Bourbon County commissioners held their first extended public discussion of a legal review into the donation agreement covering the former Mercy hospital property Monday night, with Commissioner Mika Milburn-Kee advocating to end the review while other commissioners said it should continue.
Commissioner David Beerbower asked Commissioner Gregg Motley for an update on the review, which is being conducted by the Overland Park-based firm MSB Law. Motley said the firm is currently looking into the agreement after receiving some requested information from the county.
Milburn-Kee said she wanted to halt the legal review, telling the commission she and Commissioner Joe Allen had both recently been invited to speak with representatives of the Kansas Renewal Institute, the building's owner.
"I would personally like to pull our involvement in this," Milburn-Kee said. "Joe and I were both invited to speak with... What are they, Joe?"
"KRI," Allen said.
"KRI," Milburn-Kee repeated. She then asked Allen if he was willing to stop the legal review.
"I don't know if I'm ready to stop that yet," Allen said. "The information that he's trying to receive."
Milburn-Kee asked what information the county was trying to obtain.
Beerbower and Motley said the review involves deed information and the donation agreement covering the property.
Commission Chairman Samuel Tran asked Beerbower what he would need to see to support moving forward with the review, and any legal action that might result from it.
Beerbower said he did not know what the results would be, which was why he had voted for the process in the first place.
Tran then asked Allen the same question.
"What smoking gun do you need?" Tran asked.
"I don't want to lose the hospital," Allen said. "That's the only thing that I can put out. So what that process is, I don't know. We've gone this far, so that's where I'm going to leave it at this point."
Tran asked Beerbower if he shared Allen's concern. Milburn-Kee interjected.
"How are we being dangled losing the hospital?" she asked.
Tran said he understood Beerbower, Motley and Allen's concern that the county could lose access to medical care, but said his own research showed courts and judges tend to rule in favor of private entities over government in similar disputes.
"I think the community needs a hospital," Tran said. "But my question to all of you at this table is really simple: How much is that want, or that need, going to cost the county? We don't need to answer it today. That's just something I'm throwing out there for you guys to consider."
Milburn-Kee then asked what, specifically, the review was seeking.
Motley said the county is trying to determine whether there is “vulnerability” in the county's donation agreement on the property, because KRI is out of compliance with that agreement and with its lease with Freeman Health, which operates the hospital.
“We’re vulnerable to losing the hospital, and we are looking at all avenues to protect health care services in Bourbon County,” Motley said.
Motley said he had wanted the review handled in executive session to avoid harming KRI, but said the closed-door process was “violated on several occasions,” forcing the matter into public discussion.
“So now we’re doing this in public,” Motley said. “That wasn’t my preference, but it would be, I think, a travesty if we didn’t explore all options to protect health care in Bourbon County.”
Motley said both KRI and Freeman are losing money each month, and that if one entity fails financially, the other would follow, potentially leaving the county with an empty hospital building. He said Freeman’s five-year lease with KRI is entering its third year, and that the current emergency room sales tax expires around the same time as the lease.
Motley also said that the Freeman Fort Scott hospital was originally intended to be the satellite location for the canceled Freeman Southeast Kansas Hospital in Frontenac.
“There’s every possibility that Freeman could say bye-bye at the end of five years,” Motley said. “If you talk to the economic development group out of the city, they are deathly afraid of losing this hospital because the first question that new businesses ask is, ‘Do you have a hospital in your community?’ ”
“Not necessarily a hospital as much as emergency care,” Beerbower replied.
Motley agreed.
Motley said the county is not entering litigation but exploring options, and said the law firm could ultimately determine the county has no viable case, or that pursuing one would be too costly or lengthy to justify moving forward. He said the property is also affected by a leaking roof and HVAC problems Freeman has reported.
"We owe it to this community to explore all options," Motley said. "I have no idea why some people don't want to explore all options. I have no idea why some people wanted this splashed in public like it's been. That's extremely harmful to the community. It's extremely harmful to all the entities involved."
Milburn-Kee asked how the property's current owner factors into the review.
"The donation agreement follows the property for five years automatically. Anybody that buys that property has to obey the donation agreement," Motley replied.
Motley said that the donation agreement also applies to the two front lots of the hospital property, which county records show are now owned by Legacy Development Fort Scott Highway 69 Project, an entity tied to the Legacy Healthcare Foundation.
"Take a look at those lots. How lovely are they?" Motley said. "We've got piles of lumber out there. We've got a burn barrel. We've got downed trees everywhere. We've got dead trees lining the road. So I think we need to take a look at all options and that's what we're doing."
The commission took no vote on the matter.
