Over the past year readers of the Bangor Daily News have been exposed to an intense public relations campaign launched by Eastern Maine Healthcare. At considerable expense to health care consumers, hospital administrators placed numerous half-page ads focused on changing governance structure at our medical center.

Included in this advertising strategy was a barrage of letters sent on a near weekly basis to more than 400 corporators per mailing. The effort, energy and cost to persuade corporators to approve EMH’s new governance plan are excessive by any measure. This is another clear example of spending limited community health care dollars to

consolidate control at the top.

Few would disagree that Eastern Maine Healthcare is the most dominant health care provider in this region of Maine. Competitively speaking, no other hospital in this region can effectively compete with this monopolistic model. One would think that for this reason alone, the administrative and board leadership would make every effort to be more collaborative and accountable in all its relationships. This has not been the case.

Past events as reported by this paper over a period of several years indicate an environment of distrust between community and EMH leadership. Significant examples of these events include: numerous resignations of community leaders from its boards; a continuing lack of confidence expressed publicly by medical staff; ongoing litigation between large health care agencies against the institution; and costly real estate development experiencing high vacancy rates. All combine to reflect poorly on the current culture of this important institution.

Economic power from a nonprofit organization should not be used against the people it is intended to serve. Eastern Maine Medical Center recently attempted to oust a long-term physician board member from its governance for reason of “conflict of interest.” It was unsuccessful because corporators responded unequivocally.

At last year’s annual meeting corporators voted to re-elect this physician board member and also asserted their right to elect board members more aligned with the health care mission of the hospital. Corporators exercising fiduciary authority to select and elect board members is critical to the health of a nonprofit health care organization. It is clearly the last line of defense a community has to resist ineffective governance. Some people would call it “democracy in action.”

Unfortunately, the BDN editorial of Nov. 16 completely misses the point of the governance discussion. To characterize the Good Governance Committee as a small group of citizens against health care regionalization is wrong. Further it is dismissive and misinforms the public. The Good Governance Committee represents the opinions and concerns of a significant segment of this community. It should not be minimized. The last annual meeting was concrete evidence that many corporators support the underlying intention and ongoing efforts of this committed and proactive group of physicians and community leaders. It is a commentary on the current environment that many supporters of Good Governance are rightly concerned about both personal and economic retribution from EMH for questioning or challenging the status quo.

The Good Governance Committee has always supported a regional model for health care. Its support is conditioned on a fundamental truth: A nonprofit, community-owned medical system should remain within the control of those who are served by it. For this reason, the community, now more than ever, must have empowered corporators who represent them and are able to directly affect the direction and quality of health care in our region.

I urge my fellow corporators to attend the 12:30 p.m. corporators’ meeting today at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer. A yes vote in support of the proposed bylaws will eliminate a vital authority vested in community corporators.

Giving up this authority in light of this institution’s recent history is risky business. Please join me in voting no. In so doing, we will retain what would otherwise be lost to a chosen few.

It all comes down to whom you trust.

Claude P.M. O’Donnell is past EMH director, Acadia board chair, and current EMH corporator.