By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
jonathan@wdnweb.com
Staff Writer
Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson on Thursday evening blamed the “Washington Daily News’ crappy press” for his recent decision to request law-enforcement escorts after a public meeting.
“I asked for law enforcements escorts,” he said.
Asked why he made this request, Richardson stated, “Because of the Washington Daily News’ crappy press.”
He did not elaborate.
Richardson made this announcement after pointing his finger at a Daily News reporter and accusing the newspaper of costing Beaufort County money, evidently on the basis of what he perceived as personal animus toward him.
While he didn’t clarify these remarks, it seemed the elected official was referring to a decision by Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tenn., to withdraw its offer to lease Beaufort Regional Health System for 30 years and $30 million.
The health-care entity took its offer out of the running this week, citing pending legal action by two Beaufort County residents against the county commissioners and the BRHS Board of Commissioners.
On Monday, Superior Court Judge Walter H. Godwin Jr. issued a temporary injunction barring the county commissioners from “voting on the transfer of” BRHS or Beaufort County Medical Center and its facilities for 10 days “or until further proceedings can be heard in this matter.”
In a letter announcing its withdrawal, CHS also cited public response to the BRHS board’s 5-4 endorsement of the health-care provider as a partner for the local health system.
Richardson is a member of the BRHS board. He voted in favor of accepting the CHS offer.
Early this week, it was announced Richardson would be the speaker at the Beaufort County Conservative Republicans’ meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Mount Olive College satellite campus west of Washington.
It was said Richardson was slated to speak about the hospital issue.
Richardson had told a member of the media that, although the conservative group’s gatherings normally aren’t announced to the press, this week’s session was an open meeting.
Asked if his announcement about asking for a law-enforcement escort was the reason he invited the media to Thursday’s meeting, Richardson replied by saying, “I did not ask you here. No one asked you here.”
Told that an invitation had been issued to the Daily News, he said, “From who?”
With that, the newspaper chose not to cover this private event.
A writer for the Beaufort Observer, a news-and-opinion website that has been associated with Richardson, was present at the meeting.
At last report, most county commissioners had received several petitions supporting BRHS affiliation with Greenville-based University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina.
These petitions were signed by approximately 655 people. The petitions were presented to the county commissioners during their regular monthly meeting Monday night.
UHS is one of two suitors whose offers still are being considered by the BRHS board. The other suitor is LHP Hospital Group of Plano, Texas.
Some people signed the petitions on behalf of their spouses, and some of the signatures were duplicates. All of the signatures couldn’t be verified immediately.
The signatures turned in Monday were submitted after the public release of a poll and a petition circulated earlier to employees of BRHS.
Accounting for the BRHS employees’ signatures, around 800 to 900 signatures have been collected on various papers favoring a UHS partnership.
Some county commissioners also have reported being barraged by e-mails, telephone calls and in-person contacts from concerned residents, most of whom prefer affiliation with UHS.
The county commissioners will have final say over any lease, purchase or other type of outside arrangement with BRHS because the county owns the hospital buildings.
Contributing Writer Betty Mitchell Gray contributed to this story.