By Shobha Rao
The El Camino Hospital District board of directors July 12 agreed on a 2000-2001 fiscal year budget, then turned its attention toward Richard Warren’s successor as the hospital’s chief administrator.
The budget estimate, presented by CFO Marla Gularte, projects a total expenditure of approximately $184 million. This includes all operating costs, non-operating costs and costs of capital for the District, Hospital and Foundation. Last year’s expenses were a little more than $182 million.
Next, the board discussed the selection process for the district’s new CEO. According to board member Dominick Curatola, the search began with the formation of an “ad hoc CEO committee.” The ad hoc committee comprises Curatola, board member Mark O’Connor and Saul Eisenstat, who joined on July 12. Once this committee was formed, along with Warren, they retained the services of an executive search firm, Witt-Kieffer, based in Emeryville. The firm specializes in recruiting executive-level health-care professionals.
The firm first conducted an “organizational assessment” of the district. According to Elaina Genser, senior vice president of Witt-Kieffer, the assessment involved “meeting with various people … a cross section of the organization … to gain input and find out what kind of person (the district) needs in their next leader.”
The committee and search firm is charged with creating a preliminary list of criteria for the CEO selection. This will help the firm to identify candidates and match their qualifications with district needs. Once the candidates are finalized, they will be presented to the committee, at which time the entire board will conduct interviews and extend any offers.
O’Connor emphasized that the committee was “not only striving to select the best CEO possible, but also to set up a precedent for selecting (future) CEOs.”
Curatola added that “no one is being encouraged or discouraged from applying for the position,” and that no predetermination had been made in the selection process.
Curatola’s comment stemmed from recent questions regarding last month’s resignation of board member Paul Hoar.
Hoar, who is considering vying for the CEO position, resigned due to conflict-of-interest issues.
Some hospital insiders expressed concern that he remained on the board until after the search firm had been selected.
Some wondered whether there might be any favoritism that will be shown towards Hoar as candidates are chosen.
When the search firm was questioned as to whether their selection process would be influenced, Genser said, “absolutely not.” Responding to the concern, board member Edward Bough said “the rumors floating around are baseless.”
The board hopes to have a final candidate by the time Warren steps down in September.
