MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Board of Pharmacy is "universally disliked" by its licensees, according to House Pro-Tem Chris Pringle (R-Mobile).
Legislators will scrutinize multiple licensing boards at a sunset committee meeting on Thursday. A sunset report released by the Alabama Examiners of Public Accounts on Wednesday provided more details about the January resignation of Donna Yeatman, the former executive secretary of the Alabama Board of Pharmacy, who received a $255,000 settlement.
The resignation came after a 2024 report found several "significant issues" on the pharmacy board. The legislature then passed a bill overhauling the board in the 2025 session.
According to the sunset report released on Wednesday, the board erroneously referred to the settlement agreement as a case in its meeting minutes. The report also details how the board omitted from its meeting minutes from a January 22 meeting that the board requested Yeatman's resignation.
The board also violated the Open Meetings Act by discussing Yeatman's job performance at the January meeting behind closed doors by calling an executive session, according to the sunset report.
Pringle called the settlement between Yeatman and the Alabama Board of Pharmacy "ridiculous."
"I've never seen a board so universally disliked by its people. This is probably the most unpopular board I've seen. I'm sitting here reading these overpayments to people that retired, and they're making the people pay it back. They paid that lady $150,000 to leave, and I think they gave her another $150,000 in accrued sick leave. She got almost $300,000 to leave," Pringle said. "That's ridiculous paying somebody that kind of money. It's like being a football coach. This board, the level of dislike from their members and their licensees is just mind-boggling to me."
The Alabama Board of Pharmacy responded to the significant findings in the sunset report released on Wednesday.
"The Board's practice is to assign case numbers to pending litigation and settlement matters discussed in executive session because actions are recorded by case number only. Accordingly, the settlement agreement with the former Secretary was designated as Case Number 25-D-0122. While not tied to a traditional complaint, this designation followed established procedure for documenting legal actions in the Board's minutes," the Alabama Board of Pharmacy said in its response. "The Board acknowledges that its meeting minutes did not specifically reflect the resignation of the former Secretary. In executive session on January 22, 2025, the Board only authorized an agreement pending all relevant government approvals pursuant to the terms and parameters it established. The resignation was requested as part of a settlement in designated case number 25-D-0122 to avoid potential litigation. The resignation was negotiated within the context of settlement discussions, and the agreement to resign was not reached until January 29, 2025. The discussion involving pending and potential litigation surrounding the former Secretary was appropriately handled during the executive session in accordance with Ala. Code § 3625A-7(a)(3). Board counsel was present, and the Board consulted with the Attorney General's Office regarding the legal ramifications of and legal options regarding pending or potential litigation."
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