CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The formation of a committee to address the closure of CHRISTUS Spohn's Emergency Medicine Residency program could be at risk before it even gets started.
During Thursday's specially called Nueces County commissioners court meeting to address the closure, Pct. 4 commissioner Brent Chesney addressed a meeting held earlier in the day with CHRISTUS Spohn Health System CEO Dominic "Dom" Dominguez and Pct. 3 commissioner John Marez about being part of the committee, which would include commissioners and medical community members.
But those talks could be in jeopardy over two sticking points: Dominguez's insistence that only commissioners and Nueces County Hospital District members be present during committee meetings, and a conversation held with hospital residents and faculty that he said was recorded without his knowledge.
"There's nothing in that meeting that I'm concerned about," he said. "Nothing. But, I am concerned that next meeting I have to go to, we have to take out our phones because we can't trust each other."
Nueces County Judge Connie Scott pleaded with Dominguez to reconsider coming to the table to be part of the talks, saying the decision is one that affects the entire community.
"This is not about getting on the news or getting a 'gotcha' moment or recording someone without their knowledge or finding something to move forward," she said. "This is about finding solutions for our community and moving forward in the best interest of our citizens."
Dominguez said all sides need to come to a mutual understanding if talks are going to move forward, a point with which Chesney agreed. However, the commissioner also expressed his disappointment at Dominguez's change of heart.
"All the progress that was made this morning -- you've kind of thrown out the window if you don't reconsider, because you gave Mr. Marez and me your word that you would do this," he said.
Chesney echoed the importance of trust in matters such as these, saying that when possible, all parties involved need to come together.
"I get that you're uptight about that and you have a lack of trust," he said. "But if you don't think all these people in the room have a lack of trust with you, then you're miscalculating. But they're still willing to sit in a room with you even though they don't have much trust in you right now."
Scott said the committee is moving forward with or without CHRISTUS Spohn's involvement, but the court continued to as Dominguez to be a part of the discussions.
"I've not seen something handled like this in a long time and I'm trying to get it back on track and -- forget all the egos and forget all the personalities and forget all the emotion, and let's just see if we can help this community," Chesney said.
Dominguez said he would give more thought to participating, but did not give a definite answer one way or another before the meeting's end.
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