By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Contrary to an earlier report from a Massena Memorial Hospital official, the hospital board did not improperly omit the recording of minutes at a June 26 special MMH board meeting where the trustees discussed the interim CEO’s contract.

The discussion was entirely in executive session, which state law in this case allows because it involved discussion of the medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person, MMH board chair Scott Wilson said shortly after the meeting.

At the time, he clarified that they were discussing interim MMH CEO’s Ann Gilpin’s contract.

Tina Corcoran, MMH senior director of public relations and planning, on June 27 said no minutes were taken. State Open Meetings Law requires minutes be taken of the public session, which would include the motion to go into executive session and how the board voted on that motion.

However on Friday, Corcoran provided the minutes via email.

The minutes say the meeting opened at 4 p.m. Those present included Wilson, board vice president Dave MacLennan and trustees Brian Beck, Tina Buckley, Real Coupal, Ed Fay, Carol Fenton, John Horan and Loretta Perez, along with Dr. Bedros Bakirtzian. Trustees Sue Bellow and Paul Morrow were excused. Buckley made the motion for executive session for the contract discussion at 4:01 p.m., the document says.

The phrasing of the motion to go into executive session cited in the minutes, “to review/discuss the contract for the interim Chief Executive Officer,” does not point to a specific section of the Open Meetings Law that would allow them to expel the public. However, Wilson in his comments the day after the meeting cited the subsection of the law referenced earlier in this story.

The minutes say the meeting closed at 5:05 p.m.