As leaders search for ways to fix the state’s broken mental health care system, the entity in charge of providing services in Western North Carolina is facing its own degree of turmoil.

A recent board meeting of local management entity Smoky Mountain Center for Mental Health was characterized by a vote that split the board down the middle and an announcement by area director Tom McDevitt that he intended to resign his position.

The two contentious items of discussion were an amended set of bylaws and a new contract for McDevitt.

The organization is adopting a new set of bylaws to reflect its merger with the Foothills local management entity, which covers Caldwell, Alexander and McDowell counties. Smoky Mountain will now oversee a 15-county region.

At the opening of the discussion about the bylaws, however, some board members made it clear they wouldn’t vote to approve them, based on a section dictating the removal of board members.

The rules of this section were cause for concern among several board members. Included was a passage dictating “an at-large member of the Board may be removed with or without cause by a majority of the County Commissioners present.”

Half the Smoky Mountain Center board is made up of county commissioners from the counties it serves; the other half is comprised of “at-large” members — those appointed on the recommendation of county commissioners.

Another passage read that a majority of county commissioners could choose to remove one of their own for conduct deemed detrimental.

Several county commissioners expressed discomfort with the power of removal that the amended bylaws would give them.

“I do not want the authority as a county commissioner of removing a county commissioner from that board,” said Haywood County Commissioner Mary Ann Enloe. “They were elected by their constituents in their counties, and so am I.”

Enloe also said she failed to see the necessity of the power, which hadn’t previously been included in the bylaws.

“I didn’t see the point in it,” she said. “It’s never been in there before. Why was it suddenly put in there? I haven’t heard of any problem with a county commissioner, ever,” she said.

Jackson County Commissioner Joe Cowan said he objected because the removal of someone without reason didn’t give them adequate time to defend themself.

“I don’t see it as my place to remove somebody without even a hearing or them having the opportunity to defend themselves,” he said.

Judy Davis, an at-large member from Ashe County, defended the bylaws. She said the passages dictating removal were meant to highlight the seriousness of committing to serve on the board of Smoky Mountain Center.

“One reason we recommended this is that people do need to realize it’s a commitment,” she said.

At-large member Anne Hyde, of Haywood County, acknowledged that attendance has sometimes presented a problem in the past. But, she said, the removal passage still wasn’t necessary.

“I’ve been here in years when people have accepted an appointment and never been here,” Hyde said. “But if we do a better job of making sure we lead people through the commitment they’re making, this whole section may be unnecessary.”

Cherokee County Commissioner Dana Jones expressed concern over who would hold the county commissioners accountable if they held all the power to remove others.

“If a board can remove a member, then there’s nobody that can be held accountable other than the board, and I think that’s wrong,” Jones said.

Cowan took issue with the passage that referred to detrimental conduct.

It defined detrimental conduct as “the intentional misrepresentation of facts casting negative light on the board of LME, deliberate acts to undermine or impede the success of the LME board,” followed by several other sentences.

“It seems like it prohibits anybody from saying anything negative about the organization,” Cowan said. “I think that’s so subject to misinterpretation, like you couldn’t make a legitimate constructive criticism without being accused of trying to undermine the organization.”

At the end of the discussion, the eight members attending the satellite meeting at the Sylva location voted to table passage of the bylaws. The 11 members present at the official meeting in Banner Elk voted not to. With the addition of proxy votes by members in Sylva, the bylaws didn’t receive two-thirds vote and failed to pass.

After more debate, the board voted unanimously to accept the bylaws if the section governing removal of board members was thrown out. Though an agreement was ultimately reached, the process was marked by dissenting opinions and questions as to why the removal of board members was even included in the amended bylaws.

McDevitt resigns,

but not really

Arguably the most shocking moment of the meeting was when Tom McDevitt, the head of the entire 15-county Smoky Mountain Center, abruptly announced his intention to resign.

His statement followed a 90-minute closed session where it appears the board had been divided about whether to approve a five-year contract extension sought by McDevitt.

When the board resumed open session, McDevitt said, “I very much underestimated the relationship I have with a significant number on the board.”

Then, he announced, “We don’t need to talk about this anymore. I’ll give you my two-year notice in August,” and added, “I will be leaving Sept. 1, 2010.”

The board members appeared shocked, and afterward explained that their problem wasn’t with McDevitt. Instead, they had not gotten to see a copy of the proposed contract and didn’t want to agree to anything without studying it first.

“I think this could be very much misconstrued as a lack of confidence for Mr. McDevitt,” said Janice Patterson, an at-large member from Clay County. “What I’ve felt from a lot of board members is they wanted time to process things and not feel like they’re moving too quickly too fast.”

“That was my primary objection as well,” Cowan said, agreeing with Patterson. “When you approve a contract of any length, it’s vitally important that you see that contract and evaluate every element in it, so as to make sure there’s no misunderstanding later on.”

Enloe said that after her experiences with the Haywood County Council on Aging and Haywood Regional Medical Center, she was not about to agree with something she wasn’t sure she totally understood.

“I represent the people of Haywood County, and the people of Haywood County have been burned badly twice by nonprofit boards made up of good people who did not pay attention,” she said. “I’m certainly not going to approve a five-year contract for any CEO that I have not even read. That’s ludicrous.”

Today, McDevitt says he did not resign at the Smoky Mountain Center meeting.

“One thing that’s categorically clear is that I did not resign. I indicated there would be potential,” he said.

McDevitt said he would not discuss the personnel situation between he and the board. The board expressed surprise with McDevitt’s announcement.

“I’m apologetic to Tom if he takes it personally, but he shouldn’t. I think he probably spoke in haste,” Enloe said in a later interview.

“That did suprise me, and I think he overreacted,” agreed Cowan, also in an interview after the meeting. “I think he took it personally, and it wasn’t meant that way.”

As it stands, the employment contract will be sent back to the board’s attorney in order to flesh out the details and give the board more information. It will come up for a vote at the next meeting.

Attend a meeting

The meetings of Smoky Mountain Center for Mental Health typically take place in two locations — the entity’s administrative office in Sylva, where it is headquartered; and a location in the northern counties served by Smoky Mountain Center. Roughly an equal number of board members communicate via videoconferencing. At last week’s meeting, the location in the northern region was Banner Elk in Avery County. There were technical problems with the videoconferencing equipment, however, so the two groups communicated with only audio. Several of the board members said that if the group had been situated in one location, communication may have been better facilitated and a split vote may not have occurred.

Tom McDevitt, Smoky Mountain Center’s area director, attended the meeting in Banner Elk.