Open Agenda TV S3 E51 Emergency Legislation Passes to Protect Nursing Home

You're watching Open Agenda, here's your host, Mike Goldberg.

Welcome to Open Agenda.

I'm your host, Mike Goldberg, joined today by Joe White and Joe Venosa.

Our topic of discussion today is going to be the county council meeting that was held

on September 15th.

Emergency legislation was passed and this will help to ensure that the nursing home

can operate going into the future.

We're going to bring you a lot of video footage from that meeting.

There's many hours of it.

We're going to condense it down in this episode to the highlights, but if you would like to

see the council meeting in its entirety, you can always tune into PAC-14 either on YouTube

or through the cable channel itself.

So if you gentlemen could stick with us, we're going to roll some footage from the meeting

and we'll be back shortly thereafter and we'll talk about it.

We will be back in just a minute.

Stick with us.

You're watching Open Agenda.

We're here on public hearing on emergency legislative bill number 2026-11.

It's an emergency act to add chapter 49 to the Wicomico County Code, entitled Nursing

Home to Establish Rules and Regulations on the Operation of the Wicomico County Nursing

Home, the Appointment of an Administrator for the Nursing Home and the Establishment

of a Nursing Home Commission to Aid in Maintaining Good Government.

Thank you, Mr. Benson.

This time we open the floor for a public hearing on legislative bill number 2026-11.

Jim Atkins, Wicomico County District 2.

I know there's been a lot of talk, meetings, and concerns about the nursing home.

However, there's two things that I'd like the council to consider before they vote on

this legislation today.

The first would be section 49.2, where it states the county executive or the county

council, with the affirmative vote of five members of the county council, shall have

the authority to terminate the nursing home administrator.

I'd like the council to consider an amendment to that to be the county executive and/or

county council, and this is the change or addition, with a majority recommendation from

the commission.

Then an affirmative vote of five members of the county council shall have the authority

to terminate the nursing home administrator.

This gives a little bit of power to the commission and lets them notify the council if there

is a problem.

The second item I'd like you to consider is 49.5, which is the membership portion stating

who will be a member of this commission.

I'd also like to suggest that the commission be changed from seven members to eight, with

the eighth member being a non-voting member, and that member being the nursing home administrator

added to that, so that that person is involved in all the meetings that the commission has,

but they do not have a vote, but they are able to educate the commission on topics that

are going on.

Good morning.

Joe Bonosa, District 7, Wicomico County.

You know, some of you know I teach history for a living, and so the phrase "history repeats

itself" sort of grinds our gears because it's sort of considered overly simplistic, but

if you've looked at the nursing home issue in our county, it really is a situation where

history is often repeated itself.

I watched and read the minutes of the November 2018 county council work session where specifically

issues of the nursing home came up then, and I think it's long overdue that we're finally

putting some needed oversight.

This legislation, it's protection for our seniors, it's protection for the staff who

put in the effort to take care of our most vulnerable every day, and more importantly,

it brings a process forward that future councils and future executives can work with.

So I commend the council on making this a priority.

I want to commend Delegate Cherie Sample Hughes as well for her efforts in helping to guide

some of the concepts behind it.

That being said, I would like to point out one specific issue that I just thought might

merit consideration.

This is section 49.2, section D, it's at the very bottom, it says, "The nursing home director

shall fully cooperate and provide all reasonable information requested by the Wicomico Nursing

Home Commission."

I absolutely concur, I just think there has to be some specificity as a timeline for cooperating

with requests, because the concern that I have is that in the future, if there are issues,

it might be a situation where information is just slow-walked, where it's not given

priority and they use that as a loophole to not comply.

Good morning, Wendy Catlin, a resident of Wicomico County.

I've been thinking back over the past six weeks of what-ifs and how things may have

turned out after concerns were brought forth with reference to the Wicomico Nursing Home.

What if our county executive had said, "I've heard your concerns and I will look into the

matter."

That didn't happen.

The very next day, August 5th, she made a statement to the Baltimore Sun, and I quote,

"The nursing home has become a talking point in local politics."

Now I was at the August 4th council meeting, and what I heard was one person after another

talk of how the new administrator had come in and turned the place upside down.

Everything they were doing was wrong, everything the past administrator had done was wrong,

and how she was going to straighten it all out.

