Why Mayor Summers Turned From Metro to His "Risky" Plan

[Bill Call]

Mr. Call: I don't believe anyone on either side of this debate has intentionally lied to me. Both have been selective with what they tell me and too quick to discredit sources. When I hear a boldface lie, I'll be sure to report it here. In the meantime, I'm advocating that we all work together toward a common goal. Discrediting those who don't agree with me or, worse yet, calling them liars will not serve our community.

Mr. Kenny, you say that you were told that the Lakewood Family Health Center would be like the Twinsburg Family Health Center. You repeated that assertion here on the deck. However, the Twinsburg Family Health Center is 195,000 square feet, has dozens of doctors and specialists and a surgery center and in a few years will be adjacent to a full service hospital.

The Lakewood Family Health Center will have 65,000 square feet and no surgery center and as of today no firm commitment to have any doctors or specialists and IN NO CASE HAVE A SURGERY CENTER OR HOSPITAL.

Please explain how the proposed Lakewood Family Health Center is going to be similar to the Twinsburg Family Health Center.

It is obvious that they are not similar and that the proposed Lakewood Family Health Center is more like the family Health Center in East Cleveland. If you are fine with that then just say so but don't repeat an obviously false statement.

If the opponents of Lakewood Hospital are going around town telling people that the Lakewood Family Health Center will be similar to the Twinsburg Family Health Center they are lying.

Consider this Mr. Kenny, if the opponents of Lakewood Hospital have to keep their plans secret and lie about the Lakewood Family Health Center and lie about the recreation center ....

HOW GOOD CAN THE PLAN REALLY BE?

[Bridget Conant]

Mr Kenny

You seem to forget that we DO have leverage at the moment - it's called a legally binding lease that the Clinic has indicated they intend to honor.

That lease, if honored as it should be, does not expire until 2026. The intentional diversion of hospital services, in order to make it appear that the hospital is losing money, will be addressed in the taxpayer lawsuit. The Clinic cannot continue to be duplicitous without risking exposure.

To me, a hasty decision is a bad decision. Until all the facts are available, I'm not willing to be pushed into blindly following the mayor's plan. Along with many others, I believe there are serious issues that have not been adequately addressed. I won't be frightened into grabbing on to some vague plan that still today has not been clearly stated. Just what "development" do they have in mind? Tell me, I might be interested.

[Jim Kenny]

Mr. Call: I agree the Twinsburg facility and the proposed Lakewood Wellness Center are dissimilar when compared by size. This doesn’t make anyone a liar to make the comparison. Not everyone chooses to accept that comparison.

Bridget: Lakewood Hospital Association and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation do have a lengthy contract. But at the end of the day, the Clinic is only obligated to honor three services (Emergency, OB/GYN and Acute Care Surgery Services). And I dare say, that the end of the day is fast approaching.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Bridget: Lakewood Hospital Association and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation do have a lengthy contract. But at the end of the day, the Clinic is only obligated to honor three services (Emergency, OB/GYN and Acute Care Surgery Services). And I dare say, that the end of the day is fast approaching.

Still better than this deal.

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[Don Schmitz]

I may be a little late to this discussion, but here's what I recently found out.

The mayor had no choice but to ignore or reject MetroHealth's proposal. From section 9.3.1 of the Definitive Agreement, "CCF and Lakewood agree that the parties will negotiate with each other in good faith and only with each other regarding the subject matter of this Agreement...Lakewood and any officer, director or controlling person thereof will not solicit any competing proposals for the integration, consolidation or acquisition of Lakewood (Hospital, presumably) by any other person or entity...any proposal which is received from any officer, director or controlling person of Lakewood, or any affiliate thereof, whether or not solicited by Lakewood shall be rejected..."

He could have just told us that he or the LHA wasn't able to negotiate with anyone else before the lease with the Clinic ends. Thus the whole talk about RFPs was bogus.

[Brian Essi]

Don,

The Definitive Agreement is a complex document---typical of CCF--like the LOI---very hard to understand.

The section you refer to above related to a period of time back in 1996 prior to the "Closing Date" which is defined in section 1.7. That referred to the time period before the Definitive Agreement took effect.

So Summers was and is free to negotiate with others. But he chose to side with CCF.

In my opinion, he was very weak and has been afraid of CCF---many of the trustees are too. They are afraid to talk with me.

Not exactly the kind of people you want leading the future of healthcare for 50K plus citizens.

[Brian Essi]

Summers was forced to produce the May 2014 Metro Proposal proposal as a result of political pressure that I instigated.

Summers was forced to produce September 2014 Metro proposal per public records requests that I pursued well after the Metro proposal was "dead."

I smell that Summers is currently concealing something from us regarding proposals made by parties other CCF.