The Incredible Shrinking Hospital Site Development

[Dan Alaimo]

15be6dc8ed35eb74db33e06ef610d210.jpg (239.79 KiB) Viewed 7915 times

Ja. 28, 2015
I remember the meeting well.

Mark your calendars.
Jan. 28, 2025
10 years of bitter squabbling. Nothing to show for it.

[Bill Call]

I was just pointing out that the latest plans are not what was promised.

The developer was forced to develop the site in stages because of market conditions. Construction costs are skyrocketing, the commercial real estate market is tanking and residential construction in Cleveland is a zero sum game. None of those market conditions are going to improve any time soon.

This isn't the fault of the City. Market conditions are what they are. It doesn't help that Democrats and Republicans have signed on to the Argentinian/Venezuela economic model: Print all the money you need! It's exciting to get a trillion dollars in stimulus money but a trillion dollars thrown into the market in a short time causes construction bottlenecks and a huge increase in construction costs. If that "stimulus" causes costs to increase 20%, 30% or more that means when all is said an done MORE STIMULUS MEANS LESS INFRASTRUCTURE.

I don't buy the argument that a Hospital with $140 million in revenue, $100 million in cash and investments, 38,000 ER visits and no debt was about to fail. It is true that the Clinic removed profitable medical procedures to other facilities, steered non paying customers to Lakewood and failed in its contractual duty to "maintain the hospital in substantially the same condition" and also true that the Lakewood Hospital Board was grossly negligent. But that doesn't mean the Hospital was doomed to fail.

The real question is: Did Lakewood Hospital fall down the stairs or was it pushed?

[Jim O'Bryan]

David

Sorry been on the road…

No hate, zero.

I am surprised you would even go there. Read your post, do I act like I hate you? Are you so quick to hate? I hope not.

As a mature adult I can compartmentalize you as a neighbor and your actions on council.

I love you and your family as neighbors, you are good people, good neighbors. What is there to hate?

Hate, I have no hate in my heart for anyone, or anything, to quote one of the greatest Americans of all time.
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

You mistake my frustration for hate. My frustration with a person that was one of the architects of the Holespital that is still pandering mis-truths and falsehoods, that were proven wrong after going to court. You were on council during one of the most secretive, vindictive Administrations and Council in Lakewood’s history. An administration that wasted a quarter million dollars in legal fees to keep the actual truth from the people. Many documents still missing.

The hole actually represents loss of our 2nd largest employer, tax base, and anchor in Downtown. The community acts like we are filling an empty field. No we are trying to fill a massive negative, far deeper than the hole.

So when one of the architects of the great holespital speaks of size, failure, etc. I always go back to what they promised Lakewood, and that you agreed with and told us. $287,000,000 in new development, and something that would make Lakewood whole(pun intended) again. This is what was promised to get Lakewoodites to get our vote to close it. So looking at it like that, this is much smaller.

So when Bill Call mentions smaller, I figure he is talking about the original promises made, not the crappy little attempts to cover up the blood stain.

But I see he has clarified his comment.

Also from the man of love and wisdom MLK...
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."


Dusk at Sandusky Lagoons on a fall evening. So much more to love in this world...

.

[David Anderson]

Jim, my apologies as I, apparently, misinterpreted when you wrote that I was "fully aware of it all" and "never spoke up (as) a person elected to protect the city and people of Lakewood" as a personal attack on my moral character. I'll attempt to move forward as neighbors. I certainly appreciate your kind thoughts re my family.


While on the subject of accusing others of illegal and/or immoral behavior ("covering up, lying and destroying public documents, related to the entire scheme"), for those who wish to read it, https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/d ... o-5027.pdf

Regarding the 318 public records requests filed between March 15 and September 20, 2016, the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth Appellate District, County of Cuyahoga, found that the requests were either properly responded to or (PG 19) “improper” to begin with due to these being “overbroad, vague, ambiguous, or unclear.” and that the "public records requests were more akin to discovery requests than requests for known, identifiable records ...." The court did not find that the City did anything remotely close to covering up, lying or destroying. So, you disparage me not standing up - "silence of our friends" - about something that didn't happen. Heck, I was threatened, assaulted then threatened again in the same 30-minute span at the main branch of the Lakewood Public Library and you knew about it. Silence.