I heard concerns of being short-staffed and how this potentially could and would affect

the precious souls who live there.

I heard of intimidation, and I heard of resignations, and yes, some terminations.

I have thought, what if the new administrator had come in and said, "We will all work together

to keep Wicomica Nursing Home the number one long-term care facility in Salisbury and the

lower eastern shore of Maryland."

That didn't happen.

What if the county executive had not sent her two henchmen, Steve Lakin and Cora Houston,

over to the nursing home immediately to run interference for the new administrator?

Instead of them going in and saying, "We are here to help," rather than belittle, berate,

and bully the employees on a daily basis.

One, if not both of them, have been there almost every day since this began.

If this administrator is so highly qualified and doing amazing things, then how come she

needs to have someone there holding her hand every day?

What if at her press conference, the county executive and Mr. Lakin had said, "We have

looked at the financials and realized there is a huge amount of money due the nursing

home, and know this has been an issue since it was raised at the November 20, 2018, council

meeting and several times since, and we are here to help the Wicomica Nursing Home try

and recoup some of this."

No, that didn't happen.

Instead, it was statement after statement of what a terrible job the past administrator

had done.

What if at the town hall meeting, the new administrator, who was invited to attend,

had come and tried to answer some questions or talk of concerns the community had, instead

of leaving the county executive to face the many, many people in attendance?

Good morning.

My name is Joe White.

I'm from Wicomica County.

I'm here today to support the emergency legislation, not in its entirety, but in the fact that

you're here to pass this today.

There are some things I'd like for you to consider as you're about to go through your

public deliberations, and one amendment I'd like for you to consider.

The nursing home emergency legislation should be about several items, and we need to make

sure we don't lose sight of this.

We need to protect the residents who call it home, now and in the near future.

We do need to protect the county taxpayers from the liability, the lawsuits.

It can come from a lot of areas.

We've heard possibly from patients, possibly from the director herself.

We heard that from the county executive.

We need to make sure that the county taxpayers are not stepping into a quagmire.

We also have heard from the deputy director of administration that there is financial

concerns, and referencing, as some other folks have as well, the 2018 council meeting from

November, there was a loan made back at that time that has still not been paid back.

We do need to be accountable to the taxpayers of how we're going to approach the nursing

home.

I thought Dr. Vinosa actually brought up a good point.

If you're going to talk about audits, there needs to be timelines.

We've seen this in the last two years, although that wasn't something that I was considering.

I thought that that was an excellent point.

The one that I wanted to talk about was 49.2, which Mr. Atkins brought up, and he had an

interesting perspective that I hadn't thought of.

I don't think the county council should blanket have the ability to fire the nursing home

director simply with a five to two vote, but it's not there for any other department.

But if there is a commission, and it was agreed back in 2018 there should be a commission,

and I've heard the county executive support having a commission, and the commission, much

like planning and zoning, may want to do something, then I do think it should be considered.

I thought Mr. Atkins had an excellent point.

The other thing from 2018 that was brought up at that meeting, that work session, was

about modernizing the nursing home.

From a business standpoint, if you're going to have something that could be an asset or

a liability, and in eight years we've not had a comprehensive plan to update it or turn

part of it into an assisted living facility, why we're looking at there only being two-thirds

of the bids taken.

When my grandmother was there years ago, that's where she wanted to go, she had to wait for

a bed.

So if this was a restaurant, we'd be asking why aren't we filling up all the tables.

So I do think we need to consider that.

Good morning, council.

My name is Monica Brooks, president of Wacomico County NAACP and also a resident, of course,

of Wacomico County.

I do agree that we need to make this plan comprehensively, that this is for the betterment

of all of our community and everyone should be encouraged to support.

From what was mentioned and what I've seen here, this nursing home has never been a priority

for the county executive, who has now had their deputy administrator or their HR person

almost every day, which I don't know what their role is in there, they're not administrators.

It is very easy for people to dismiss important matters, especially as they relate to the

vulnerable populations, as political.

There is absolutely nothing political about this.

Good morning.

I'm Delegate Cherise Ample-Hughes.

First and foremost, I'd like to say thank you to the county council for taking up this

emergency legislation and making sure it was an emergency, because it is an emergency.

Contrary to some people's beliefs and thoughts, no establishment should have to have an exit

of about 17, 18 people within three months.

