CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — The fight to keep Christus Spohn's Emergency Medicine Residency Program alive continued Wednesday morning at Nueces County Commissioners Court meeting.
There was debate over an item calling for the end of Judge Connie Scott's special appointed committeeto save the program. That set off some heated words by commissioners, the public and local doctors.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Joe A Gonzalez put on the agenda a call to disband Scott's committee that was created in October.
"Commissioners can go wherever they want to go, like if I want to go to the Spohn meeting, I can go. I'm not representing the county, I’m representing myself. I’ll just go. But if its driven by the county in telling Spohn what they should do... its two different things to me," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez's call to disband the committee had many in the meeting in shock.
"Given his [Gonzalez] clear dedication and history to healthcare, I initially thought it was a typo in reading the agenda for today," physician Michael Brodeur said.
"We needed the leadership of Judge Scott and this bi-partisan committee to save this and we still need that leadership to finish this," Marilyn Brodeur said.
After public comment, there was some more strong comments made by commissioners who wanted to keep the committee alive.
"The committee was appointed by the judge. It shouldn’t even be voted on or considered as an agenda item," Precinct 3 County Commissioner John Marez said. "I'm surprised it made it here because it shouldn’t. It shouldn’t have to take your time away to advocate once again. We thought it was over."
Precinct 4 County Commissioner Brent Chesney also spoke on his stance.
"We love to go when they cut the ribbons and be involved with them then. We got to be involved when they’re cutting programs too," Chesney said. "The work is not done. We are nowhere near done because you can’t just quit and pick back up in two years because we’ll be right back where we were."
Not all commissioners were in favor of supporting the committee. Precinct 1 Commissioner Robert Hernandez abstained from the vote and said there were other items he wants to put more attention towards.
"You have a difference of opinion along with others, but lets face it we’re divided here," he said.
Ultimately Commissioner Gonzalez did not make a motion to disband the committee. Instead, Chesney made a motion to make the Emergency Management Committee long standing in order to improve doctor recruitment and retention.
Both Commissioners Joe A Gonzalez and Robert Hernandez abstained from the vote.
A motion to keep the committee for the long term passed by a vote of 3-2.