Pg 18 – “After considering the requests, the certifications, the 27,000 pages of records released, the other evidence, the parties’ briefs, and the relevant law, this court concluded that Lakewood has fulfilled its duties to produce the requested records.”

Pg 21 – “In summary, after considering the purposes of the public records law, the importance of the requests, the nature of the requests, the 27,000 pages of records released, and the evidence and certifications of the parties, this court is convinced that Lakewood has fulfilled its duty to release public records and, except for the records submitted for an in camera inspection, declines to issue a writ of mandamus to compel Lakewood to continue its search for more records coming within the requests.”

Pg 68 – “Accordingly, the court issues the writ of mandamus to compel the disclosure of disallowed redactions pursuant to the in camera inspection; the court declines to issue the writ of mandamus as to any other records or issues in this matter. Respondent to pay costs.”

I'm really not trying to change your mind but merely attempting to diffuse some of the more outrageous characterizations and denigrating comments made here.

Also for the record, the original development deal contained performance bonds.

[Mark Kindt]

Mr. Anderson:

Are you really going to ask all of us to drink your "cool-aid" again? -- This was all exploded years ago. --A vacant hole still remains in place of your original bloated rhetoric about economic development values.

That was all conceded as nonsense by its proponents in original emails posted to this site. I belabored all of this at the time we learned of it in various Deck posts.

While I am competent to offer a point-by-point rebuttal here -- this is all old news -- Yes, the City of Lakewood eventually won it legal cases and, of course, the physical result ( a hole ) is visible to all and sundry.

--On the brink of a historic global pandemic our leadership gave us an empty polluted hole instead of a hospital. How'd that work for us? The development proposal crashed years ago. I could go on, but why bother?

I standby each and every statement that I have made here, since 2016, regarding the ethical and legal issues stemming from the official operations of the City of Lakewood in the liquidation, demolition, and closure of its award-winning public primary care hospital. By any standard, this was and remains a disgrace to our community and civic leadership. I appreciate the fact that The Observation Deck provided a forum for the publication and analysis of public records that had to be fought for for years.

David, let's just keep in mind that the City Law Department and counsel for other parties fought the public records requests and subsequent public records litigation in an excessive and probably unconscionable manner -- such a manner that eventually forced the City to reform its system to permit better access compliant with Ohio law to our public records.

[cmager]

Mr. Anderson,
In 2023, you appear to take great pride in the outcome of a highly technical, excessively litigated public records case brought to hide, and hide again, the machinations of Lakewood's city hall administration, city council, and healthcare partners. Congratulations, I guess.

Let's also remember that the administration passed very short record retentions, which screams to the premeditation that went into hiding the deal, hiding the con. Frankly if the city parties were convinced that they were proudly doing the right thing, this never would have been fought so hard. The real and ethical response would have been some lawyering, some agreements, and the proud and proverbial opening of the kimono to completely illuminate the deal.

We mourn the future of the hospital, the future that it should have brought to the downtown and to city residents, the fleecing of city/peoples' assets, and then scattering them out of reach. But we can celebrate a handful of condos and apartments. Congratulations, I guess.

[Jim O'Bryan]

David

You site one of 4 cases. And what actually happened here, is that the City had worked to hide and ignore record requests for months. So that by the time it made it through the Appeal process, the City argued over the number of records requested, and was granted a smaller number than was asked for.

At no time did the courts ever say the public did not deserve them, or for that matter own them.

I find it odd as Bill Mager mentioned you take such pride in hoodwinking the public.