The statement has been made about whether or not the state has been involved.

Yes, the state has been involved.

The Office of Healthcare Quality, they conducted their assessment, came in, did investigations,

and there are some deficiencies.

And yes, they need to be resolved and there will be a timeline.

The state will come back and conduct those assessments and see if they've been improved.

Also, the Department of Labor was contacted by an employee due to some health occupational

hazards that were taking place so that individual could do their job properly.

So those things have been underway.

Also, the Administrator Licensing Board has been contacted to discuss the concerns of

the administrator.

So the statement in question may have been, where's the state to this extent?

And to my knowledge, this is where they are, and the county should have copies of that

information.

If not, it should be forthcoming.

In closing, what I will share with you is this.

This is not political for me.

So the county executive, she can continue to talk about me all she wants.

It really has done nothing for me but given me more energy and fuel to keep fighting for

what I've been fighting for.

And I wish, and I know it was stated by a citizen, I wish she had come to the table

as a humble servant and said, "Hey, let me understand.

Let me understand where we are and let's work together."

Stephen Lake, Assistant Director of Administration.

Before I get into my remarks, I just want to say it's not surprising that the character

assassination has been ramped up.

When you can't argue the facts or disprove the facts, you move to discredit people and

that's exactly what's going on today.

It's pure and simple.

It's character assassination, just what some of you have done to Tina Foskey.

There is no emergency at the Wicomico Nursing Home, yet this council is poised to pass emergency

legislation.

And you've inserted yourselves into a matter that according to the Department of Law, you

likely have no legal standing.

Worse yet, you've rebuffed our overtures to meet with you privately to discuss these matters

and a majority of you have not even set foot in the nursing home since Tina has been administrator.

As far as this legislation is concerned, we support the concept of an advisory board,

but we should take the appropriate time to identify and vet individuals for these important

positions and not rush to meet some arbitrary contrived deadline.

Emergency legislation should be reserved for actual emergencies.

We especially take exception with the provision to terminate the nursing home administrator

by a five to two vote, to advocate for her removal and to be clear, this is exactly what

you're doing.

Where's the righteous indignation before Tina Foley was the administrator?

We've proven again and again, these issues have existed for years, none of this seems

to matter.

It doesn't seem to matter that state mandated nursing care standards were not being adhered

to.

It doesn't seem to matter that the nursing home has been cited and fined by the state

for many, many years.

Facts are the facts, everything else is fiction.

So we agree on many parts of this bill.

We agree on the advisory board.

We agree that the nursing home needs to work with the board and that the board should meet

once a month.

We agree that any future administrator should go through the executive appointment and council

confirmation.

But my two biggest concerns, and they've been actually brought up here, is that number one,

this council being able to terminate the administrator with just a five to two vote, with no checks

and balances, that violates our charter.

And I'm asking that the council amend that part of the bill.

And number two, just a quick question, and I'm hoping in your discussions that you're

able to answer this.

There's a part of the bill that I had some questions about.

Wacomico County shall hold and operate the Wacomico nursing home, because this raises

some questions.

If the county operates the nursing home, who is legally the operator?

The nursing home entity, the county executive, the county administration, or the county government

collectively?

Does it affect the nursing home's existing corporate or organizational status?

Because the legal consequences of declaring that the county shall operate a licensed health

care facility could extend beyond what the council says it intends.

>> Entertain a motion council approve legislative bill 2026-11.

I know there are some proposed amendments that the council understands need to be addressed

after having discussions with our own legal council, following the introduction of the

legislative bill.

>> The question's at hand, who currently pays the paychecks of the employees?

When I asked that question to the administrator, it was, okay, well, this is a non-profit.

Well, I still don't know the name of the non-profit.

A non-profit typically has an executive director who then also has a board.

So the current problem, the current challenge is that the facility does not have a board.

So the question of -- we're kind of in this little -- this quasi -- this no-man's land

for an organization, and this is why we've come to this position, in which case the county

owns the facility, but the non-profit that hasn't had a functioning board -- I mean,

I looked up on the state website to actually see if they were still a functioning organization,

and the only one that I saw listed, which I still don't know the name of the non-profit,

but the one that I saw listed has been defunct for years.

The other question then is, well, what is the county's involvement?

