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The People Need and Want to Know
By Judy Pavlak, Winsted
The Winsted Health Center Foundation, Inc. rightfully belongs to the communities it serves, just as the Litchfield County Hospital, which was later called Winsted Memorial Hospital, did. Since 1907 when the state legislature established the first of these entities, all have been nonprofit and have relied on the generosity of people from the eight service area towns for a significant portion of their income. This has been especially true of the Foundation, which paid off its $200,000 mortgage for the Spencer Street campus with contributions. Now the Foundation relies on donations and bequests for a large part of its maintenance and operating costs, along with salaries and contracted services.
Our contributions are footing many of the bills, but are we being kept informed about where our money is going? We pass our gifts in through the Foundation's door and then the door is slammed in our faces. It seems it is now none of our business if we have questions about costs, particularly for salaries or contracted services.
How many of us have been asked which medical services we would like to see added, dropped or modified at the Center? How many of us have been asked to evaluate or grade the services now available at the Center? Don't worry your heads. The wise Foundation trustees will handle that.
One reason you or I haven't been kept informed is that we are not welcome at the board of trustee meetings or corporator meetings. Just as shocking is that reporters and TV cameras are not allowed in the inner sanctum. Even worse, the trustees don't even inform the Foundation corporators of business going on at their meetings. The trustees say they welcome corporators at their meetings, but then they promptly go into executive session to keep their little secrets.
I am going into detail about how closed the Foundation is to community input because it is time for the Foundation's attitude to change, so that the corporators and the community may become a part of the operation. The Foundation should do this to build understanding in the communities served and to foster trust, encourage financial contributions (which have dropped in recent years), and build up support for the Foundation's efforts to improve and add to the medical services available in the community's service area.
Since 1997, the Foundation has been trying to get Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to give it the Susan Perry Fund of $1.4 million. Mr. Blumenthal, whose office controls endowments, seemingly has not been eager to turn this money over to the Foundation. Now he says the Foundation may not be the only organization that could benefit from the trust fund. (Waterbury Republican-American, October 2) Other groups that were mentioned are the Foothills Visiting Nurses Association and the Torrington Area Foundation for Public Giving. The Attorney General said other groups might have uses consistent with the donor's intent and that he would "welcome their proposals and ideas."
If the Foundation wants to obtain all or a portion of the Perry Fund, it should open up two-way communication with the corporators and people of the service area towns. If the communities know what is at stake, they might support the Foundation’s efforts, but we don't even know what plans they have for the money. I am sure such openness and involvement would impress Mr. Blumenthal and make sure that this fund, which was established by a Winsted resident, is used for the health care needs of the people in the Winsted area.
Shame on the Foundation if they allow this gift to slip from our hands just because they think they can run the show from their ivory tower without the support of the people. Even the President needs to inform and gain such support if his policies or proposals are to succeed.
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