cmager wrote:Jim O'Bryan wrote:We have been played.
We have been played by Summers and Fitzy and their Merry Gang, and by the CCF. CCF does not get a pass in this.
If someone came to you and said they were going to rob a bank, and offered you a bunch of the loot to go along, what do you do? Do you take the loot, or do you go to the police? You're saying it's OK for CCF to take the loot because they're a corporation? How swell that the corporate PR machine of NE Ohio (and for that matter, that of America) can normalize such expectations. I call bullshit.
CM
A couple reasons for me to say what I say, and I am not absolving CCF of blame, just putting it in proper perspective, and honest perspective. I also personally believe that the war against CCF is like throwing yourself against a wall, and somewhat pointless, as the city of Lakewood had no contract with CCF, but LHA did. Is CCF complicit sure, but to what end, what did they owe Lakewoodites as opposed to what they owed themselves and their board. I would also point out the CCF has never lied to me about what was going on, City of Lakewood continues to lie, misrepresent, cover-up, and destroy documents. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm?
More to the point, the City of Lakewood, the Mayor, Law Director, Finance Director and member of council have fiduciary duties to the residents of Lakewood. They by law and through election our our eyes, ears, and legal arms to protect and serve. To my limited knowledge, I have never heard of a document from CCF asking to be released from their contract. However there are documents from City Hall and LHA asking them to reconsider their contract and basically move on. These are now the infamous RFPs issued by City Hall the first one ignored by CCF as they already had a contract with LHA. Now we can talk about the decanting of the hospital, but I would think the fiduciary duties of our elected officials would be to sound an alarm, now expedite, cover-up for 8 years, and assist them in doing so. From all I have read and seen, it was moves by Mayor FitzGerald that actually allowed all of this to start and happen. It was with the move of heir apparent to FitzGerald Mike Summers to the LHA Board, that solidified the exodus and threw the entire decanting into full speed ahead mode. Again, it was the duty of our elected officials and especially those on the LHA Board to sound the alarms, not silence the alarms and look the other way.
At every turn of this debacle, CCF did exactly what I would expect any corporation to do, get what they can for the corporation. At every turn I now see City Hall, Council and some of the members of LHA, especially our elected officials, working to keep it silent, hurry it along, and confuse and misrepresent at every turn what was really going on. This gets us back to this thread and what Mr. Kindt is pointing out and underlining in "Bad Government." Go back and look at the discussions and the misrepresentation and outright lies from City Hall. No average resident could wade through the BS and smoke they were pouring out. Do you really belive that was to protect the clinic, or their own malfeasance? It was the Mayor that said "Lakewood Hospital is not closing." When he had a document in his hand he had worked on for years in secret calling for the close of Lakewood Hospital at least 64 times. When he chose to lie to Lakewood residents, he had already agreed to close Lakewood Hospital. This was not the clinic forcing him to close it, it was all part of a long running plan by the Mayor and friends to close the hospital, loot the foundations, and get the property. This was not CCF making them do it. As an outsider not paying attention you would never notice the same names pop up time and time again in the sacking of Lakewood for personal gains, personal job security, and some sick need to control everything.
No I am not absolving the clinic from being the Clinic, but I refuse to take my eyes off the real scoundrels in all of this. The Mayor, his friends, Build Lakewood, and now LHF who have been waiting and salivating for their chance to get their hands on the scraps of the corpse.
When you look at the countless charades and BS they did, fake police reports, fights, misrepresentations, all in an effort to cover up and be in the cat bird seat. It is sick.
Lakewood was played, by the Clinic was merely a red herring and misdirection in the scam, not the culprits. In a proper con game like 3-card Monte, you need a person to misdirect, win a little, and make everyone else think the cons are on the level.
Yeah we were played, we will never hold the Clinic accountable, but we must not let the hustlers get the rewards. After all they have proven over the last 15 years, they have little if no ability to be honest and or to deliver anything but jobs and awards to themselves.
If you really think Civic Leaders worked for over ten years on this in secret and never figure out to do with the "booty" you are merely being played again.
Watch for someone to come up with some lame brain scam of us being the new "XXXXXXXXX City" and for only $50,000 - $1 million we can mange it and award ourselves some more awards, build ourselves an office and...
BET ON IT. Healthy Region, Wellness Region, Green Region, Red Region, Blue Region... BET ON IT.
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