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Committee approves referral for bill that reduces Swift County-Benson hospital district board size
Summary
House File 1703, on behalf of Representative Anderson, would reduce the governing board of the Swift County-Benson Hospital District from nine to six members to reflect the hospital's affiliation and the board's reduced duties; the committee re-referred the bill to the general register.
House File 1703, presented by Representative Anderson, would amend the statute creating the Swift County-Benson Hospital District to reduce the number of appointed board members from nine to six, preserving the two-to-one county-to-city appointment ratio. The bill was presented as noncontroversial and was re-referred to the general register by the committee.
Grant Rifendahl, a member of the hospital district governing board, described the district's history: the county and city partnered to build a hospital with a two-thirds county and one-third city ownership split; population decline and consolidation of services led the local governing board to seek a management agreement and later affiliation with CentraCare of Saint Cloud. The board now leases the hospital and clinic to CentraCare and the assisted-living facility to Kira of Benson; the board's remaining responsibilities are to ensure lease payments and bond payments are made. "Some of the members of the governing board became part of the local advisory boards . . . but remain also as members of the existing governing board of the hospital district whose only district's only duties now are to make sure that the district receives the annual lease payments," Rifendahl said.
Rifendahl and the sponsor said the change preserves the existing county-to-city appointment ratio, reduces administrative burden and has no fiscal cost. The committee approved the motion to re-refer the bill to the general register by voice vote.
