Testimony before the Washington Hospital Board        8/10/05

I'm Miriam Keller, President of the League of Women Voters of Fremont, Newark and Union City, and I am speaking for the League tonight.

The League has been watching the programming on your new Health Channel, channel 78, and we think the wealth of materials you are presenting is excellent.  We also appreciate the DELAYED and repeated airings of your Board meetings.  You have significantly increased the public's access to your governance proceedings with this step. 

The League monitors all of the meetings of your Board but we missed the Board discussion of the (annual or start up?) expenditure of $300,000 to finance the Health Channel.  We appreciate the education you are providing to the public.  We do feel that an expenditure of this amount of the public's money should have been highlighted during your board discussion so that we could all appreciate how our money is being allocated for our benefit.

The League's committment to open government makes us an advocate for transparency in all the decisions of all public entities.  We encourage you to transact the public's business openly so that public input can be part of your important policy-making decisions for our hospital.

Thank you.