MURRAY – At today’s Murray-Calloway County Hospital Board of Trustees meeting, Board Chair Steve Owens advised that no decisions have been made regarding how to proceed with the search for a new top executive after the candidate initially selected declined the contract offered earlier this month.
After current CEO Jerry Penner officially announced his retirement in July, the board decided to form an internal committee to conduct the candidate search instead of hiring a third party. Trustee Amy Futrell chaired the search committee, which included Owens, Vice Chair Summer Cross, Chief of Staff Dr. Nicholas O’Dell and Trustee Dan Renick.
Over 150 people applied for the position which Penner has held since April 2011. The search committee narrowed the pool to 10 candidates and interviewed them via Zoom. Five were selected for in-person interviews, but one withdrew their application over salary concerns. In October and November, the four remaining candidates were interviewed by the full board.
In a special called meeting on Dec. 5, the board unanimously voted to offer the position to Tonda Haigler, who currently serves as system vice president of ambulatory services for Baptist Health of Central Alabama. One week later, the board announced that Haigler did not accept the offer.
“Over the past several months, through the course of numerous meetings and discussions, with input from the medical staff, directors, and public; it was felt that Tonda was the best candidate to lead the hospital,” Owens stated in the press release. “An agreement was drafted and discussed with her, and after receiving assurance from Tonda that she would accept the position if offered, the public vote was held. Just as we felt that Tonda was the best choice to lead our facility, her current employer felt the same and she has since informed us she will not be leaving her current employer.”
The release further advised that the board would determine “how to proceed with a renewed search” at the next board meeting.
“We’ve not actually finalized our method of moving forward yet,” Owens said in today’s meeting. “I did ask Mr. Penner to look into the cost and availability of search firms. I think he looked at three of them. We have not decided to do that, but if we were to, this is what it would cost.”
Penner advised that he had heard back from two of the three firms he contacted. As for the timeframe, one firm estimated it would be four months until they could begin the recruitment process, and the other estimated six months. He further advised that the cost for the firms to conduct the search would be approximately one-third of the first-year’s salary of the new chief executive.
Calloway County Judge-Executive Kenny Imes asked that the firms’ satisfaction and retention rates be a factor in the selection process. “Once they place a CEO and that particular board accepts, then what’s the longevity of tenure (we can expect)?”
“That would be interesting for us to look at,” Penner replied. “They did mention that if – and each of them have not had huge history with this – but they also have a guarantee so if, for some reason, a person doesn’t work out after a year, then they’ll restart the search for you at no cost to us. So, there is some guarantees that go along with that as opposed to going, ‘Sorry you spent your money, and we didn’t hit home.’ But those are far and few (between). But I did not get a retention rate. I can find out.”
Penner added that one of the firms has “history” with at least one other healthcare organizations in the state. “So, there are some potential references we could reach out to and see how those searches went for that organization when they found their CEO.”
With that, the discussion concluded, and the board went into executive session related to personnel matter. No action was taken following the executive session.
