Jessica Stölen
Editor
jstolen-jacobson@cherryroad.com

At Monday evening’s meeting of the Montevideo City Council, community member Kevin Wald was in attendance with a couple of requests of the council. Speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, Wald addressed the council with the following requests. “I request this body pass a motion to direct CCMH to follow a true and open competitive bid process for the rehab and therapy department. The current contract was based on therapy for one year. I hope they will bid on it and I hope we can find others to bid on it and come up with a true competition by January 1st, 2025,” Wald said.

Wald was referencing CCM Health’s partnership with Big Stone Therapies for rehabilitation services that recently took place. In April of this year, CCM Health CEO Brian Lovdahl spoke about it at a Montevideo City Council meeting, saying, “I know there was a lot of hot topic going on earlier this year about a change in the therapy department that we did, contracting with Big Stone Therapies. We are still doing services, we’re doing the billing – we are just essentially outsourcing the professional part of it – the providers doing the services. To give an update, just two months to the date we are actually seeing growth with the number of patients we are seeing,” Lovdahl said at the time.

At Monday’s City Council meeting, Wald referenced the transition, stating that eleven employees had been fired. After Wald spoke, community member Jill Duellman took the podium to address council, stating that Wald’s letter to the editor in the May 16th edition of the Montevideo American News prompted her attendance at the council meeting. “The letter contains numerous inaccuracies about CCM Health and CEO Brian Lovdahl. None of the claims about Mr. Lovdahl or the hospital are based off factual evidence,” Duellman said. One of the inaccuracies Duellman said she noted was the discussion of firing of employees. “Firstly, of the ten employees affected by the decision to outsource to Big Stone Therapies, none were fired. Two stayed, two retired, and six chose to leave despite being offered their same positions, same salaries and comparable benefits,” she said.

An additional audience member who did not identify themselves before speaking, asked a question of Wald, saying, “How do we know everything you said is true?” Wald responded, “The fifty emails, spreadsheets and everything I have. I have the data pack. The data I presented is not my data. The data I presented came to me from Mr. Brian Lovdahl as part of the Minnesota Data Act – Freedom of Information Act that he submitted to me on March 1. I am giving you the information right off his spread sheets and right off those emails.”

The data Wald referenced was discussed in the beginning of his address to council, prior to making his requests, in which he spoke about how he could not find any information in the data showing specific studies done on such topics as financial impact to the community prior to making the decision to partner with Big Stone Therapies. Wald also says he has interacted with families and individuals impacted by the decision, as he was approached by, he says, numerous individuals asking him to look into the issue.

Additional requests Wald made of the council included requesting that the council direct CCM Health to “turn over dementia care training materials” to a former provider who Wald says is trying to set up a practice in town to help dementia patients. “This is not protected data. This is training materials for dementia patients that she has handed out in the past,” he said.

Wald additionally requested that the council pass a motion that would require all future decisions with a future projected financial impact of over $250,000 be presented to the City and County who have a joint powers agreement, prior to the decision being made. “We need more people listening to these decisions so that you can at least stand up and say time out – we’re here to look out for the citizens,” Wald said.

The Open Public Meetings Act requires governing bodies subject to the act to provide periods for public comment at every meeting in which the body takes a “final action” (a collective decision or vote by a majority of the body on any motion, resolution, ordinance, etc). The time for public comment does not require any action or discussion at that meeting by the council.

The next meeting of the Montevideo City Council will be held Monday, June 3rd at 7 p.m. Those interested in watching the full discussion from Monday evening’s meeting can find the video of the council meeting online at https://vimeo.com/showcase/8295258.