Grand Traverse Pavilions will pay for meeting video

May 2--TRAVERSE CITY -- A county-owned nursing home will pick up the tab to videotape its board meetings, even after a memo from the facility's CEO opposed the move as one that encouraged "grandstanding" and restrained frank discussion.

No date for when the payment would begin was set, and Grand Traverse Pavilions CEO Kory Hansen said he doubted there was public interest in the group's decision-making process.

"To my knowledge there isn't any widespread request that this is something the community is asking for," Hansen said Monday during a meeting of the county's Health and Human Services board.

"I question going down this road based on one person who isn't even a Grand Traverse County citizen," he added.

The "one person" Hansen referenced is Andrea "Andi" Gerring, who said she began attending HHS board meetings in June 2018, after her mother was admitted to the facility.

Gerring lives in Antrim County and she and her sister, Claudia Bruce, moved their mother out of the Pavilions and into another local care facility earlier this year.

The Pavilions is owned by Grand Traverse County, operated by the county's DHHS board and is subject to the Open Meetings Act. With more than 400 employees and beds for more than 300 residents, it is one of the largest nursing homes in the state.

Gerring proposed in 2018 the DHHS videotape its meetings and upload them to the government tv section of Traverse Area Community Media's website. TACM archives many governmental meetings on its site, and makes them available for free to the public.

After the board voted down the proposal March 21, 2018, Gerring hired an independent videographer and paid a $50 monthly recording fee out of her own pocket. DHHS board meeting minutes show she has been trying to get the board to change their minds and foot the bill ever since.

"I thought the purpose of the public meetings was to give the community a platform," Gerring said Monday, during the first public comment period at the DHHS board meeting.

The meeting was call-in only and all three board members -- Chair John Rizzo, Vice-Chair Cecil McNally and Ralph Soffredine -- were on the call, along with Hanson, Chief Operating Officer for Clinical Services Rose Coleman and Chief Financial Officer J. Lindsey Dood.

Others on the call included Gerring, Bruce, Grand Traverse County resident Linda Pepper, Grand Traverse County Commissioners Ron Clous and Gordie La Pointe, and several callers who introduced themselves simply as, "Pavilions staff."

Without videoconferencing, Pepper said, it was impossible for meeting attendees to know who was speaking.

"Why not Zoom?" she asked, referencing the popular videoconferencing software program, the use of which has become ubiquitous during the pandemic.

La Pointe said County IT Director Cliff DuPuy warned commissioners earlier this month that Zoom was vulnerable to security breaches, and suggested another program, Webex, which the county ultimately adopted.

Webex offers various pricing plans depending on features desired and number of participants, information on its website shows.

A "small teams" plan that includes videoconferencing, cloud storage and recording for up to 50 participants is $13.50 a month.

DHHS board members have previously expressed concerns about cost and computer storage capability.

Hanson's memo gave several non-financial reasons for opposing the videotaping proposal, including lack of public interest, lack of precedence and that the facility, while public, received no millage funding.

"A county medical care facility is not equivalent to a county, township or municipal government that make public policy decisions and conducts the people's business utilizing public funds," Hanson wrote to the board. "What the county does should not be used as an equivalent basis for Pavilions operations."

The Grand Traverse Pavilions is funded by Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance reimbursements and funds raised by the Grand Traverse Pavilions Foundation.

La Pointe, the county commission's liaison to the Pavilions DHHS board, said while the facility no longer receives millage funding, it was built with $40 million in taxpayer funds, paid over two decades, and opening the decision-making process to the public was the right thing to do.

"People will get up and there will be grandstanding, that's just how it goes," La Pointe said. "In public comment, people can say whatever they want to say."

Gerring agreed.

"Public comments provide another point of view," Gerring added. "Because of the pandemic, the public is more interested in what one needs to know before putting a loved one in a nursing home."

The Pavilions has tested several residents for COVID-19, Coleman reported Monday, and all tests have so far been negative.

Nationwide, outbreaks of the virus have spread rapidly through nursing homes and public data released by the state April 26 shows 2,637 confirmed cases of the virus in Michigan long-term care facilities.

The proposal to have the board pay for the videotaping passes unanimously, though there was no further discussion of a videoconferencing software package.

"How do we handle that as far as the rules we have set up that nobody is allowed inside the Pavilions now?" Soffredine asked.

"They cannot come in our facility at this time," Coleman said. "Recording the board meetings at this time is not a mandate by any Open Meetings Act."

"Then I assume that wouldn't go forward until we're able to meet in person again," Soffredine said.

Videoconferencing software does not require members meet in person, nor would it require having a videographer visit the Pavilions.

The next meeting of the DHHS board is May 29, 9 a.m. and a call-in number will be provided in the meeting packet yet to be posted on the facility's website.

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