Court Agrees With Legislative Auditor; Slidell Memorial Hospital CEO’s Compensation Is Published

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor today released the full and unredacted version of the publicly- funded Slidell Memorial Hospital’s audit report after a 19^th Judicial District Court judge in Baton Rouge refused to stay the effect of an earlier court ruling that state law requires the Legislative Auditor to release the hospital CEO’s compensation, reimbursements, and benefits information.

This makes public the final two pages of the original audit report that details CEO Bill Davis’ compensation information as required by Act 706 the Louisiana legislature passed in 2014.

Act 706 of 2014 requires that every local auditee (including a political subdivision like this hospital) must report a supplemental report within its financial statement. This supplemental report must list the CEO’s compensation, including travel, housing, unvouchered expenses, per diem and registration fees. The Louisiana Constitution and state statutes require that legislative audit reports be made public, unless the information is deemed confidential by law.

In Act 180 of 1984, the state of Louisiana organized and created what the public calls “Slidell Memorial Hospital” as a political subdivision named “St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No. 2.” A board of commissioners appointed by a cross-section of representatives of city, parish and state government bodies runs the full-service acute care community hospital.

Currently, 25 of the hospital service districts in Louisiana have fiscal years ending Dec. 31, 2014. Of those, only Slidell Memorial Hospital has refused to allow its CEO’s compensation information to be made public. In July, the hospital service district sued the Legislative Auditor’s office, claiming that its CEO’s compensation, reimbursements and benefits information was part of its “marketing strategy” and “strategic plan” – information another Louisiana statute allows public hospital service district commissions to keep confidential and out of the public record.

“The court’s decision confirms that the legislature specifically intends that the public know how much it is paying a public hospital’s CEO in compensation, reimbursements, and benefits,” said Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera. “Our job here at the Legislative Auditor’s office is not only to collect the information, but to make it available to the public who is paying to run these hospitals.”
On Aug. 11, 2015, 19^th Judicial District Court Judge Janice Clark ruled in favor of the Legislative Auditor after a trial on the merits, denying the hospital’s petition for injunctive relief and ordering that the hospital CEO’s supplemental report must be included within the publicly- issued audit report. The Legislative Auditor publicly released the audit report on Aug. 19, 2015, but withheld the final two pages pending the hospital’s decision regarding appeal.

In her ruling, Judge Clark denied the hospital’s motion for a new trial and the hospital’s request for a stay of the effect of the earlier trial judgment pending the appeal. If the court had granted the request for a stay, this would have kept the hospital CEO’s information confidential while the appeal continued. The hospital has now filed a petition seeking a devolutive appeal – meaning the hospital nevertheless wishes to continue the appeal process.