New members appointed to Jackson Health board

June 18--Miami-Dade County commissioners Tuesday appointed two new members to the Public Health Trust, which runs Jackson Health System -- and bucked the advice of a nominating committee that had recommended naming a financial broker and advisor who also has chaired the board of a local children's hospital.

The newly appointed trustees to the seven-member board that governs Miami-Dade's$1.5 billion-a-year public hospital network are Irene Lipof, an incumbent whose term expired in June, and Ralph Patino, an attorney and member of the Democratic National Finance Committee, who specializes in product liability and defending insurance companies. Each was appointed to serve through May 2016.

Lipof, 67, first joined Jackson's board in 2013 as a labor union appointee. She received the second-most votes from the hospital board's nominating committee, which met in May to vet the candidates.

Patino, 57, is a board member of the Mourning Family Foundation. He received the third-highest number of votes from the nominating committee.

In selecting Lipof and Patino, however, county commissioners passed over the nominating committee's top pick: Peter Bermont, 69, who chairs the hospital system board's pension plan subcommittee, and is a former chairman and board member of Miami Children's Hospital.

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