The Observation Deck

The attached letters & email between Mayor Summers and Dr. Boutros prove what I have written about for weeks:
1. The Letter of Intent prevents any third party options from being explored by the City--The Clinic threatens Metro and any third party bidder as these suitors properly fear retaliation by the Clinic for tortious interference with their "deal."
2. There is a failure of leadership and understanding at City Hall--The Mayor's and certain elected leaders' gestures to have some third party come forward as an alternative to the Clinic/LOI are misguided or not genuine so long as the LOI is in place---it is now clear that the ploy by Mayor Summers in his recent letters was just that--A transparent attempt to make it seem like he was doing something in relation to political pressure when he is stubbornly plowing ahead with his ill fated plan.
3. Despite claims to the contrary Metro made a "written and verbal presentation in September, 2014" to the Mayor/LHA Step 2 Committee--despite repeated sunshine law
requests, the Mayor and LHA refuse to make those records public--claiming they don't have them.

So we now have an acknowledgement and/or claim that five members of the Step 2 committee (including Mayor Summers) and Ms. Fry (Subsidium) attended a live presentation of an augmented written and verbal proposal by Metro in September, 2014 concerning the future of Lakewood Hospital and none of the members on the committee nor Ms. Fry nor LHA kept any hard copies, electronic copies or any record of what was presented.

And it would seem these five trustees and/or Ms. Fry, without any original records from the Metro presentation, then somehow made an accurate presentation to the other 18 LHA trustees about the terms of Metro's presentation/augmented proposal upon which those other trustees relied in rejecting the Metro proposal.

And the citizens of Lakewood and City Council are being asked to trust LHA and the Clinic for the future of healthcare in Lakewood?

It looks like there is a story there somewhere, unless you work for the Plain Dealer or other media outlets.

Metro's most recent letter mentions the need to perform additional due diligence because of changes in Lakewood Hospitals financial condition. They won't need to look hard to find that the LHA seems to be taking a wrecking ball to the Hospitals business.

Even routine ER cases are now transferred elsewhere.

The Clinic is quite pleased I'm sure. The conduct of the Mayor and LHA supports their long active plan to move Lakewood's health care business to Avon.

Members of Council have all stated how concerned they are about the jobs for those 1,100 Hospital employees. Will Council act now that it is clear that those people will be left without jobs?

All of that damage for a recreation center? At this point I don't think the Mayor will even run for reelection. The question is will the new Mayor be able to repair the damage?

Bill,

I disagree. I think that Lakewood Hospital may be just as or even more attractive to Metro now than last September: 1. the 2014 audited financials show that the hospital picked up as much as $3.6 million from the expansion of Medicaid in Ohio and 2. the first quarter report for LHA ended 3/31/15 show the long term investments increase by over $1 million. As for the ongoing damage, that can easily stopped and repaired by a change in attitude on the part of LHA (currently sitting on their hands) and the Clinic (currently pulling personnel and services from Lakewood) . As my now 100 year old great aunt taught me: "The only way you can change everything is by changing your attitude." The combination of the lawsuit and City Council rejecting the LOI will force them to change course. That would be a "no brainer" if they stop being "SO EMOTONALLY" attached to a failed plan. Yes, it is the Mayor and the LHA trustees acting on an emotional level, not the rational Save Lakewood Hospital people who seem to have gathered the facts despite obfuscation by those in control of the information.

The prejudices of ignorance are more easily removed than the prejudices of interest. The first are blindly adopted, the second willfully preferred.
(George Bancroft, American actor)
Begs the question - What are the financial interests that have such a stranglehold on the Mayor, two (or more) members of Council, the LHA board, the LHA Step Two committee, the LHF board--and their cronies--many of whom don't even live in Lakewood? And other local boards who may have been promised money out of this deal?