In 2012 the current Valley Medical Board of Commissioners decided to request a court hearing to challenge the legality of the affiliation between VMC and UW Medicine.  The three members who voted for this action (Joos, Heide and Hemstad) said that they were in favor of the affiliation and just wanted to make sure it was in compliance with state law. Well, they got their answer on Dec. 28, when Superior Court Judge Michael Hayden ruled that the affiliation is in full compliance with the law. This imprudent exercise wasted thousands of our taxpayer dollars.

Now these same three commissioners want to waste even more of our money by (1) taking the case to the state Supreme Court and (2) hiring a lobbyist to go to Olympia to actually change the law.

Affiliations and mergers in the health-care industry have been going on all over the country and make sense for many reasons. Valley Medical has grown tremendously in both size and quality of service over the past 20 years and UW Medicine is one of the finest medical institutions in the country. This affiliation makes a LOT of sense and is definitely in the best interest of local citizens.

The actions of these three commissioners are clearly contrary to our interest. The only conclusion I can draw is that they have personal reasons for this exercise in absurdity. It needs to come to a halt – NOW!!!

Jim Sullivan, Renton