By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
The Val Verde Regional Medical Center’s elected board Thursday night voted to offer Chief Executive Officer Linda Walker the opportunity to resign.
Friday morning, Walker accepted the board’s offer and resigned from the position she’d held since 2019.
Chief Operating Officer Jorge Jurado was selected to be the interim CEO while the board searches for Walker’s replacement.
On Sept. 28, the board met and placed Walker on 14 business days paid leave while they oversaw an internal investigation into Walker’s role in creating “a hostile work environment” according to at least two board members. Thursday’s meeting was to review the findings and act.
Four people spoke during the public comment session. Among them was a current hospital employee and the other a former employee. Chris Jenkins, a registered nurse at the hospital, told the board, “I’m here today to ask that Ms. Linda Walker not be allowed to come back to work as CEO of our hospital. Over the last couple of years the attitude around here has gotten very low. Morale is broken and people don’t want to work here.”
Two Border Organization members, Irma Cardenas and Mary Ann Ortiz, spoke prior to Jenkins, advocating for her dismissal and holding board members accountable.
“We simply asked the board members to follow the evidence and we said we’d hold the members accountable,” said Sandra Fuentes, The Border Organization president.
The first speaker, Melinda Ponce, said she was an employee at the hospital until 9 a.m. Thursday morning when she said she was terminated.
“I was terminated because I complained,” she said. Walker had been removed from her leadership role for the previous two weeks and had not been in the hospital, but Ponce said she’d been targeted for the past four years.
After the public comments, board members went into executive session for nearly two hours. When they came out of executive session, they passed two motions concerning pay of the interim CEO and chief financial officer and then voted to oust Walker.
However, the final vote involved lots of discussion over how much the severance package would be for as they discussed options.
Finally, they agreed on six months’ pay and benefits if she resigned, which she had been offered the opportunity to do, and six months’ pay and benefits if they were forced to terminate her.
When Cris Diaz, a board member and the board’s secretary asked why, Dr. Lee Keenen, a board member said it was, “a professional courtesy out of respect for all of the good things Walker had done.”
Finally, a majority of the board members agreed to the motion. Dr. Julio Otazo, chairman of the board, asked for the vote.
Keenen, Diaz, Robin Palmer, Jane Morain and Raul Alatorre voted to offer Walker the two options while Otazo opposed. Dr. Daniel Chartrand, a board member and hospital employee, was asked to recuse himself by the board due to a potential conflict of interest.
Palmer, the board’s vice president, said they offered the severance package through the guidance of the board’s attorney, Trent Kreinke from Austin law firm Reed, Claymon, Meeker & Hargett PLLC. Kreinke, who listened to the meeting on the phone, was asked to call Walker and offer her the options after the board adjourned.
“I respect all of the other board members, but I do not agree with a six-month severance package,” Otazo said. “I felt it should have been a lot less … one month, two and maybe three, but not six.”
It was an emotionally taxing move for most of the board members, who praised Walker’s financial prowess. Two board members said they’d been unable to sleep after the vote to give Walker 14 days of paid leave. However, complaints were consistently heard in the human relations arena.
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Contact the author at joelalangton@gmail.com
