire a permanent CFO, Bomengen said.
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Information from: Juneau (Alaska) Empire, https://www.juneauempire.com
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