VIDEO: Supervisors Agree To Go Along With Sell Of OCH If Referendum is Passed

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- The next step in the process of deciding whether to sell or keep OCH Regional Medical was up for discussion Tuesday evening.

The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors called a special meeting to discuss Requests for Proposals (RFP) concerning the possible sale of the county-owned hospital.

Board members were in executive session for over two hours discussing the bids they received on OCH.

In a press release they issued once the meeting was over, the board said they agree to go along with the sell of OCH if that’s what the voters choose on November 7th.

The deadline for all proposals to be submitted was on September 15th.

The board would not say how many bids they received, but they did however, have certain requirements for potential buyers to meet if they do in fact sell the hospital.

Some of those requirements include, they must net at least $25 million to the county after paying $35 million in hospital related bond financing.

Also, they must have a plan to keep existing employees and promote employee retention and stability, just to name a few.

The board’s consultant Ted Woodrell said the board cannot release any information regarding the proposals they received until after the November 7th referendum.

“The legal counsel and I met several times to go through the proposals so we could score them, by scoring I mean putting them down to the key elements so that the supervisors would have the right information in front of them to make a decision whether or not to continue to negotiate with them or not,” said Woodrell. “I think it was handled very appropriately. It was decided to move forward with further negotiations if the referendum is passed.”

The president of Friends of OCH, Dr. Steve Parvin, issued a statement expressing his disappointment with the process.

“The information handed out by the Board of Supervisors Consultant regarding the bids provides very limited information,” said Dr. Parvin. “Once again, this process has not been transparent. It’s unfortunate the supervisors have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars and have not involved the citizens, who are the owners of the hospital in the process. We are working to provide the facts with all Oktibbeha voters so they can make an informed decision on November 7th.”