Silence speaks volumes

A gentle voice answered the phone at Bob Schneider’s Wolflin home Monday night.
“He’s not home right now,” the woman answered when I asked for Bob, the chairman of the board of trustees for Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System.
As I left a message with her, I explained I was a reporter for the Globe-News and was hoping to speak with him for a story I'm pursing on BSA.
“I’m not sure he wants to do that,” she said, her naive honesty seeping through the phone.
Her words didn’t surprise me. I didn’t expect to hear from or speak to Schneider when I called. I believed trying to reach him at his home was important needing to give him an opportunity to speak.
Schneider, like every other board member or person direct knowledge regarding the recent leaving of BSA Chief Executive John Hicks, is as tight lipped as ever.
There are not many people who know first hand what happened to Hicks. While anybody can speculate or try to inquire on their own, only these few people will know why Hicks suddenly left after 13 years at BSA’s helm.
There was no indication this was coming for the man previously believed to be extremely secure in his job.
Schneider and every other board member, none have ever returned a call concerning any story, have every right to maintain silence on what boils down to a personnel matter.
But this is different. Hicks was not a rank-and-file nurse or staffer. He was the longtime chief with an annual compensation of roughly $1 million.
BSA is one of the largest employers in Amarillo and the largest hospital in nearly 120 miles. The leadership of BSA sets policy that impacts the health care of an entire region. When that leadership changes, questions should be answered.
Why? Why did Hicks leave? Was he really fired? If so, for what reason or reasons?
The first and only time I ever reached Schneider via phone it was nearly two years ago. He hung up on me.
“We have a spokeswoman to answer your questions,” he said referring to BSA spokeswoman Mary Barlow.
Click. He ended the conversation right then with no chance for me to explain myself.
Hicks’ leaving BSA is one of the biggest stories to come out of Amarillo’s medical community in recent months.
The public may never find answers to its questions if the philosophy of the board’s current leadership doesn’t change.