By Dean Radford
Two seats on the Public Hospital District No. 1 Board of Commissioners are up for election in the Nov. 3 general election, including one held by long-time commissioner Carolyn Parnell.
The other race will determine who will replace Dr. Aaron Heide on Renton’s Valley Medical Center commission. Heide was removed from the board for missing meetings; he now holds a new position at a Nevada medical center.
Running for Heide’s Position 4 seat are Savannah Clifford-Visker of Renton and Lawton Montgomery of Kent. Clifford-Visker and Montgomery were the top-two vote getters in the August primary, besting Dr. Terence Block who had been appointed to replace Heide.
Clifford-Visker won the primary, with 38.78 percent of the vote. Montgomery received 35.76 percent of the vote.
Commission Position 2
Dr. M. Chris Monson is running against incumbent Parnell of Renton for her Position 2 seat, to which she was elected in 1997.
Monson, a graduate of Kentridge High School who earned his medical degree at the University of Washington Medical School, is a board-certified ophthalmologist who practices with fellow eye surgeon Dr. Paul Joos at Valley Eye and Laser Center. Joos is also a member of the hospital board.
In his statement in the voters pamphlet, Monson wrote that he’s running for commissioner “because taxpayers who support Valley have lost their right to elect the board that runs the hospital.”
He was referring to a strategic alliance between UW Medicine and the Public Hospital District No. 1 in which operations of Valley Medical Center are overseen by an appointed Board of Trustees separate from the elected Board of Commissions, which now oversees the buildings and property taxes of the district. The commissioners also sit on the Board of Trustees.
The strategic alliance has survived numerous court challenges. The state Supreme Court opted not to review an appellate-court ruling that the alliance is legal.
Parnell, who is serving as commission president this year, is the only current commissioner who voted to form the alliance, which she wrote in the voters pamphlet is bringing “world-class medicine to our neighborhoods and lower health-care costs.”
Monson indicated in the voters pamphlet that he would ask the legislature to decide whether the voters should have final say over whether an appointed board or elected board should oversee Valley Medical.
Parnell, an author and retired educator, has a bachelor’s degree in Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship and MBA in Business Administration/International Business and Human Resource Management.
Commission Position 4
Visker-Clifford and Montgomery both raise concerns in their statements in the voters pamphlet about the strategic alliance and the pay of Valley’s CEO Rich Roodman.
Visker of Renton is a graduate of Liberty High School and earned a bachelor’s degree at Central Washington University. She’s an early learning teacher in the Renton School District.
Montgomery of Kent is a graduate of Spanaway High School, Highline Community College and the National Fire Academy and Washington Fire Academy. He’s been a firefighter for nearly 30 years and is a captain in the Kent Fire Department.
He’s an instructor at the Washington State Patrol Fire Academy.
In the voters pamphlet, Visker-Clifford wrote that she would replace Roodman, hire more nurses and pay them more, and make the people of the hospital district her No. 1 priority.
In his statement in the voters pamphlet, Montgomery wrote that he’s running for hospital commissioner “because like you and your neighbors, I am very upset control of Valley Medical Center was transferred to trustees appointed by UW Medicine rather than the commissioners “we the people” elect.”
He wrote he also supports a legislative effort that gives the voters the power to approve or reject the alliance with UW Medicine.
Contact Dean Radford at dradford@rentonreporter.com or 425-255-3484, ext. 5150
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
