The Observation Deck

What I'm beginning to pick up from all that talk about mixed use is maybe they never had a plan, which may or may not be immoral, but is worrisome in its own way.

Bottom line: Medina appears to have city leaders that care about their citizens.

Lakewood appears to have a Council and Mayor that cared more about what was in it for them rather than what was best for their citizens. Whatever is going on with our hospital deal is looking more and more suspicious. I have never seen Summers and Council so scared and nervous.

The heat is on!

The root of the issue is how and by whom City Council was induced by to cut the citizens out of the deal. Was it for the monies that will come with the "health and wellness" foundation with the rather ambiguous goal of "making Lakewood the most healthy city in America?" The fact that the long term goal of the Clinic was to phase out Lakewood Hospital was known in 1996 and according to the LHA minutes released, the Clinic was paying the difference for the debt-to-cash ratio as early as the late '90s. That comes up regularly in the meetings of the West Region as an ongoing concern. If anything deserves more scrutiny it is the foundation that is currently being formed.

Jared,
Thank you for these important reminders. I echo you sediments.

Jared,

The fact remains that the referendum was split around 49 to 51-for and against the hospital deal:

1. Yet city council votes 7-0 in favor of the deal. A healthy democracy has dissent. The vote should have at least been 5-2 or 4-3
2. On what planet does an all democratic council vote to gut the city's largest employer? 1,500 jobs lost? Medinas council is fighting the Clinic. The local state delegation is also involved!!
3. The optics are incredible. Former congressman Kucinich fights the deal with the FTC. Marcy Kaptur cites "a local issue" yet endorses Mayor Summers.
4. Marcy Kaptur has the resources in congress to push for a review of this deal.

In sum, Lakewood's leaders ignored national health care trends in favor of liquidating a public asset and transferring it into private hands via a "wellness foundation". In a town of 52,000 thousand, foundation money equals permanent political power.

Nadhal

I think anyone who attempts to dispassionately consider all the evidence would arrive at a similar conclusion Nadhal. I wonder how the petition votes would have gone if the citizens had all the information.

Jared Denman wrote:I think anyone who attempts to dispassionately consider all the evidence would arrive at a similar conclusion Nadhal. I wonder how the petition votes would have gone if the citizens had all the information.

After the election I spoke with people who voted for the Mayor who said they didn't know who to believe. Sad, but I think that is where the Mayors campaign was very effective. Lies, intimidation, a few more lies , toss in some threats, add promises for a piece of the action and let it simmer.......

I think it's now clear that ONLY goal was to transfer $60 million in Hospital funds to two new Foundations. The rest was just a mirage.

What a waste.

There was plenty of information here on the Deck and from the Save Lakewood Hospital Group.

To say that they didn't know who to believe is a poor excuse for not educating themselves.

I recently said to a friend, "are people stupid?" and they replied "Trump is president."

Says it all.

Here is the video of Medina's City Council meeting where the mayor gave a rundown of what steps he had taken in response to the announced closing of their birthing center. Included in his address are some details on his discussion with Summa Heath Care to step in and provide what CCF was about to take away. In the very beginning of the video, the council president announces that council will be voting on a resolution against CCF's closing of the birthing center.

What an AMAZING contrast it is to see a responsible city government, taking action to protect the best interest of its city and compare it to the travesty of what we have seen here in Lakewood.

https://youtu.be/XcHfpTB3lZc?t=7m57s

Kevin,

Our Mayor and Council , from the very beginning, had no intentions on doing what was right for the people of Lakewood. This "hospital plan" was in the works way before the closing was announced. As we are beginning to see, it appears that it has gotten harder and harder for Council to keep their lies straight. I believe that is why they have become silent, or they have lawyered up.

It is going to be interesting to see how this all works out.

Another point that seems to have escaped our "leaders" - had they protested the closure and got the city residents behind them, they would have been in an infinitely better bargaining position vis-a-vis the Clinic.

With a city of the size of Lakewood, the mayor would have had quite a bit of leverage.

But the mayor didn't do that.

He either capitulated without a fight, like a weakling, or he actively and willingly participated in the plan to close Lakewood Hospital.

Had he enlisted the support of the community in opposing the Clinic plan, we would have likely had an entirely different outcome.

I believe that the closing of the hospital was just a part of the over all bigger picture. I believe there is much more going on in this city than just the hospital closure.

The video link I just posted is long and includes a lot of other Medina City business. For the sake of getting to another comment at the meeting that is pertinent to our situation, the link below skips to comments by councilman Mark Kolesar who suggest that maybe a community hospital, free from the interference of CCF would be best for the community. I spoke to Mr. Kolesar after the meeting. He's the kind that is not intimidated or fooled by the likes of Cosgrove, et al. If we only had that kind of people in our city government.

https://youtu.be/XcHfpTB3lZc?t=55m50s

If any of you are interested in skipping through the entire video, you'll find comments to Medina City government from Judy Gillespie as well as myself.

The video link I just posted is long and includes a lot of other Medina City business. For the sake of getting to another comment at the meeting that is pertinent to our situation, the link below skips to comments by councilman Mark Kolesar who suggest that maybe a community hospital, free from the interference of CCF would be best for the community. I spoke to Mr. Kolesar after the meeting. He's the kind that is not intimidated or fooled by the likes of Cosgrove, et al. If we only had that kind of people in our city government.

https://youtu.be/XcHfpTB3lZc?t=55m50s

If any of you are interested in skipping through the entire video, you'll find comments to Medina City government from Judy Gillespie as well as myself.