New UMMS board members will have to wait for confirmation

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ANNAPOLIS — Members of a newly reconstituted board for the University of Maryland Medical System will have to wait, possibly as long as six weeks, for Senate confirmation.

Sen.  Ron Young, chairman of the Senate Executive Nominations Committee, confirmed Monday night that 19 appointments, including new board Chair James C.  “Chip” DiPaula, are on hold while the General Assembly awaits the completion of a review by the Office of Legislative Audits that was sparked by allegations of self-dealing among longtime members.

Those deals, sometimes handshake agreements or done without formal bids or approval, came to light as federal investigators closed in on arresting and indicting former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh over a series of children’s books known as “Health Holly.”

Last week, the Senate Executive Nominations Committee interviewed 19 board members — most of them newly appointed after the Healthy Holly scandal — but delayed a vote until the panel could interview three remaining members. The hold was supposed to last just one week, but when the committee met Monday night, Young, a Frederick Democrat, announced there would be an additional delay. He did not disclose a reason.

“Several people have said they want to see the audit before (a vote),” said Young, who added that he had hoped the committee would take up votes on most of the board, who are new members.

Young said most of the focus was on three board members who were on the panel at the time of the scandal, including DiPaula, former federal Judge Alexander Williams, Louis Pope and Alan Butler.

All of the reappointed members told the committee last week that the deals were made outside the knowledge of the board and vowed that proper safeguards were now in place to prevent a repeat.

“I had thought they’d probably hold those three and approve the rest,” said Young. “I think we could move ahead with the others, but I’ll have to see what the will of the group is.”

Young said that a hold could last until the Office of Legislative Audits completes its independent audit of the system. That might not be completed before mid-March.

“I don’t know when it’s going to be completed,” said Young. “I hope it’s not too long. We’ll be be meeting the next six or seven weeks.”

A spokesman for Senate President William “Bill” Ferguson said the hold on all of the board members is likely to last until the completion of the audit to ensure that reappointed members of the board were not involved in any of the unethical dealings.

“This is an important thing,” the spokesman said. “We want top make sure we get it right.”

The news caught some Republicans by surprise.

“It kind of caught me off guard,” said Sen. J.B. Jennings, R-Baltimore and Harford counties and the Senate minority leader. “I’m going to talk to (Young) so hopefully next week they’re brought up and we’ll fight them if they are holding it because of the audit. That will be a discussion we’ll have next week in Executive Nominations.”

“UMMS certainly respects the decisions of and processes outlined by the legislators,” said Michael Schwartzberg, a spokesman for the medical system.

A spokesman for Gov. Larry Hogan declined to comment.

The legislature commissioned the audit last year at the same time it passed a new law governing the board. That law effectively flipped the entire board of directors and required Hogan to appoint new members in three stages starting last summer.

But the legislative audit hit a snag as state auditors told the legislature that they needed more time and felt the medical system had stonewalled their efforts to conduct a review of the system. That report was due in December but is now expected in March.

Meanwhile, the board of the medical system commissioned its own forensic audit and released the results in December.

That audit found that almost one-quarter of current and former members the University of Maryland Medical System had conflicts of interest in business dealings they actively pursued with the health system.

The report also found that a number of those deals were approved by former President and CEO Robert Chrencik; that  the system had little formal oversight over board members; and that many members of the audit committee either failed to attend meetings or misunderstood the conflict of interest rules.