I have been astounded that now more than three weeks after bids were received on the pending sale of Natchez Regional Medical Center, the number of bids received and the names of those bidders are being withheld from the public.

If I correctly interpret the remarks of Supervisor Mike Lazarus, which appeared in the article published on the subject in the Tuesday edition of The Natchez Democrat, he does not have this information yet either. This is a man who will be asked to cast a vote in this matter.

I am not at all surprised that Natchez Regional CEO Scott Phillips wants to keep that information private until negotiations are concluded. My surprise comes from the curious silence of anyone to question the withholding of that information from the public. My surprise comes from the curious silence of the members of the Board of Supervisors, the Board of Trustees of Natchez Regional, attorneys for both of those boards, The Natchez Democrat, and the general public as well.

Not to mention the fact that it may not be legal to withhold such information from the public, when a publicly-owned property, up for publicly advertised bids is involved. Has anyone thought to check with the Attorney General’s Office in that regard? Also, at what point in this process will our elected officials, be allowed to review the bids for themselves?

Mr. Phillips has been allowed to dictate this process to our duly elected officials responsible for making the final decision on this sale, presumably because he is the expert in such matters. Those same officials now seem content to silently await his recommendation as to which bidder best suits the needs of the hospital. When finally received, will they simply go along with Mr. Phillips’ recommendation, because he is the expert in such matters?

I know that none of our elected officials take this most important decision lightly. I implore them scrutinize these bids, in depth, for themselves, rather than relying on the recommendation of a temporary, hired expert. When this process is over, Mr. Phillips will have moved on to the next distressed property sale, and we will all still be here to live with the consequences of this decision.

I would suggest to those officials that they had better take control of this process, and conduct it above board, in full public view. Anything less than that gives the impression that there is something in this process that needs to be hidden from public view. Publicly advertised bids should not be shrouded in all of this cloak and dagger like secrecy.

All parties involved can take this letter as notice that I, at least, will remain silent no more. The harder they try to hide the facts, the louder I will scream to make them public!

Chuck Fields

Natchez resident