Updated 6:02 p.m. Dec. 20 to clarify that the town supervisor was referring to a survey of MMH medical doctors, not the entire medical staff.

By ANDY GARDNER
North Country Now

MASSENA -- A member of the Massena Memorial Hospital Board of Managers and the town supervisor are at odds over the board member’s allegations that the supervisor threatened MMH board members who may not agree with him.

Meanwhile, the supervisor is not commenting on the MMH trustee’s accusation that a former MMH CEO resigned to save face, rather than be fired by the Town Council because of a rift with the board.

Paul Morrow, who has sat on the MMH board for nearly 20 years, contacted North Country Now on Wednesday, Dec. 19 and said he takes issue with comments Town Supervisor Steve O’Shaughnessy made the previous day.

O’Shaughnessy had contacted North Country Now to refute an allegation Morrow made at the Monday, Dec. 17 MMH board meeting.

"I think he called all of us, all the board members and asked us which way we were going to be voting (on a potential affiliate), and if we weren't going to vote with him, then I was against him. I'm not against Steve. I'm against him calling and threatening me if I'm not going to move the way he wants," Morrow said at the Monday meeting.

The following day, O’Shaughnessy said that he never threatened anyone.

“Paul Morrow said I wanted them to go my way. That wasn’t the conversation at all. I just wanted them to do something,” O’Shaughnessy said Tuesday. “We really haven’t progressed very far. I’m a little disappointed.”

However on Wednesday, Dec. 19, Morrow in a phone interview accused O’Shaughnessy of lying.

“Now he’s walking it back a little bit, as if I lied to him, everybody there,” Morrow said, pointing back to Monday’s meeting when O’Shaughnessy did not refute the allegations of making threats.

When offered a chance to respond to the new accusation from Morrow, O’Shaughnessy stood by his prior position that he never made threats.

“I think what I said yesterday pretty much covers it all,” the supervisor said in response to the latest allegation, and denied ever using the phrase “you’re either with me or against me.”

Morrow: Wolleben Was About to be Fired

During Morrow’s Wednesday, Dec. 19 phone interview, he talked about the resignation of former MMH CEO Robert Wolleben, who resigned in June for reasons that at the time were not made clear.

Morrow says Wolleben was “forced out” by the Town Council.

“They [Town Council] wanted to get rid of Bob … they didn’t like the direction he was going either,” Morrow said. “Bob knew what was in the wind, so he resigned.

“He was one step ahead of the blowtorch.”

Wolleben could not be reached for comment.

O’Shaughnessy questioned Morrow’s timing of bringing up Wolleben’s departure now, rather than back over the summer when he left.

“I have no response other than if Paul Morrow knew about that before, why is he waiting until now to level it at me?” the supervisor said.

Disagreement Over Chairman Not Being Reappointed

Morrow also questioned O’Shaughnessy’s decision to not re-appoint MMH board chairman Scott Wilson when his term expires at the end of the year.

Wilson at the Dec. 17 MMH board meeting said he is being let go over a rift with O’Shaughnessy.

"I'm not going in the direction he'd like, so I'm not going to be reappointed," Wilson said at the meeting when asked by he won't seek another term as chair.

O’Shaughnessy has not denied that claim. At the end of that meeting, the MMH board voted to recommend affiliation with Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center/North Star Group and Crouse Hospital.

O’Shaughnessy said he was blindsided with the vote and doesn’t think it’s the direction the hospital should go.

Morrow in his Dec. 19 phone interview read a passage from a July 23 letter from O’Shaughnessy to the hospital board where the supervisor indicated he would let the MMH board run the hospital.

“It is the town board’s intention to allow the Massena Memorial Hospital Board to manage the operations of the Massena Memorial Hospital as required by” state law, Morrow read from the letter.

“I have no qualms with that aspect (that is contained in the letter). I want to make the point that the hospital belongs to the town of Massena and it’s up to the town board … to determine who the assets go to and who we affiliate with,” O’Shaughnessy said. “We looked for recommendations from everybody, from the Board of Managers, as well as the medical staff.”

Although O’Shaughnessy didn’t say if it’s his personal preference, he said that an MMH medical doctors survey shows that they would prefer affiliation with St. Lawrence Health System, which oversees Canton-Potsdam and Gouverneur hospitals. The supervisor on the past has said MMH talked affiliation with them and other entities.

“The medical [doctors were] very much in favor of St. Lawrence Health System … we take all this into consideration when we make our decision,” he said.

O’Shaughnessy insinuated that the MMH board may have been trying to hide from him that they planned to vote to recommend affiliation at their meeting Dec. 17.

“Councilman [Sam] Carbone asked Scott Wilson about affiliation and Scott Wilson said there’s nothing. We don’t have anything to discuss,” the supervisor said Dec. 19. “Sam had thought Scott Wilson said they had an executive board meeting before where they talked about asset transfer and affiliation.

“Sam asked when is the town board going to find out about what you’re talking about with affiliation … How can they not know what they’re doing in open session, and they go into executive session and know exactly what they’re doing?”