Straight from the Court filings
“In September 2010, just weeks following the orchestrated presentations made by high ranking CCF executives to City Council [including the complicit Council President Kevin Butler] CCF began to backslide on its promises. Dr. David Bronson, the President of CCF regional hospitals and a close strategic adviser to Defendant Dr. Cosgrove, testified in his deposition that he advised Lakewood Mayor FitzGerald [close political ally of Summers, Butler and Bullock] that the Vision for Tomorrow Plan for sustainability of Lakewood Hospital was not effective, even though the long-term plan had not yet been fully implemented. (Bronson Tr. 180-183). Dr. Bronson testified that he wanted to make sure that the Mayor [and his allies Summers, Butler and Bullock] had an accurate view of the probability of success of the Lakewood Hospital plan. (Bronson Tr. 180).
Keep in mind that a political ally of Summers--and LHF trustee--Jay Foran had orchestrated a presentation with CCF executives prior to 2010 that foreshadowed the shady scheme of Summers and Fitzgerald with CCF to further their political careers.
In late 2010, the new Mayor of Lakewood, Defendant Summers, who had not read the City Charter establishing and mandating a public hospital for Lakewood and completely untrained as to his duties to the citizens of Lakewood, joined the Lakewood Hospital Association. (Summers Tr. 9-12). After joining the Hospital Board, Defendant Summers began to engage in discussions with Dr. Bronson concerning future health care options for Lakewood Hospital. Those discussions thereupon evolved as to options for an outpatient office building, a new recreation center, and acres of land for commercial development. (Bronson Tr. 235). [So political allies Butler and Bullock].
“The closing of Lakewood Hospital provided a great opportunity for the Mayor to “Think
Big” as to the possibilities of re-purposing ripe land available for thirsty developers and a
Hospital Foundation of $31 million to benefit a hospital that no longer existed. The assets of
land combined with the financial strength of the extinct Lakewood Hospital Foundation, in
which the Mayor's own wife served as a board member, created opportunities to control the
wealth, feather a political nest, and direct development for years to come. All contrary to the
Charter of the City of Lakewood that mandated a hospital for the citizens of Lakewood.”
“In early 2011, Mayor Summers, Dr. Bronson, and a few CCF employees and LHA trustees began the secret planning process to close Lakewood Hospital and establish an exclusive medical office building on the Lakewood Hospital property.”
“Dr. Bronson also testified that he later abandoned the request for a land use restriction, yet it remained in the final Master Agreement between the City of Lakewood, CCF, and LHA. (Bronson Tr. 239-242). Defendant Summers testified that he supported a restrictive covenant, so as to eliminate the opportunity for CCF competitors to open on the Lakewood Hospital campus, as he wanted CCF to be successful. (Summers Tr. 232-233).” So it was Summers’ who insisted on the non-compete on the former Hospital Site real estate to “feather his political nest” and help his developer friends and powerful banking connections.
An internal CCF document revealed in the Court filing shows that CCF knew it was legally liable under the 1996 Agreements to cover capital improvements and operating losses through 2026 and that that liability was estimated at 279.5M. This one document completely undermines Kevin Butler’s erroneous and fraudulent legal “opinion” claiming that CCF was not contractually liable for the losses. WOW!
Repeat: Summers and Fitzgerald used the concocted legal opinion of Butler to let CCF out of a $278.5 Million contractual liability to “feather their political nests.”
WOW!
Here is the full Court filing from yesterday:
