Have Some Extra Time to Improve the City?

[Jim O'Bryan]

Jim,

What is your take on the formation of the new healthy organization? Should it be frowned upon, mocked and ridiculed because of the situation you say it derived from? Or, should it be the "lemonade" made from the situation. There is a real opportunity for the community to capitalize and benefit from an organization such as this (just as other communities have community-health related organizations). I understand it does not provide jobs or the same healthcare a hospital offers, but should the community as a whole take a step towards an opportunity to be heart-healthier or turn its collective nose up and shun the opportunity? You know the downside of a lack of heart-health, what is your stance?

Corey


My stance on this is the same as it has always been. It is the same on saving the hospital or building whatever.
I want to understand how we got here, and why City Hall had to lie every step of the way. This is why I said what you quote in your posts. Don't really care about Build or Save, until we found out what went wrong and what can we fix.

Corey what is better a $16 million dollar private group looking for health money, or the City getting $120 million to build a rec center or whatever?

That is what we are talking about, many lawyers including one from the DOJ, now retired, think we are owed a lot more money. At what point is getting more a bad thing?

After understanding how we got here, I could support a completely autonomous citizen group looking into it, but they would have to start fresh.

I am having a hard time believing anything from City Hall, they lie, connive, misrepresent, and are control freaks, and it is getting worse not better.

.

[Bridget Conant]

Exactly HOW will this "wellness" foundation make us healthier?

Corporate wellness programs do not work - I've posted in previous threads with links to actual studies that prove they are a veiled attempt to shift healthcare costs to employees from employers.

The only real proven way to impact health and healthy behaviors is to increase income. Income is directly correlated to health and longevity. A higher income buys a healthier lifestyle, more leisure time, access to higher quality foods, and better healthcare.

So if anyone really wants to pay more than just lip service to improving health in the community, they should work to improve education and job opportunities.

Don't delude yourself. This new "foundation" will have no impact on the health of Lakewood. It's yet another scheme by wealthy and powerful people to keep themselves in the positions they think they deserve.

http://www.urban.org/sites/default/file ... gevity.pdf

[Corey Rossen]

Jim,

What is your take on the formation of the new healthy organization? Should it be frowned upon, mocked and ridiculed because of the situation you say it derived from? Or, should it be the "lemonade" made from the situation. There is a real opportunity for the community to capitalize and benefit from an organization such as this (just as other communities have community-health related organizations). I understand it does not provide jobs or the same healthcare a hospital offers, but should the community as a whole take a step towards an opportunity to be heart-healthier or turn its collective nose up and shun the opportunity? You know the downside of a lack of heart-health, what is your stance?

Corey


My stance on this is the same as it has always been. It is the same on saving the hospital or building whatever.
I want to understand how we got here, and why City Hall had to lie every step of the way. This is why I said what you quote in your posts. Don't really care about Build or Save, until we found out what went wrong and what can we fix.

Corey what is better a $16 million dollar private group looking for health money, or the City getting $120 million to build a rec center or whatever?

That is what we are talking about, many lawyers including one from the DOJ, now retired, think we are owed a lot more money. At what point is getting more a bad thing?

After understanding how we got here, I could support a completely autonomous citizen group looking into it, but they would have to start fresh.

I am having a hard time believing anything from City Hall, they lie, connive, misrepresent, and are control freaks, and it is getting worse not better.

.

At what point do you (or anyone) stop playing the victim card and look to move forward with the cards that are on the table? I understand the bitterness from the past situation but it sounds like the hospital is not coming back. So when do you move on and not ruin or sabotage everything in front of you because of what is behind you?

[T Peppard]

The following attributes are striking to me. They are exactly what seems to be lacking in the current leadership:

Foundation Planning Task Force Member applicant attributes should include some or all of the following:

1) Understanding the concerns of the vulnerable and traditionally under-represented populations found in the city of Lakewood

2) Personal qualities of integrity, credibility and a passion for improving the lives of the citizens of Lakewood.

Thanks for posting this information Bridget!

