Council Member Miller Wants More Transparency On CRMC Budget Before Approval

Cookeville City Council Member Mark Miller said salary transparency is one of his main concerns with CRMC’s budget.

Miller said citizens have a right to be aware of wages since the hospital is a publicly owned facility.

“The residents of the city, we own this budget,” Miller said. “One of the largest questions from some of the concerned citizens are about salary transparency. I think that is pretty critical for a public official to be able to share their salary. You go to the county from Randy Porter to the lowest paid person of the county, you can find out what their salary is. If you go to the city from James Mills all the way down to the lowest paid person at the city, you can find out what their salary is. (…) So why is that not happening at this public institution?”

Miller said he is not comfortable voting on the budget until salary questions are answered. Miller said he is unsure why these questions have not been brought up before, but he looks to learn more about the medical center’s budget.

“You always hear the phrase it has been this way for the past 50 years, but I can’t accept that phrase,” Miller said. “I am always going to do what is best and better. I always try to improve on any process.”

Another factor contributing to Miller’s standing on the budget are inconsistencies. According to Miller, the council also received two versions of the hospital’s budget with line items that do not match.

“We were given a binder, and we were given a PDF file for the 2021-2022 budget, and those budgets aren’t the same,” Miller said. “So, we don’t know if we are voting on the binder budget or if we are voting on the PDF file budget.”

Miller said line items for marketing and other expenses differ the most with about $1.4 million more in one budget.

“One of the budgets we had had their marketing budgeted at $752,829, and then the second budget that we received, it said the marketing budget was $1,716,429. So there is quite a large discrepancy,” Miller said. “One of the other line items just says other. One of the budgets that we got says the other budget is $229,367, and then on the other budget where it says other, it says $630,867.”

Miller said the hospital needs to straighten out its budget and clear up salary questions for the council to approve.