Again, good neighbor, terrible councilman.

peace

[Brian Essi]

Yes, the whole thing sucks. I get it. Believe me, I get it. The fate of Lakewood Hospital was sealed long before the issue got to City Council.
- LHA would have been bankrupt with 4-5 years to go on the lease.
- LHA was solely responsible for operating losses, not the Clinic.
- Revenue producing medical services (services resulting in in-patient beds being occupied at a higher rate) were moved to Fairview and to the Clinic's main campus and were not coming back.
- The Clinic had unilateral veto power over whether to allow new capital improvement projects which is significant when the Lakewood Hospital complex needed $90 million in improvements.
- LHF, always has been and always will be a private foundation, was not interested in investing in the hospital complex.
- Less private pay health care consumers now and projected forward.
- Metro was not a viable option and was never formally reviewed by Metro's Board.
- UH, the original tenant that was established after Lakewood residents voted to get out of the municipal hospital business in 198? and establish the LHA, was not interested at all.
- No other hospital entity wanted to enter this market: not enough doctors and not enough patients for a new entity to share with UH, Clinic and Metro.

Mr. Anderson,

Years ago, I proved with public records that every one of your claims above were either completely false or purposefully misleading.

Repeating these falsehoods cannot change the established TRUTH----it cannot wash the blood off your hands nor the blood on the hands of those you fell in line with when you surrendered the power you had to change the outcome and speak the TRUTH----I begged you to not cave when you had the power to speak and defend the TRUTH and to have the City retain/save nearly $100,000,000 of liquid portfolio assets legally belonging to the city and/or pursue Metro. Propping up a pathetic plan to fill the hole with "Bricks and Mortar" will not save you from your role in creating the Hole.

You are not to be believed--and you don't "get it."

You need to own what you did.

And don't try play the victim--A "good neighbor" would come clean with his role in the "Hole", so in my opinion I don't think you qualify a "good neighbor".

But Yes, I agree with you on one thing---The whole thing sucks.

[David Anderson]

All - Just read the decision https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/d ... o-5027.pdf Pages 18, 21 68. The whole thing. It outlines the more than 27,000 pages of documents, the back and forth and each specific request for documents. Every one is profiled.

Here's another lawsuit, Jim, that was dismissed where Judge Friedman said that the 8th District Court of Appeals found zero evidence that the executive sessions were unlawful. "Negotiations must be conducted in private." Here's the rejected appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court - https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/pdf_v ... e=DL_Clerk

Proof beyond a reasonable doubt, clear and convincing evidence, preponderance of evidence. Someone's handwriting on a napkin isn't proof that the CCF was responsible for operating losses and not LHA. We used the lease agreement, industry experts and a law firm to help come to that conclusion.

I appreciate that the ability to discuss these issues openly isn't an option in other parts of the world. However, it still amazes me that the default position on this forum is that if someone disagrees with someone else they must be unethical, immoral, stupid/horrible at their job, or a combination of all three. I guess that's just the way it is.

[Bill Call]

I appreciate that the ability to discuss these issues openly isn't an option in other parts of the world. However, it still amazes me that the default position on this forum is that if someone disagrees with someone else they must be unethical, immoral, stupid/horrible at their job, or a combination of all three. I guess that's just the way it is.

The decision to close the Hospital was made when it was a profitable thriving institution. No adequate explanation was ever given as to why it was closed and if the closure was necessary why it was necessary to have a fire sale on City assets. The City gave plenty of dishonest answers then and that behavior continues today.

A case in point is the property at 14601 Detroit, site of the Lakewood Family Health Center. I recently sent a public records request and simply asked who authorized the sale, how much was received for the property and if, as required by law, the property was offered for sale in a public manner as required by the Ohio Revised Code. The response I received is that the City has no records of such a sale and that the property at 14601 Detroit does not exist. Public records request 23-484. It's been closed so it is available for public viewing.

Now, there is a building on that site, a thriving business and a complete public record of the transfer and the City says it does not exist. Please understand the frustration people have when the City lies even when the truth would serve them better.

Was the Hospital pushed out of business? Well...

In the years before the secret decision was made to close the Hospital, the Clinic was charging about $8 million per year in administrative fees. In the years after the secret decision was made the Clinic increase those fees to $24 million a year. When I asked a Hospital board member about those fees his answer was, "It's none of my business what the Clinic charges". Is that the answer of a responsible board member?

A well known legal tactic is to provide 200,000 pages of documents in response to discovery but leave out much of what was requested. In this case those excluded records would have told us how those administrative fees where computed. The judge put a stop to the discovery before those documents were obtained. He didn't exactly say "It's none of your business what the Clinic charges in administrative fees", but actions speak louder than words.

