I saw Mike Ford of Precinct 2 this morning, who is also president of the Dr Roger Marks Foundation. I had questioned whether any money raised by the foundation, of which Gary Marks also sits on the board, had raised money for or otherwise donated to the Glen Rose Medical Foundation dba Glen Rose Medical Center. Ford told me that, while the Marks Foundation has been involved with scholarship money, it has not given any money to the GRMF or GRMC. That settles the question of whether he should recuse himself from a vote, as it shows that the foundation doesn't have monetary ties to the GRMF. I have to admit I'm relieved to hear this, as I have admired and respected Mr Ford's active participation as a county commissioner. Update #2- I found, on the SOS website, the purpose of the creation of the Roger E Marks Foundation. The purpose of the Roger E Marks foundation belies the words of Mr Ford. Update #3- In fact, a new brochure sent out at the end of Feb 2009 shows that the Roger E Marks foundation's purpose is definitely to fund procurement for the Glen Rose Medical Center, which is a dba for the GRMF. My questions regarding a conflict of interest rear up again.

I wanted to know what would happen if, for whatever reason, the Glen Rose Medical Foundation could not pay back the Certificate of Obligation (approx 14.5 million dollars) that was loaned to the GRMF in March/April of this year. After all the payments are approximately 750,000 per year. Ford said that is already currently being taken care of through our taxes and is budgeted for. That settles that concern about whether, if the Glen Rose Medical Foundation aka Glen Rose Medical Center went out of business, we the taxpayers would get a sudden dramatic raise in taxes.UPDATE: hub reminded me that, in fact, we DID get a large increase in county taxes in September of 2008.  So it's not as if it's the same level as taxes BEFORE the county took on the CO.

Along that line, I asked about the earmarks that Chet Edwards has gotten for the Glen Rose Medical Center in the past and is planning to again. IN the earmark list I saw, the recipient was not Somervell County but the GRMC. Should Somervell County take back the building, land and equipment they already own in the case of a hospital, any hospital, going out of business, that would include any earmark money. That is, apparently the earmark list is an informal one, but the particulars should say that the earmark, which has gone for hospital expansion, is actually to Somervell County.

Readers know that i contacted the Texas Attorney General's office to ask about whether the elected board could contract with a private foundation to run the hospital and keep the private foundation's records private. The answer was no, that the information would be public record. I actually agree with the idea that, particularly for a hospital, having people that understand its operation is important-but it cannot be secretive. That said, I think a good idea is to get people elected to the hospital board who would want to put out the operation of the hospital for bids and other qualifications. Does this mean that the GRMC/GRMF might not be the best entity to contract with the hospital district? No, but it does mean that deciding to use them automatically without looking round and opening up the process ought not to be a given.

I still wonder about the Rose Beck/Glen Rose Health Care Partnership. It's supposed to be a private company but it isn't listed, at all, on the Secretary of State's website. In the Bosque County News of Jan 28 2009 she says that the GRMC will provide support for the operation of the home and plans to operate a clinic there. As I mentioned before, I was told by a current board member that the elected hospital district taxpayers would be paying for that-I don't agree that our taxes should go to support clinics outside the county line. (Maybe the question is-will even one dime of taxpayer money go in support of the clinics). I certainly don't have a problem with the Glen Rose Medical Center aka Foundation doing this as a private company that isn't using taxpayer money-as the lessee on the Somervell County grounds, building and equipment, as long as they pay their lease (and now the CO) to Somervell County, they can be private and do as they like. But once they are taxpayer funded, I don't think one dime should go to the clinics outside the county and I believe that they should have to prove, via all documentation, that that is the case.