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Though the ethics commission does not make recommendations for removal, other authorities, such as the County Commission, also can act on the findings.
The board’s newest member, Lipof, declined to comment on the ethics investigation. A longtime South Florida educator, Lipof replaces Joaquin del Cueto, who resigned in February.
She was sworn in by Jackson’s board in April and served a one-month term. But she still requires county commission approval for a new term of one year. Lipof was a teacher at Miami Dade College for 39 years and is now retired, though she still teaches courses in psychology and human sexuality. She’s also active in her union, the United Faculty of Miami Dade College.
Lipof raised a question at the April 29 meeting when colleagues voted to renew the employment contract for Carlos Migoya, Jackson’s chief executive. Lipof asked about the measures for awarding Migoya bonuses of up to $295,000. Migoya earns a base annual salary of $590,000, plus benefits of about $142,500.
When he was hired in 2011, Migoya’s employment contract included bonuses only for financial performance. He earned a $220,000 bonus for 2012, and, after taxes, donated the remaining $160,000 to the Jackson Memorial Foundation, which benefits the hospital system.
Migoya now is eligible for bonuses based on financial improvement and quality performance, such as patient safety and satisfaction. Lipof asked know how such goals would be measured.
“The measures of those qualities, as far as I could see, weren’t specified that if you reach this mark, you get the full 50 percent, and if you reach a lesser mark you get some of it,’’ she said. “None of that was spelled out in the contract, so my question was regarding that. And I got an answer, which is one of the committees of the board actually looks at those qualities. There are, I guess, nationally accepted measures for those qualities.’’
Lipof declined to identify priorities for her term on the board, or to outline an agenda.
“It’s too early in the game for me to even tell you that I have priorities,’’ she said. “I don’t know enough yet.’’
Lipof said she has “a history with Jackson,’’ having attended nursing school at the hospital for three years in 1964, and added that she wants the hospital system to remain the region’s pre-eminent medical research institution and hospital.
“I want to see it survive as a first choice place,’’ she said, “where people who are really ill will go because they receive the best treatment.’’
A previous version of this article misstated Joe Arriola's relationship with the University of Miami.
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