If employees at Memorial Health System want Mayor Steve Bach and other members of a Memorial task force to take a “Pledge of Integrity,” they should taken one, too.

So says former Colorado Springs City Councilman Sean Paige, who today drafted a “Memorial Health System Pledge of Integrity” in response to the “Pledge of Integrity” that Memorial penned.

“Since one side in this debate has begun questioning motives, and also have become the sudden champions of total tranparency, I have my own ‘pledge of integrity’ I would like to see signed by Memorial senior staff and employees,” Paige wrote in the City Desk blog.

Here’s the Pledge of Integrity that Paige is proposing:

Memorial Health System Employee Pledge of Integrity

I ______________ , recognizing that I am a public employee who works for the citizen-owners of Memorial Health System, and who also therefore has a direct stake in the outcome of this debate, willfully and voluntarily agree to the following statements in an effort to build trust and transparency with the community.

I hereby acknowledge that any decision about the future ownership of Memorial rests primarily with the citizens of Colorado Springs, who own this asset, not with the employees of Memorial, with senior Memorial staff, with Memorial board members or with non-employees who want to see it turned-over to insider control. I also understand that this is a political decision, resting with voters, on which senior hospital staff should remain strictly neutral and on which hospital time, resources or equipment should never be used.

I also acknowledge, as a Memorial employee or a contract physician, or a spouse or relation to the forementioned, that I’m an interested party to this debate who can’t possibly be objective about the outcome and whose motives should be viewed accordingly.

I also verify that I have never for one moment given thought to how this decision might impact me, by career path, my salary, my standing with superiors, etc., but that the only thought that ever entered by mind is of what’s good for Memorial Health System and the very lucky patients we serve.

As someone who believes strongly in total transparency, I voluntarily agree to uphold the basic tenets of the Colorado Sunshine Laws by immediately disclosing to the media, without the need for a CORA request, all internal communications I’ve had and seen pertaining to this issue, or communications I may have had with outside entities likely to be involved in a Memorial-related ballot question. I understand that lobbying on enterprise time, using enterprise resources, is inappropriate. I also will voluntarily make public any and all communications I’ve had with city council members, Memorial commission members, Memorial board members or campaign-related actors or entities on this issue.

Also, in the interest of maximum transparency, I agree to immediately disclose any information I may have, or evidence I’ve seen, that could raise doubts about the fitness of the current board and management team at Memorial to be trusted with running a stand-alone, self-supporting entity completely free from independent oversight or outside control. I also hereby attest that I’ve seen a detailed and credible plan of how Memorial will become the “Mayo Clinic of Southern Colorado” and that I have total confidence not just in the plan, but in the ability of current enterprise leadership to execute it flawlessly.

I acknowledge that neither I nor my family or those close to me could incur a financial or any other gain, personally or professionally, as a result of the outcome of this process.

Signed,

____________________      Date____________

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