The task group they seek should consist of SLH members, with one primary goal: to ensure that a true RFP is performed. An RFP without tortious interference or bid rigging. This would be best for Lakewood. No Health & Wellness Center will ever have the same economic impact as our hospital, not even close! The blatant denial of the November vote is arrogant and wrong. Our leadership should be standing up to this loss, not conspiring to solidify it.

[Brian Essi]

Jim,

What is your take on the formation of the new healthy organization? Should it be frowned upon, mocked and ridiculed because of the situation you say it derived from? Or, should it be the "lemonade" made from the situation. There is a real opportunity for the community to capitalize and benefit from an organization such as this (just as other communities have community-health related organizations). I understand it does not provide jobs or the same healthcare a hospital offers, but should the community as a whole take a step towards an opportunity to be heart-healthier or turn its collective nose up and shun the opportunity? You know the downside of a lack of heart-health, what is your stance?

Corey


My stance on this is the same as it has always been. It is the same on saving the hospital or building whatever.
I want to understand how we got here, and why City Hall had to lie every step of the way. This is why I said what you quote in your posts. Don't really care about Build or Save, until we found out what went wrong and what can we fix.

Corey what is better a $16 million dollar private group looking for health money, or the City getting $120 million to build a rec center or whatever?

That is what we are talking about, many lawyers including one from the DOJ, now retired, think we are owed a lot more money. At what point is getting more a bad thing?

After understanding how we got here, I could support a completely autonomous citizen group looking into it, but they would have to start fresh.

I am having a hard time believing anything from City Hall, they lie, connive, misrepresent, and are control freaks, and it is getting worse not better.

.

At what point do you (or anyone) stop playing the victim card and look to move forward with the cards that are on the table? I understand the bitterness from the past situation but it sounds like the hospital is not coming back. So when do you move on and not ruin or sabotage everything in front of you because of what is behind you?

Corey,

Exactly, how does Summers' "magical thinking" work from your perspective? The NVP of the "health and wellness" foundation is about $16.5M--that's $65M less than we had last year that supported "healthcare". LHF has done little to make us "heart-healthy" despite decades of its existence--they barely break even on their fundraising efforts when considering their fixed overhead.

The "applicant attributes" Summers advertised for this week don't really relate to "health and wellness"---it seems it will be a "round up the usual suspects" political organization of "community" leaders---No doctors and healthcare providers (the people most in touch with health needs and health in general).

Please share the details of your vision of how a group with the "attributes" Summers seeks will somehow "magically" transform the $16.5M (much less than LHF's assets) into "heart-healthy" Lakewood or even make us "healthier" in any meaningful way?

[cmager]

$16.5M divided by 60K people is $275 per person. If it's in trust the payout is $13 pp/year. That's not going to impact the health of any population.

[Brian Essi]

$16.5M divided by 60K people is $275 per person. If it's in trust the payout is $13 pp/year. That's not going to impact the health of any population.

That's not even enough to pay for garbage collection.

[Lori Allen _]

If Summers and Council were really serious about Lakewood's health and wellness, they would stop approving more liquor establishments, vape stores and burner cell phone stores. I believe this is what Summer's and Siley's legacy will be. I don't recall hearing anything from city hall announcing a large fortune 500 company or above moving into Lakewood. Where are the businesses that will employ a large number of people, pay a good wage and offer excellent benefits? Can anyone support a family if one or two adults are working in a vape store? Of course, a large corporation would not wheel and deal with the council and mayor to sell for profit for all those involved like it appears CCF did. We HAD that employer here until the mayor, council and their friends stole it from us! Also, we have at least one and possibly more gangs in Lakewood now. Are we doing anything about this or is Summer's turning his back and pretending it doesn't exist as he has always done in the past? What about our large heroin problem? I said at a council meeting about three years ago that we needed a teen support center. I even volunteered to look for funding but the mayor said we don't need it. Well Mr. Mayor, don't you think we need it now? Apparently he doesn't realize that Lakewood is larger than just the properties north of the William Sonoma line. The administration in Lakewood has no intentions to bring health and wellness to Lakewood. I think it is just another way to squander more hospital money into one of their friends supposed non-profit. Mr. Mayor, you have failed the young people in our community.