The recent proposal by City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox to expand the governance board related to the TMH-FSU agreement from 17 to 19 members, allowing both FAMU and TSC to have a seat while TMH maintains a one-vote majority, has the support of Florida State Representative Allison Tant.
According to Commissioner Williams Cox, the board structure would have nine members appointed by TMH and eight appointed by FSU. Other higher educational seats would include one appointment by the FAMU president and one by the TSC president. Supermajority calculations would be adjusted accordingly.
The controversy over the governance structure erupted when it was reported that the current TMH board -after a meeting on Wednesday – balked at providing a seat on the new board for a TSC representative.
Previously, FSU had announced an MOU -agreed to by FAMU officials – which included a FAMU representative on the new board.
TMH’s lack of action related to TSC appeared have put the deal at risk and also raised questions about prior negotiations that indicated TMH would offer a seat to TSC.
On Friday morning, after the Tallahassee Democrat reported on the Williams-Cox solution to the problem, Tant posted on social media her support for the proposal.
Tant posted, “I applaud Dianne Williams-Cox for the most common sense elegant solution to ending this rift between every treasured institution in our community. I hope this can be finalized, leading to th expansion of health care options in this region.”
Tant added, “If this isn’t adopted, then we know this whole thing has never been about health care.”
