Keep UMC governance in the daylight

With regards to the controversy du jour at University Medical Center -- the county hospital in Las Vegas -- may I suggest that the Clark County Commission remembers what matters most about how the people's hospital is managed ... the people. Not the unions, not the doctors and not the budget.

And when I say people, I especially mean the poor.

Currently, the county commission as a committee of the whole manages the hospital. There is a proposal to create a separate management board, one that advocates say would be more private and free from the bonds of pesky reporters asking questions about who enriched themselves at the public expense (a regular question, by the way) and of the petty partisan politics that stalk the halls of the Clark County Commission.

The idea of ending UMC board management by the county commission is a good one. UMC deserves better oversight than the county commission can give with its other responsibilities.

But the idea of creating a separate board simply to get out of the public view is an incredibly bad idea for a public hospital. Create the separate board. Fine. But keep it absolutely open and transparent.