Mary Alice Heuschel and Dr. Paul Joos agree on many issues in their race for an open seat for the Public Hospital District No. 1 commission.

Both are running to serve their community. They each bring a deep understanding of their professions –  education and medicine.

Joos has run his own business as an eye surgeon for more than three decades. Heuschel has managed a multi-million budget for the Renton School District, mostly fueled by public tax dollars, as its superintendent.

Both want to ensure the new strategic alliance between Valley Medical Center and UW Medicine serves the community well and the public’s interests in the hospital district are protected.

“We need to make sure we have access to affordable health care,” said Joos.

Joos and Heuschel met recently with the Renton Reporter’s Editorial Board for an in-depth conversation leading up to the Renton Reporter’s endorsement.

As an educator, Heuschel sees how poor health affects a child’s education.

“The connection between education and health care is absolute and clear,” she said.

Her experience with taxpayer dollars “sets me apart in a different way,” she said, in discussing how she differs from Joos.

She said she “learned a lot” serving on the President’s Advisory Council that helped shape the new strategic alliance. Heuschel was the state Superintendent of the Year in 2010 and was one of four finalists for the national honor.

“I decided to step forward and bring some leadership to the board,” she said.

Joos has done thousands of eye surgeries during his long career. He has also provided eye care to those in need locally and in foreign countries. He sees his election to the hospital commission as another way to serve his community.

He’s concerned that “unelected bureaucrats” are setting the tone and direction for the hosital.

“The board needs better leadership. They need better intelligence. They need to show more initiative,” he said.

Joos said he and Heuschel are probably the best candidates to run for the hospital commission in the last 10 years.

“Either of us would be a positive change to the board,” he said. What he hopes to see is a continued change in the direction of the commission.

He calls himself a reformer.

What differentiates Joos and Heuschel the most is their reaction to something that happened in the past. Their race has a third “candidate,” Rich Roodman, the longtime CEO of Valley Medical Center, who now manages the strategic alliance between Valley Medical and UW Medicine.

Roodman’s name isn’t on the ballot, of course, but it often is raised either directly or obliquely as Joos makes his case to replace Don Jacobson on the five-member hospital district board.

One of Joos’s main priorities is the removal of Roodman from his job. As reasons, he cites the $120,000 fine the Public Disclosure Commission levied against Roodman for campaign violations in a failed hospital annexation in 2006.

Heuschel is aware of that history and had she been sitting on the hospital board at the time would have considered discussing Roodman’s future. But she wouldn’t go deeper into the issue of Roodman’s fate because she wasn’t privy to all the information available to commissioners six years ago.

Roodman also received a $1.7 million retirement payment in early 2009, which was part of his compensation package. Roodman continues to work; Joos wants to see executive pay reduced and the savings used to hire more nurses.

Joos’s position on Roodman most closely aligns him with two other commissioners, fellow doctor, Aaron Heide, and Anthony Hemstad. Both were elected as reform commissioners.While Joos and Heuschel support the alliance between UW Medicine and Valley Medical, they disagree on the underlying reason for its creation.

The hospital administration pushed for the alliance and a larger board because it feared it would lose control of the elected commission, Joos said. Heuschel said that’s not the case.

“I believe that was an honest process with the community,” she said of the development of the strategic alliance

Joos wouldn’t come to board with an agenda, he said, but he wants to make changes. “I think the administration needs to be changed,” he said. He wants to see administrative and marketing costs decreased, with the savings going to hire nurses and provide better patient care.

“I want to put more substance behind the marketing claims,” he said.

Heuschel’s first priority, she said, “would be to maintain safety and quality of care,” what she called the prime responsibility of any board member. That’s not an agenda for change, she said, and the focus needs to remain.

Her agenda is to ensure the alliance with UW Medicine is implemented effectively in a way that benefits the community.

Questions have been raised about both candidates whether they have conflicts of interest.

For his part, Joos said he would recuse himself from any vote involving eye care provided by Valley Medical Center. His clinic is in a private office building on the hospital campus. Like other physicians with offices there, he owns a small percentage of the building. He said he would recuse himself from any board decisions related to the 4011 Talbot Professional Building.

In Heuschel’s case, some have pointed out that Valley Medical Center has given money to the Renton School District. The hospital has been a financial supporter of the Friends of Renton Schools, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improvement student achieve in Renton schools. But it’s not part of the school district. However, she said she would recuse herself if a situation did arise affecting directly the school district.

Joos and Heuschel agree that the discord on the elected commission has cast the hospital in a negative light.

Heuschel has raised the most in campaign contributions, $83,237, and spent the most, $70,236, as reported to the state Public Disclosure Commission on Wednesday.

Joos has raised $66,770 and spent $46,221.