[Jim O'Bryan]

I appreciate that the ability to discuss these issues openly isn't an option in other parts of the world. However, it still amazes me that the default position on this forum is that if someone disagrees with someone else they must be unethical, immoral, stupid/horrible at their job, or a combination of all three. I guess that's just the way it is.

David

I was just talking to your partner Tom Bullock yesterday, he was singing the same song of BS.

What you both seem to miss, in your highly selective recollections. Elected officials; Mayor, Finance Director, City Council, LIED, INTIMIDATED RESIDENTS, HID DOCUMENTS, AND CREATED MISS-INFORMATION, in a successful attempt to keep the PUBLIC from learning the TRUTH. Not just anytime, but through 2 elections, that were about $238 million in public assets being squandered for some magic beans. Ohhhh and to make some supporters better off. And that is the sterile version of what the Mayor, City Council, did to the residents of Lakewood.

It is unforgivable.

How many had to step down because of conflict of interest.
How many got arrests taken care of by the mayor and law director?
You were on council through this weren't you? You did know of all of it. Correct?

As I said to the mayor October 2014. "Tell the truth, and though I do not agree, I will back you. Lie, and I cannot." His first statement to the public 3 months later was "The Lakewood Observer is lying, the hospital is not closing," even though he was part of secret plan that called for closing the hospital that started in 2010. When the Mayor stated that he did not know I had the rough of the agreement from LHA that called out "Closing Lakewood Hospital" 16 times. You can read it in a special section on the Deck, and an upcoming series of articles to clear up the cover-up. And that sums up the actions of that city hall and that council from that moment on.

Next we can talk about if your nightmare had happened, they would have needed another $7 million minimum to break ground. This was after you help to give away $238 million in public assets. "There's a hole in daddy's arm when all the money goes..."

.

[Mark Kindt]

I will make the following point:

David -- why do you think that about a half-a-dozen lawyers donated hundreds of hours of free time to raising these issues in the courts? --Right on up to the appellate courts?

Lawyers rarely go "fishing" in the Courts like this just for the fun of it.

These were material claims and major issues across multiple cases. --Material issues and claims brought in the face of considerable public misconduct by appointed and elected officials. I wrote hundreds of posts here on these issues. I stand-by all of them.

As one of the lawyers that donated time on the public records issues. I understood what I was doing and why and how much it cost me in lost time from my environmental law practice.

I also understood how truly outrageous the conduct of the City Law Department happened to be at that time. --As a lawyer with 44 years of practice, I was truly aghast at what I witnessed here.

Please do not repeat the canard of the 27,000 documents again. I regularly work on cases where the documents run to the millions of pages or more.

The important point to remember is that the City stiffed the public on public documents and continued to stiff the public throughout the litigation.

It took three attorneys, including a former Ohio Attorney General, several years to shake the records loose from the City.

David -- I am happy to dialogue at any time -- (216) 521-6024.

My experience with the City of Lakewood changed my view of government and my profession forever.

[Mark Kindt]

The work of the Lakewood City Council that sat in 2014 and 2015 is apparent to anyone who has eyes (The Hole) and some of those folks are still on council (Marx, Bullock).

The topic of this thread is the fact that after about 5 years the Hole is still empty and so far nothing has been built. And that two development plans have failed. Who knows about the next one?

The blueprints for the removal of the hospital are now 11 years old. It has been gone for years now.

I am happy to have open and reasoned debate on any topic, but the City of Lakewood did what the City of Lakewood did and attempting to rationalize the outcome is just more misleading narrative.

I simply do not have enough time or energy to keep rebutting a misinformation campaign that was launched in January 2015 and went through three different PR firms.

It was all "happy horseshit".

[Brian Essi]

All - Just read the decision https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/d ... o-5027.pdf Pages 18, 21 68. The whole thing. It outlines the more than 27,000 pages of documents, the back and forth and each specific request for documents. Every one is profiled.

