Jackson board to fill vacancies by summer, commissioners told | Miami Herald

The board that runs Jackson Health System, Miami-Dade’s $1.5-billion-a-year public hospital network, has met regularly for almost a year with a vacancy on the panel — but that’s due to change by summer, Marcos Lapciuc, a member of the Jackson board, told county commissioners Thursday.

A nominating committee is scheduled to meet March 26, Lapciuc said, and begin the process of identifying and screening candidates before ratification by Miami-Dade commissioners.

At least two candidates will be recommended to fill the existing vacancy on Jackson’s governing seven-member board, the Public Health Trust. An additional two candidates will be recommended to fill another board seat in June, after member Irene Lipof’s term expires.

Lapciuc recently rescinded his own resignation, in part to prevent the board from having to fill three vacancies, he said.

The board’s nominating committee met last August to begin the process of filling the existing vacancy. The seat became vacant in May 2013 when former member Stephen Nuell resigned rather than face censure from Miami-Dade’s ethics commission, which had found Nuell abused his position on the board.

The nominating committee gave up the effort in September, though, soon after their preferred candidate, Jose Ramon Mas, chief executive of the engineering and construction firm MasTec, withdrew his name citing a potential conflict of interest because his brother serves on the board of a Jackson competitor, Miami Children’s Hospital.