City Sold Hospital to Clinic For $9.6M, Summers and Bullock Resign Facing Ohio Ethics Issues

[Brian Essi]

It is beyond debate that the City sold Lakewood Hospital to the Clinic.

On December 22, 2015, (the day after the City sold Lakewood Hospital to the Clinic) the Clinic filed an amendment to LHA’s articles of incorporation with the Ohio Secretary of State in Columbus making LHA the Clinic’s wholly owned subsidiary. For example, the Amended Articles provide that LHA’s mission was no longer to serve Lakewood’s residents and it’s poor and when LHA is dissolved, all hospital assets and money go to the Clinic, not Lakewood.

Amended Articles of LHA 12.22.2015.pdf

(379.52 KiB) Downloaded 127 times

Shortly thereafter, Mayor Summers, Tom Bullock and Mary Madigan resigned from LHA’s board of trustees because LHA no longer was to serve Lakewood and the hospital was no longer owned by the City---They had to resign to avoid Ohio Ethics Commission violations.

Further proof that the hospital was sold to the Clinic, comes from the Master Agreement that transferred to the Clinic everything that was necessary to operate a fully functioning full service inpatient hospital including, but not limited all of Lakewood Hospital’s:

1. good will
2. a covenant not to compete,
3. all accounts receivable,
4. all cash
5. all portfolios of stocks and bonds.
6. all hospital bed licenses,
7. all financial records
8. All customer and vendor lists,
9. all confidential patient lists,
10. all trade secrets,
11. all MR imagers,
12. all cardio cath lab equipment,
13. all CAT scan equipment,
14. all X-ray equipment,
15. all operating room equipment,
16. all labor and delivery equipment,
17. all Emergency Room equipment,
18. all ultrasound equipment,
19. all computer equipment and servers,
20. a satellite State of the Art Surgical/Medical Office Building on Columbia Road,
21. all inventories of drugs;
22. all inventories of medical supplies
23. all furniture,
24. all removable fixtures,
25. all exam room lights,
26. all hospital beds;
27. all bed pans,
28. all wheelchairs,
29. all desks and chairs televisions,
30. all exercise equipment,
31. all rehabilitation equipment,
32. all stethoscopes,
33. all blood pressure testing equipment,
34. all scalpels,
35. all bed sheets and pillow cases,
36. all syringes,
37. all toothpaste and toothbrushes
38. all QTips.
39. all sutures
40. etc. etc. etc. and
41. “all of [the Hospital’s] property of every nature and description, and any and all personal property, equipment and fixtures at the Hospital, shall be transferred to the Clinic.” Section 3.3(a) of the Master Agreement.

So, CCF purchased everything necessary to operate a fully functioning full service inpatient hospital. The only part of the hospital’s property used in the hospital operations that CCF did not purchase was the empty gutted hospital building on Belle Avenue.

The Amended Lease at Section 8 (attached to the Master Agreement) refers to the hospital building as being “MOTHBALLED”. So we got a MOTHBALLED building, and the Clinic got about everything else.

Additionally, even the sign on the outside of the sold hospital was changed.

Evidence that Summers, Mr. Anderson, Jenn Pae and other Insiders never read the Master Agreement and/or are intentionally mispresenting it, comes from their own words when they claim we “still own the hospital” and “we did not sell the hospital” Indeed, Summers said in his deposition: "We weren't selling this hospital.” [Summers transcript page 155; line 14.] That just isn’t true—it was sold and the CAFR proves it too.

Further evidence of the fact that Sam O’Leary and City Council never read and understood the Master Agreement will be shown in another post concerning O’Leary’s first day as council president. Stay tuned...

[Lori Allen _]

In my opinion, the whole City Hall is oozing with ethics violations. Unfortunately, it appears that the Ohio Ethics Commission is mum on the issue (Nickie Antonio's influence?).

My favorite was City Hall selling a city (taxpayer)-owned vacant lot on Waterbury to an alleged Summers friend for $0 without it going on the open market. Why is City Hall giving away taxpayer property to their alleged friends for free without putting it on the market? That has to be an ethics violation.

Speaking of LHA, I'm still wondering how it is not a conflict of interest for John Litten to run for city council when he was serving on the LHA Board of Trustees. From what I was told, he was not disclosing this when knocking on doors. Why not? If the deal is so great, why hide the fact that he has an affiliation?

[Brian Essi]

I would hope that David Anderson would comment on the facts I cite above, because he is one of several who claims the hospital was not sold.

[Brian Essi]

I would hope that David Anderson would comment on the facts I cite above, because he is one of several who claims the hospital was not sold.

Jenn Pae is spreading major falsehoods around town.

For example, last Thursday she wrote: "The City never sold the hospital. It still owns the hospital."

Mr. Anderson and Mrs. Pae,

Can you both retract your false comments to avoid voter confusion.

In addition to what is written above, please note:

LHA is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Clinic and they are operating a stand alone ER.

The building has been de-marked and the words "hospital" have been removed from the signage because it is no longer a hospital.

A "hospital" is something you have surgeries and other serious procedures in and stay the night.