So is this fully a county facility, where this is a county department, and we own, operate

a nursing home?

Or is this a situation where there's a board, the county just owns the facility?

I say all that to get to the point of -- you know, I asked this question before, is where

is the strategic plan for the Wicomico Nursing Home?

And I don't think there is one.

When was the last time that there was a -- the Wicomico Nursing Home was put into our capital

improvement plan, our CIP?

I don't -- can't even remember that.

What we're trying to do here today is to put oversight where it should have been for a

while.

There should be a board -- if there is -- once again, this gets back to the, if there is

a board, then there -- pardon me, if there is a non-profit, and that's the one that is

running and operating, then there should be a board around them.

So I took the opportunity to go back to 2018, and I think, Paul, you were the county attorney

at the time.

And we had that meeting, it was about an hour and a half, and one of the recommendations

that came up during that meeting was to have a committee or a commission.

And Wayne Stroudsburg was the county administrator at the time, and we never took a solid vote

on it, but it was pretty much a consensus that we would have, you know, that they would

move forward with a commission.

So I guess you can say the ball got dropped, and nothing moved forward on that.

But when the county executive got elected, she hired Wayne Stroudsburg as a consultant

and paid, I think it was $52,000 a year, if the information has been furnished to me correctly.

Is this issue about a nursing home ever brought up by Mr. Stroudsburg, for this $52,000 we

paid him, his being a consultant?

Mr. Lakin, you don't recall Mr. Stroudsburg?

Mr. Hallway, as you know, I've only been here 15 months, so during the time that I've been

here, I have not had that conversation with Mr. Stroudsburg.

Yeah.

I mean, I would think his hiring as a consultant, and as a consultant that had been the county

administrator, he would have had firsthand knowledge of some of the issues that were

going on in the county, and that would have probably come up.

Because I'm going to make an amendment, or maybe somebody else wants to, it doesn't matter

that we do change that 49-2 to give some teeth to the committee.

Putting a committee in a place that has no teeth to it, that no power, if they meet once

a month or twice a month and, you know, they're not happy with the county, with the leadership

at the nursing home, but there's nothing they can do about it.

If they can make a recommendation for dismissal, if that's what they feel needs to be done,

or if they can recommend something to be done, it'll give them more power.

So I'll try to make that amendment when we go, I see we have a list of other amendments.

Currently, right now, if something was to happen at our nursing home, tragic, I don't

want to go into detail, but if anything happens, who's liable for that?

Would that be the nursing home, or would that be the county as a whole?

Well, that's a good question, and I think Josh actually started hitting it on the head

with his comments that the nursing home has been there since 1972 as an entity, we'll

call it, of the county.

One of the things that I think we need to do is to define, much more than it can be

done today, what is the relationship between the county and that nursing home?

It is not clear.

You ask the question, if someone were to sue for an event today, they would probably sue

Wicomico County.

Under section 508 of the county charter, the county executive can appoint for designated

periods one or more advisory boards for the citizens of the county.

So the county executive has authority to have appointed the board for the nursing home,

and it's already in law.

She could have appointed the board six weeks ago, she could have appointed it in 2023,

she hasn't done it.

So the fact, this legislation isn't needed to have her appoint a board, but she hasn't

appointed a board, so the legislation's here to require a board to be appointed.

In answer to Mr. Wynn's question, there is currently no mention in either the charter

or the code of the Wicomico County nursing home.

So we're in an area where we don't have any guidance in writing as to what the relationship

is between the county and the nursing home.

That being said, I found out yesterday that in 2020, the then nursing home administrator

executed a contract for medical testing at the nursing home.

That contract ended up in a lawsuit being filed for over $500,000.

And in that lawsuit, the plaintiff sued, and the only defendant that they sued was Wicomico

County, not the nursing home, Wicomico County.

And in the complaint that was filed, the plaintiff in that case asserted that the defendant owns

and operates the nursing home, owns and operates the nursing home.

And the law department defended that lawsuit, and in the answer that the law department

filed, they admitted that Wicomico County owns and operates the nursing home.

So the law department admits that and says that the nursing home is owned and operated

by Wicomico County.

The law department and the executive settled that lawsuit without notice to the Wicomico

County Council, but they settled it for $400,000.

With regards to the nonprofit thing, it was brought to my attention over the weekend that

the nursing home was a nonprofit.

And I went through a rather enormous amount of paper, and I did find the EIN documentation

that was sent to us a week or so ago where it was written by hand at the top of it, nonprofit.

That's not an official document.

I don't know who wrote it.

That's the only thing I could find that references the nursing home as a nonprofit.

So we don't know what it is.

It's not an agency, it's not a department.

It's got to be something.

Employees don't work for the county, paychecks aren't county paychecks.

They enjoy paying into the county retirement plan, they get county health benefits.

It's like it's in limbo.

We have to fix this.

Sooner the better, not in November, sooner the better.

It should have been fixed weeks ago.

It could have been very easily fixed weeks ago if somebody had sent the council president

or the council an email saying, we got problems, we need to have a work session and work this

out.

That never happened.

As usual, the council finds out from the public.

All those in favor of legislative bill 2026-11 as amended, we'll say aye if you're in favor.

Nay, if you are opposed, it will be a roll call vote.

Councilman Shields?

Aye.

Councilman Ennis?

Aye.

Vice President Merritt?

Aye.

Councilman Holloway?

Aye.

Councilman Hastings?

Aye.

Councilman Winn?

No.

Chair votes aye.

Legislative bill 2026-11 passes as amended by a vote of 6 to 1.

Welcome back to Open Agenda.

Y'all have seen the highlights now of this past week's county council meeting.

Joe, any thoughts?

Well, you know, they went through about 10 amendments total, and it was nice to see the

transparent side of government to see how those inner workings happened.

The public comments, Dr. Venosa made some really good suggestions, I saw Jim Atkins

made some good suggestions, things to consider, they did consider them.

Some of which they passed and some they didn't, but again, I think it just shows that if people

come and participate in government, it, I think, has better outcomes.

I concur with that totally.

I think the importance of transparency that you see in a council meeting you don't get

in any other branch of local government.

You know, citizens can come, regardless of maybe how close they are to an issue, and

they can voice concerns, suggestions, and more importantly, as Joe said, you get to

see the inner workings of government to either improve, you know, bills that they think,

or refine them in ways that are responsive to the public, or even to the legal team.

Or to vote them down.

Or to vote them down, which also happens.

Do y'all see this as being a temporary measure?

I think there's more to be done beyond simply the establishment of a commission.

At some point, I foresee that they will have to create a non-profit corporation where there

will be a board of directors that will govern the operation of the nursing home.

Well, I think there's two things.

One that, I wouldn't say this is temporary, I think it's the first step.

Now, we saw them take some preliminary steps back in 2018.

We played that footage.

So it is up to the next council to see this through.

But there's also going to be some core challenges to this, and because there's part of this

legislation that is put in there that allows the council with a 5-2 vote to remove the

director, we're likely to see a court challenge.

So is it temporary?

No, but I think it's evolving.

When you say a court challenge, do you mean that the county executive is going to file

a suit against the county?

No, what she said was that the current director probably will.

That's what she's alluded to.

Now, we've seen her sue the county council before over appointments, but I imagine somewhere

along the line, there's going to be a court challenge, and the taxpayers are going to

be paying to defend part of this.

What standing would the director have to file a suit?

I'm just going by the public comments that the county executive has made.

I don't understand that part of my statement.

No, I don't.

That being said, I do agree that we have less likelihood of being legally exposed now.

For years, the county was facing a major set of liabilities because of the lack of oversight

of the nursing home and sort of how it was being managed.

So the proof there is, there was a lawsuit, $400,000 was paid out, and shortly thereafter,

the county is loaning the nursing home a little over $400,000.

Back in 2018, this still hasn't been paid back.

So in some ways-

It has happened already.

Well, the taxpayers have already somewhat been on the hook.

Now, it's been the reason why I've supported the legislation, is because at least if you're

going to have taxpayer liability, codify it.

But the confusion about the ownership issues, I think, we're being misled.

The county owns and operates this nursing home.

There is no legal entity such as Wicomico Nursing Home LLC.

That doesn't exist.

To your earlier point, I think this is step one.

There'll be multiple steps, and one of them will be deciding what entity it is.

Yeah, to quote Churchill, "It's the end of the beginning."

That's about all we have time for in this show, folks.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We're going to be back soon with another episode of Open Agenda.

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