Editor

I’m voting for Georgia Gardner. Here’s why:

1) Experience: Georgia knows the job. She is a certified public accountant and 20-year business owner. She’s also put in 19 years doing government finance and budgets. Her extensive background in public and community service makes her ideal for the public hospital, aka critical access hospital, aka community hospital, position 2 that she holds on the board.

2) Ability: Georgia has helped guide Whidbey General through the costly and complicated transition to electronic records keeping as required by the Affordable Care Act. She knew how to get the job done and did it without raising taxes. Bravo Georgia!

3) The hospital’s financial position is good: As a non-profit organization it does not have “income,” it has receipts and expenditures. Sometimes receipts exceed the expenditures and sometimes they don’t. The big computer conversion, which took place over two years, resulted in “expenditures in excess of revenues.” This is still not a loss, it is an investment. No debt was incurred. The hospital saved up the money to pay for it.

4) Resisted affiliation with big hospital corporate: As islanders, we recognize the importance that disaster relief decisions and preparedness be managed locally by us. Selling out to a large hospital corporation would undermine our independence by giving up the decision making to a distant management entity. PeaceHealth Corporation, which is owned by the Catholic Church and managed under the “directives” of Catholic Bishops, made a play for Whidbey General and Island Hospital a few years ago. We islanders responded with a resounding “No.” The reality is that hospital corporations expand and take over smaller hospitals in order to capture the resources of that smaller organization. Affiliation with a large hospital corporation would, quite simply, be a drain on the assets of Whidbey General.

5) Dedication: Georgia Gardner has demonstrated many years of dedicated service to the people of Whidbey Island. Her opponent would like to take her position suggesting, on his many expensive road signs, “new ideas.” He has not been on the island long enough to know that his “new ideas” (read merge with Big Corporate) is really an old idea which island residents are still very much opposed to. We like our community hospital. It is a non-profit entity dedicated to serving the wants and needs of the Whidbey Island community and to provide services to all, regardless of income or insurance.

We can express our appreciation for all Georgia has accomplished by keeping her in the job that she has done so well.

Sincerely,

CAROL KREZ

Clinton