The Eureka Springs Hospital Commission continued to hear from former employees of the hospital at its regular meeting on Monday, Jan. 20, with those employees vowing to continue voicing their displeasure with what they describe as a hostile work environment.
Richard Webb and his wife, Samantha Webb, addressed the commission during the segment of Monday’s meeting reserved for public comments. Both are former employees of the hospital and are among several former employees who have made allegations of bullying and other unprofessional behavior by hospital administrators, particularly human resources director and interim chief executive officer Jodi Edmondson and chief financial officer Cynthia Asbury.
“Narcissism, self-entitlement, arrogance and greed,” Richard Webb said to being his comments at Monday’s meeting. “These things have destroyed entire nations, so what makes you think it can’t destroy a hospital and everyone in it? My wife and I and a lot of other good people that just wanted to do the right thing — work, live and be part of a good place, make a difference and be happy — were wronged, defamed, had our very dignity attacked and made to suffer by the very people that were supposed to have had our best interests and the interests of the hospital at heart. Instead we get ignored. We get political games and smokescreens.”
‘Not kids throwing fits’
Richard Webb referred to messages between Asbury and former commission vice chair Barbara Dicks.
In an exchange of messages between Asbury and Dicks that was obtained by the Times-Echo through an open-records request pursuant to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, one message reads: “They are just acting like Lil kids throwing temper tantrums.”
It is unclear whether the messages are emails or text messages. The messages are not date- or time-stamped and do not indicate which messages were sent by whom.
Dicks resigned from the commission at Mayor Butch Berry’s request on Nov. 15, one day after the Times-Echo reported that Dicks and then-commission chair Kent Turner had exchanged text messages about firing former CEO Angie Shaw as early as Aug. 15, and also discussed other personnel matters by text, as well as meeting together with Asbury in private, all violations of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
“I’m here to tell you all that my wife and I are not kids throwing fits and tantrums as stated by Ms. Asbury in one of her secret text messages to another commission member, and neither are the other good people, either former or current employees that have been wronged. My question to you all, including every commission member, every city council member and even the mayor, is this: How can you see this and what’s been done to so many good people, and still being done, and do nothing and still call yourselves leaders of anything? Make no mistake. None of us are going anywhere until these questions are answered.”
‘Not my problem’
Samantha Webb, who worked as a medical records clerk at the hospital from February to September 2023 before being terminated and ultimately winning a dispute over unemployment benefits, followed her husband to the microphone and seemed to direct her comments specifically at Asbury.
“There’s something that I want you to remember, and that’s this,” Samantha Webb said. “I literally thank God that I’m nothing like you. I’m not a kid throwing a temper tantrum. I’m a grown woman with a husband and family no less than you. … Did you really think that any of us would simply walk away with our tail tucked between our legs? Did you? You threw the lives of good, decent people into turmoil and you know it and you’re proud of it. It’s your world and we’re just living in it, right? Right?
“You demand my husband clean restrooms while you watch, break laws, have secret meetings — HIPAA violation, anyone? For what? Your own selfish greed, your ego and self-entitlement. Your arrogance. That’s what. Do you know what empathy is? Can you grasp what that word and its meaning is? See, we’re not here out of spitefulness. You can turn you back, look down, hide all you want, but make no mistake. This isn’t going away, and neither are we.”
At the commission’s meeting on Nov. 18, Asbury and Edmondson turned their backs to speakers during public comments. Samantha Webb alluded to that during her remarks at Monday’s meeting.
“Only guilty people refuse to look at other people,” Samantha Webb said. “You know it. I know it. My husband and this town knows it. And so do you. Shame on you. By the way, if you can’t handle a newspaper article stating facts, there’s no way you could walk a mile in our shoes. We want accountability. We deserve it, and if you were in our shoes you would expect it, too. Oh wait. Empathy’s not in the vocabulary of a narcissist. My bad. We’re here because Cynthia’s allowed to conduct herself like a bull in a china shop. The mayor won’t stop her. Even the former CEO wouldn’t stop her, but maybe she was intimidated by her, too. Kent Turner wouldn’t dream of stopping her. Barbara Dicks wouldn’t stop her. Jodi Edmondson wouldn’t stop her. So, yeah, we’re here. Cynthia and Jodi aren’t the only guilty parties, though, not by a long shot. In closing, my husband and I, along with the rest of the collateral damage in the room, will be at the next meeting. And by the way, when that high horse you love sitting on falls down, and you land with a thud, you remember your own words: ‘Not my problem.’ ” Edmondson and Asbury, who were not present at the commission’s Dec. 16 meeting, attended Monday night’s meeting along with Lana Mills, the hospital’s new nursing director. The three sat at the same table as Turner, facing each speaker.
‘No discussion’
Also addressing the commission during public comments was Bradley Tate-Greene, a local business owner and member of the City Advertising and Promotion Commission.
Tate-Greene criticized the hospital commission for what he described as a lack of communication with the community.
“This hospital commission presents an agenda, you state a topic and then we go: ‘We’re going to vote.’ There’s no discussion. The community wants to know what the hell you are doing because they don’t know. So guess what they’re seeing? All the bad. Everything.”’ Tate-Greene also made accusations regarding the background of some members of hospital leadership.
“By the way, you have somebody who committed Medicaid fraud sitting and serving in your leadership,” he said. “You’ve also got somebody who was terminated from Mercy recently. And yet you’re going to bring somebody in that was terminated to take the position of where you terminated somebody. I think you should be investigating that as well.”
‘Knowingly lied’
Another speaker, Allen Smith, said recent FOIA violations committed by the commission bring into question the legality of actions taken by the commission.
In addition to the messages exchanged between Turner and Dicks regarding hospital personnel, records obtained by the Times-Echo indicate that Turner and Dicks met privately to discuss hospital matters, also a FOIA violation.
The hospital commission held a special meeting on Dec. 2, then continued to discuss hospital business after the meeting was officially adjourned — another FOIA violation. The continuation of discussions after the meeting was adjourned was captured on an audio recording.
“In my opinion, any commissioner who has willingly violated FOIA law has violated their ethical obligations, their oath, and the law, and should resign immediately for the sake of the public and the patients they serve,” Smith said.
Smith added that Turner “knowingly lied” when he told the Eureka Springs City Council in December that the hospital’s lab had reopened after being shut down for two weeks in the wake of issues identified during audits conducted in November by the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“Does the commission as a whole endorse this kind of reporting to the city council and the public?” Smith asked. “Can we have earnest discussion regarding these issues before making further decisions and obligations.”
In their commissioners’ comments at the end of the meeting, commissioners thanked those who spoke during public comments but did not respond directly.
“Cynthia and Jodi, you’ve been amazing during this transition with all that has gone on,” chair Sandy Martin said. “And I’m proud of this commission. We’ve all dug our heels in.”