Here's another lawsuit, Jim, that was dismissed where Judge Friedman said that the 8th District Court of Appeals found zero evidence that the executive sessions were unlawful. "Negotiations must be conducted in private." Here's the rejected appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court - https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/pdf_v ... e=DL_Clerk

Proof beyond a reasonable doubt, clear and convincing evidence, preponderance of evidence. Someone's handwriting on a napkin isn't proof that the CCF was responsible for operating losses and not LHA. We used the lease agreement, industry experts and a law firm to help come to that conclusion.

I appreciate that the ability to discuss these issues openly isn't an option in other parts of the world. However, it still amazes me that the default position on this forum is that if someone disagrees with someone else they must be unethical, immoral, stupid/horrible at their job, or a combination of all three. I guess that's just the way it is.

Mr. Andersen,

Your obfuscations continue to muddy the big picture and I understand why you continue to run from the Truth (see below). BTW, the LHA board was a "fake" board---they did not operate Lakewood Hospital as was their legal obligation to do so--Tom Bullock, Mike Summers and Mary Whatshername were on the board and did exactly what CCF told them to do. So, I guess you are admitting that Tom, Mike and Mary were responsible? The others on the board were CCF employees or business people dependent on CCF for their businesses. Nevertheless, everyone employed by Lakewood Hospital was a CCF w-2 employee taking orders from CCF management (w-2 employees of CCF)--not LHA.

Like Mr. Kindt, I won't waste my time playing in your sandbox rehashing what has already been proven "beyond any reasonable doubt":

Namely, before the vote to give it all up, the City of Lakewood owned real estate, equipment and a liquid investment portfolio worth in excess of $100,000,000 after deduction all liabilities. And now they have a Hole in the ground worth almost nothing. One could say that there can be no rationale for that vote without concluding (as you suggest above): "they must be unethical, immoral, stupid/horrible at their job, or a combination of all three." But there is, in my view, another possible explanation to add to you "combination".

Why do I think I know that you know the Truth? Because you were the last councilperson to publicly capitulate and vote for it--I believe that you held out because you KNEW it was wrong. As you may recall the night of the vote-- you and I spoke seconds before the meeting was called to order. You told me that you saw no point in being the only councilperson to vote NO. So, aside from being "unethical, immoral, stupid/horrible at their job, or a combination of all three" a vote for such a hideous giveaway could be simply be explained by WEAKNESS.

To stand alone and against something the you knew was wrong would have taken great courage. You would have risked being "Cancelled", called "unhinged", a "Tin Foil Hat" Conspiracy Theorist or worse. Perhaps you would have exposed yourself to a dozen or so people filing a police report against you and trying to have you arrested for expressing your views.

So again, "good neighbors", no matter how civil they come across in public, simply don't do such a horrid thing to their neighbors and the community...and then....go on this forum and make stuff up that portrays their neighbors as looneys....

[David Anderson]

The reason I’m here, Brian, is because of the consistency of being demonized as immoral and corrupt. Nothing more.

Your case conceptualization is not new to me. We met many, many, many times. Ultimately, I came to a different conclusion. This does not mean I didn’t listen or that there is “blood on my hands” or make me immoral or corrupt or a “combination.” It means we disagreed. You were focused on proving how we got here. I came to the conclusion about halfway through that we are where we are and it was time to figure out how to gain the best possible outcome – two big changes were paving the way for the $34m Lakewood Family Health Center in place of an office building and parking lot and increasing the investment in ($32m) and the establishment of the Healthy Lakewood Foundation and a public foundation. The physical hospital, needing $90m in upgrades, was not an asset. The land under it is an asset.

The effort of you and others and the more than 55 public hearings lead to my conclusion that there has likely never been a piece of public policy that has undergone more scrutiny than this one. You are obviously a skilled lawyer who believes the primary points for the Hospital actions taken were disproven with the public records collected. However, you had zero legal judgements in your favor and, after ample public debate, the voters of Lakewood disagreed as well.

How do you and others account for this? Well, the Law Department, despite sworn affidavits, hid and destroyed documents. LHA was fake and its certified financial documents were manipulated. Council members were immoral and corrupt. Judges were duped. The voters were hoodwinked. It goes on and on.