Council gets an earful in a timely manner

Public Comments took the reins, from former Eureka Springs Hospital employee Richard Webb asking again for investigation because “a lot of good people, former and current employees, as well as members of this community have been hurt and lost everything they worked for.”

Samantha Webb yielded part of her three minutes to former ESH employee Tina Adams, who commented, “I have not given up fighting for the dismissal of Jodi Edmonson and Cynthia Asbury for violence in the workplace and retaliation.”

Adams yielded the remainder her time to April German. Preceding German, her husband, Aaron Mayfield, stepped up to introduce himself before yielding the rest of his time to his wife.

Mayor Butch Berry put a stop to the time-sharing. “We don’t do continuing yielding, to allow somebody thirty minutes to discuss something.” German was told her time would be limited to three minutes.

“I am the technical director of Lab Connections, a medical laboratory consulting firm,” she said. “We were initially contacted by a representative of Eureka Springs on November 22 of last year. A regulatory censure had been levied by our consult department of health and human services against the hospital, and they were at imminent risk of losing the ability to provide public health services.

“Lab Connections contracted with the hospital to supply interim laboratory management services. During this time, I collaborated with health and human services to resolve immediate regulatory violations, worked with industry contacts to staff the lab with certified competent operators, obtained qualified pathologists and lab director services, and worked with health and human services for an extension and a waiver.

“These accomplishments did not include day-to-day management duties such as inventories, scheduling, training, interviewing, vendor communication, QCQA reviews, and oversight of daily operations, as well as callback coverage, which I covered the all-up hospital of over 24 hours on one day. I personally stepped in and performed normal bench work and kept the lab stable for three months.

“I’m here to address the fact that they have unpaid my invoice for services rendered from the date of the lab in February, at the close of our contract.

“So far, this invoice has been ignored. This reflected significant on-site and off-site work that goes into the whole development of blood bank, quality control, competencies, staffing, training, and entire months of work as long as well as completing an audit, the first audit of the year.

“The other matter is that there were false allegations of a data breach at the hospital commission meeting on April 1, 2025. I was contacted by a Pinnacle IT security officer who accused me of a data breach [on a] virtual private network. We never connected our computer and the hospital computers via a virtual private network.

“We did have a virtual machine and that is in our contract that was signed by the interim CEO at the time of the execution of the contract on November 22. We have set that up with Pinnacle IT. We have phone documentation showing that they worked with us to set that up. With the security officer calling me after hours on her cell phone, the whole interaction was inappropriate, unprofessional, and procedurally fought. I was not formally notified violating HIPAA’s requirements under Chapter 45 of the code…”

Moving into new business, Resolution 884, setting forth reporting requirements of the hospital commission was assigned, mandating the ability for city council to request additional or more frequent reporting from the hospital commission.

A resolution was approved to apply for the Arkansas Community Assistance Grant Program so that ESH could purchase a non-emergency transport van. Aldermen expressed concern with the specs of the van, grant conditions, and financial impact.

Interim City Attorney Justin Eichmann expounded on the rising trend in cities of BLS (Basic Life Support) vs. ALS (Advanced Life Support) transport vehicles due to the high costs of paramedical services. ESH relies on local ambulances to transport patients to hospitals throughout the region, a potential conundrum when the city’s three ambulances are occupied.

Alderman Rachael Moyer brought discussion of hospital commission to the agenda. 

“In listening to the last hospital commission meeting it occurred to me that there may be a misunderstanding, and I wanted to take this opportunity to set that straight at least from my perspective. I wanted to take this opportunity to recognize the hospital operational staff, the chief of staff, the doctors, the nurses, the technical staff. I think you’ve got highly trained individuals in place, even if they are contract employees. They are highly professional, and I thank them for their service and professionalism. To clarify, my concern… is with not the operational staff but specifically with the commission, the commission’s lack of financial stewardship and the hospital administration’s leadership.

“From July 2024 to May 2025, the hospital bank balance has dropped by $2.5 million. So if you look at the second page on the handout, that’s marked as $2.5 million. Now the P&L shows a loss of $465,000 for the same time period… with nearly a year of data, we would expect that these two amounts start to approach each other. Instead, we have a difference here of over $2 million.

“This is alarming and my question is, where’s the money? How was the money spent? The fact that we have yet to receive a balance sheet, which is the very piece of data that would help us to understand where that money was spent, is highly concerning that we have not been able to access that information. Why? Why has that not been provided? You have a CFO on staff, on salary, you should be able to develop a balance sheet and that can be shared. My question is, is it shared with the commission? Does the commission have questions about where that money is? Do you have questions about where that money is? Does anybody else have questions about where $2 million is?”

Moyer turned to patient visitation data that was presented at the last commission meeting, saying the commission claims visitation to be primarily local but that implying that all Arkansas residents are being considered local.

“Under the current administration, Miss Martin’s leadership, specifically 86 percent of the $2.5 million has been spent. It seems to me as though the argument is that the money is required to be spent to get them out of some situation. My concern is it’s $2.5 million and our patient revenue is lower than ever. Our patient visitation is lower than ever.

“Look at the trend analysis that I did last week. There’s an obvious cycle here and we should be in our peak season and we’re not. We’re lower than we have been in the five years of data available.

“We just agreed to at least a quarter of a million dollars in a CEO salary. And that leaves us technically speaking with one and a half million dollars left in the bank to spend. That is nowhere near what’s being presented by the commission.”

Moyer added, “I think it’s human nature to question other people’s motives. And I think this is why it’s so important in government to have transparency. For a government to run properly, there needs to be transparency. It is the lack of transparency from the commission that is creating this entire issue, in my opinion.”

Aldermen discussed at length and requested motions be made.

Moyer motioned “that we demand financials as labeled in the resolution for the years 2024 and 25 to be provided immediately.” She then motioned, “to order a review and a reconciliation of that financial data to be done as soon as possible, by a third party professional.”

Both motions were unanimously approved.

Other business

• During the city budget workshop on Monday, Financial Director Michael Akins reported that in April, sales tax revenue totaled $197,094.68—a $14,000 drop from the previous year. May numbers reflected an uptick, totaling $313,000—up $32,000 over the previous year.
• Akins explained that the city prepares three budgets per year; an initial budget, mid-year review, and a “clean-up” budget. Each is prepared by Akins in collaboration with department heads, then voted on by council..
• Berry announced vacancies on the CAPC, HDC, and put forward consideration of Willie Daniels for placement on the hospital commission.
• Alderman Steve Holifield said he was hesitant to approve Mr. Daniels because he has been unable to reach him, after trying every day for two weeks. Alderman Harry Meyer seemed surprised, saying he’d had a lengthy conversation with Daniels just a few days after the last council meeting. Meyer believed Daniels to be qualified for the position but said he understood Holifield’s viewpoint. A motion was approved to defer until next meeting.
• Public Works Director Simon Wiley reported the Carroll-Boone Water District was having communication issues with the level at the Passion Play Water Tower, thus the city had been filling the tower manually. Wiley said to let them know if anyone on the East side notices low water pressure.
• Resolution No. 884, a resolution setting forth the reporting requirements of the hospital commission was assigned, mandating the ability for city council to request additional or more frequent reporting from the hospital commission.
• Meyer pointed to the difficulty of the hospital subject as “many of us are friends and neighbors.”
• Holifield announced the upcoming CAPC meeting and marketing workshop and reminded the public of ongoing historical cemetery tours (each Saturday @11 a.m., where $20 tickets raise funds for the cemetery.