Two incumbents, one newcomer and one returning former trustee will begin new terms  on the Indian River County Hospital District board in January and a new chair will take the helm for the first time in eight years as Chairwoman Marybeth Cunningham steps down after five terms.

The independent taxing district owns the land and buildings underlying Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital and collects property taxes to support various medical, preventative health, mental health and human service programs for indigent adults and children, the under-served, the uninsured and those with barriers to accessing care.

Cunningham, who retired from General Motors Corporation at 55 years old, has led the district through its most tumultuous days including the transformation of Vero’s only hospital from a community-based facility to a branch of the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic in 2019 – just in time for a global pandemic.

The handover has been less than perfect, and Cunningham has heard the complaints and concerns, but she can leave office after the district’s December meeting knowing she did the right thing for Vero Beach.

“If we had not done that, gone with Cleveland Clinic, we would not have a hospital now, after Covid,” Cunningham said.

The eight-figure losses absorbed by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation over the past four years would have forced the locally run hospital to either shutter or charge the county’s property owners exorbitant taxes to make up the revenue shortfall.

In addition, the more than two dozen service programs the Hospital District helps fund – from Whole Family Health to the Mental Health Collaborative to Meals on Wheels and outpatient behavioral health therapy for children and the elderly – would likely have evaporated as well.

But thankfully the seven-member board of trustees decided to bring in a well-funded operator to take over the community hospital.

In 2014 when Cunningham first won her seat on the board with 54 percent of the vote against now-County Commissioner Laura Moss, she had huge shoes to fill – Alma Lee Loy size shoes, to be precise.

Loy at the time had high praise for Cunningham, pointing out her dedication to local nonprofits plus her decades of corporate experience before moving to Vero from Ohio.

“I feel that Marybeth is the right choice to be a district trustee. She is extremely qualified because of her strong management skills and ability to make decisions in a business-like way,” the late Loy said at the time.

Cunningham admits that in her first months and even years as a trustee, she faced a steep learning curve. “I didn’t know anything about healthcare,” she said.

But she listened and studied and learned, and in her second term, she was first chosen by her colleagues to chair the board – a job she will finally leave the end of the year.

The board of trustees has four more scheduled meetings before Dec. 31, including a chairman’s meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday (Nov. 20) at the Hospital District headquarters at 1705 19th Place in Vero, and the regular business meeting at 4 p.m. Nov. 21 in the County Commission Chambers at the Indian River County Administration Complex.

The chairman’s meetings are an informal, roundtable discussion, which Cunningham said she prefers to the more formal business meetings. “I like it when people come to speak with us and we all sit down together at the table much more than in the commission chambers when it feels like we’re up there looking down at them,” she said.

Both monthly meetings are open to the public and are also available remotely via Zoom. Topics on the agendas range widely, from taking a closer look at an agency’s funding and how they account for the money, to negotiating the recent building lease for the eventual Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine campus in Vero Beach, to the purchase of property to develop into a much-needed women’s sober living facility, or tough decisions about the district’s tax rate.

Finding common ground and building strong partnerships have been Cunningham’s recipe for success on the board. It’s evident that she’s a true believer in criticizing in private and praising in public, and that approach has garnered much respect in the community. Not one to shy away from tough subjects, she simply knows how to handle challenges with the utmost diplomacy.

Keeping the meetings moving forward productively – with seven elected trustees plus staff, representatives from funded agencies and members of the public all adding their point of view –  can get unwieldy at times, Cunningham said. “You’ll notice I do have to interrupt people sometimes and say let’s get back on topic,” she said.

Cunningham said leaving her post in December will be emotional for her, but not because of any trepidation over who she’s turning things over to.

Incumbents Karen Deigl and Dr. William Cooney, who she’s served alongside, were solidly re-elected. And Allen Jones, who will be seated in January, previously served on the board for eight years.

Jones, as then treasurer of the Hospital Board,  was deeply involved in the choice of Cleveland Clinic to take over the hospital, plus he’s been active on the philanthropic side of the hospital as well, chairing the hospital foundation and serving on the hospital board. Jones won in a squeaker of a race against Dr. Wayne Creelman, who for many years headed up the University of Florida Behavioral Health practice in Vero Beach which closed in December.

The newcomer on the seven-member board might just be gaining the title of trustee, but Dr. Charles Mackett, who ran unopposed, probably has the most current operational knowledge of the hospital having served as Cleveland Clinic’s Chief Medical Officer during the handover from the community hospital to its corporate successor.

The new group of trustees will fill leadership positions at their first meeting.

“We don't do an official swearing in of new Trustees. That is taken care of through paperwork filed with the state. The new Trustees will begin their term at the January meetings and officer positions will be chosen at the regular January meeting,” District Executive Assistant Kate Voss said.

Longtime Trustee Barbara Bodnar opted not to run for re-election this fall and will complete her tenure at year’s end. Bodnar also served among the trustees who carefully scrutinized all the hospital groups who bid to take over the hospital operations on a long-term lease with the district, and was an outlier voting for Orlando Health as she preferred a Florida nonprofit company.

While serving as a trustee, Cunningham has been a non-voting member of the local Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital board, which she said has afforded her a greater understanding of the hospital’s overall mission and operations that has informed her work.

When free on the conflict that serving as a Hospital District trustee presents, she said she’ll be eligible to become a full member of the Cleveland Clinic board. “If they’ll have me. If so, they would vote on that in December,” she said.