NORWAY, Mich. (WLUC) – On Tuesday afternoon in Norway, three county boards met for a special joint session to discuss concerns over the Northpointe Behavioral Healthcare System, including the Dickinson, Iron and Menominee County Boards.
Menominee County Board Member Patricia Mueller, who is also on the Northpointe Board of Directors, claims there are instances of retaliation and intimidation directed at board members and violations of the Open Meetings Act.
“That leaves me with a feeling of a lack of transparency, whether it’s people that want to attend the meetings that are attending and they can’t speak during public comment, they are muted, and they cannot hear the audio or if it’s people that are requesting documents and they are not receiving a response,” Mueller said.
Each board announced action items for their next meeting, including a vote of no confidence in Northpointe’s CEO and opening an investigation into the services the health care provider gives each county. Dickinson and Iron Counties say they’ll look into keeping money reserved for Northpointe in escrow until the investigation is done.
“The frustration end of it, nobody is here to fundamentally attack Northpointe by any means, it’s just that there are other failures, I believe, that could be addressed to remedy these concerns that we have,” Menominee County Board Chair Lawrence Phelps said.
The current chair of the Northpointe Board of Directors says there’s been a lack of communication with the three County Boards and the Northpointe Board.
“There are answers to all of the questions that were asked today, there are answers. We have to be able to work together and sit down and talk about those issues and clear up the misconceptions because there are answers,” Northpointe Board of Directors Chair Kevin Pirlot said.
No other action was taken at Tuesday’s meeting.
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