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MCCH launches new search for CEO

MURRAY – The search for Murray-Calloway County Hospital’s next CEO is back on. Following an executive session held at the end of today’s board meeting, trustees voted for the internal search committee to lead one more attempt to hire a new CEO before resorting to a third-party search firm.

After MCCH’s current CEO, Jerry Penner, announced his retirement last summer, the board decided to form an internal committee to conduct the search rather than paying an outside firm. Trustee Amy Futrell chaired the committee, which included Board Chair Steve Owens, Vice Chair Summer Cross, Chief of Staff Dr. Nicholas O’Dell and Dan Renick.

Starting with a pool that exceeded 150 applicants, the search committee selected 10 candidates to interview via Zoom. Of the 10 candidates interviewed, five were invited for on-site interviews with the full board. One candidate withdrew their application prior to those interviews due to salary concerns, and another candidate withdrew after their interview because they received another job offer.

Upon a motion from Futrell at a special called meeting in early December, the board unanimously voted to offer the position to Tonda Haigler, system vice president for ambulatory services for Baptist Health of Central Alabama; however, she declined the offer.

Current MCCH COO John Wilson was among the four interviewed by the full board, but he withdrew his name from consideration after the position was offered to Haigler, Owens told The Sentinel today. Of the four applicants interviewed by the full board last year, only one remains in the candidate pool.*

At the regular December meeting, Owens noted that no decisions had been made as to how the board would proceed with the search before advising he had asked Penner to look into the cost of hiring an outside firm.

Penner reported hearing back from two of three firms. Both returned quotes roughly one-third of the new CEO’s first-year salary and estimated a four- to six-month timeframe for beginning the recruitment process.

The December meeting also ended with an executive session related to personnel matters, but no action was taken.

Today, after reconvening in regular session, Mayor Bob Rogers moved to charge the search committee with contacting the five candidates who were interviewed via Zoom but not invited for an on-site interview with the full board “to gauge their interest and availability” and decide which candidates, if any, to invite for an interview.

Rogers further moved to reopen the search for two weeks, from Jan. 27 to Feb. 10, “to allow anyone who wishes to apply but did not meet the earlier deadline to submit their application and resume,”  and for the search committee to conduct Zoom interviews with the candidates between Feb. 11 and 14.

“If after February 14,” Rogers concluded, “the search committee does not feel there is a qualified pool to interview or after full-board interviews an applicant is not selected, a search firm will then be considered.”

Marti Erwin seconded the motion, and all 11 board members – Futrell, Owens, Cross, O’Dell, Renick, Rogers, Erwin, Calloway County Judge-Executive Kenny Imes, Shawn Reynolds, Joetta Kelly and Gale Broach Sharp – voted in favor.

Before adjourning, it was clarified that Penner agreed to continue serving as CEO until his replacement is found; therefore, no interim CEO will be appointed. Originally, Penner planned to step down on March 31.

 *Editor’s note: The candidate’s name was withheld at their request.

Sentinel Staff

Jessica Paine
I’m Jessica Paine, founder of The Murray Sentinel. You may know me from my time as a citizen journalist, running the Calloway Covid-19 Count page on Facebook, or you may be familiar with my more recent work for another local news outlet. Being that I’m “from here,” you may have known me since I was “knee-high to a grasshopper,” although you knew me as Jessica Jones. But whether you know me or not, I’m glad you found your way here.

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