Incumbent candidates Lois Rutledge and James ‘Rick’ Beisel were re-elected Tuesday to serve four-year terms on the Montezuma County Hospital district board. They defeated challengers Sheila Wilson and Marvin Smith of the Concerned Citizens Committee, a group representing a contingent of community members who have been critical of the district board’s decisions regarding hospital management and expansion plans on the Southwest Memorial campus.

Newcomer Keith Domerese, director of Hospice of Montezuma, was also elected to serve a four-year term on the seven-person hospital district board. He fills the board seat vacated by Jo Tipton last year and held temporarily by former board Chairman Randy Smith. Smith, who was appointed to the board and then voted in as chairman, did not run in Tuesday’s election.

The unofficial results are as follows: Rutledge, 740 votes; James ‘Rick’ Beisel, 648 votes; Keith Domerese, 558 votes; Sheila Wilson, 473 votes; Marvin Smith, 379 votes; and Remigio Candelaria, 278 votes. The top three vote-getters won seats on the board.

Only seven percent, or 1,000 of the county’s 15,440 registered voters, managed to get out and vote Tuesday for the hospital district board, according to County Clerk Carol Tullis. Cortez polling places saw a stronger showing than outlying communities, Tullis said.

"It was a big turnout in Cortez, around 800, because of the sanitation district issue and the hospital district board election," Tullis said. "Eight hundred is not great, but it is better than some years. Turnout for the outlying areas was pretty slim."

The election results indicate that outspoken community resentment has simmered down somewhat over the reorganization of the hospital’s management from a public entity to a private corporation in 1996 and the failed attempt by the board in 1998 to construct a controversial $10 million medical office building. But a relatively strong showing by Smith and Wilson is a sign that the community is still watching the MCHD board, a directive that winning candidates say they will not ignore.

"Here we go," responded Domerese upon hearing that he had won a seat on the board. He was quick to point out the value that unsuccessful candidates have for the board, noting that those candidates are not losers in the often contentious game of special district politics.

"Sheila has good points that could make this work also. As Vince Lambardi said, ‘I never lost a game, I was just behind when the time ran out,’ so that is what I would say about them. They really didn’t lose, and their participation in the process is still important," Domerese said.

Rutledge, who served a successful two-year term and volunteered her time as the district’s treasurer, secretary and minute-taker, attracted the most votes. She also expressed commitment to an open form of government.

"I thank the community for their support," Rutledge said. "As a board we still have to keep the whole community totally informed as to what is going on and hope that they will come to the meetings and give us an inkling of what their thinking is."

That flow of information is equally important for Southwest Health System, the management arm of Southwest Memorial, she said.

"As SHS attains new directors, they need to be made aware of the fact that open communication needs to continue," Rutledge said. "Both boards need to recognize that the community needs to be a part of it."

The future of the hospital depends on surviving in a competitive industry that is continually hamstrung by shrinking government reimbursement rates for Medicare services rendered. And that survival, said winning candidate Beisel, means giving SHS the autonomy to perform its job as the hospital’s manager without interference from the district board, unless lease agreements are violated.

"I believe that we need to let SHS do their business and move forward and see what we ought to be doing rather than becoming involved in the minutiae of hospital operations," Beisel said. "I hope to put (controversies) behind us; there are things that we need to do and can do in a positive fashion."