Summers Asks For Rec Center, New Park at Hospital Site

[Brian Essi]

School Board Minute 2.18.2014.pdf

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On February 18, 2014, Mayor Summers and Dru Siley attended a Lakewood Board of Education meeting and requested their discussions to be held in executive session i.e. secretly—the Board refused. The Mayor then discussed the possibility a recreation center being built on the Lakewood Hospital site, additional park property, and a property tax increase. This meeting is documented in the minutes of the Board of Education attached--some of the meeting was held in secret session.

Two months later on April 21, 2014 The Cleveland Clinic in collaboration with “LHA and City Leaders” issued an initial written plan to demolish Lakewood Hospital. The plan also included a Community Center to be funded through “residual resources of LHA and LHF”. Mayor Summers, Council President Madigan and Councilman Bullock were the only “city leaders” serving as LHA trustees at that time. So take your pick as to who was involved in forming “the City of Lakewood’s stated goals to improve the health status of the Lakewood community” by tearing down the hospital.

By May 15, 2014 drawings of the Recreation Center emerged with a new park i.e. soccer fields at the hospital site.

[Bill Call]

By May 15, 2014 drawings of the Recreation Center emerged with a new park i.e. soccer fields at the hospital site.

I was talking to a supporter of Mayor Summers last week about the Hospital. He supports the Mayors plan to demolish the Hospital. He made the usual talking points about how medicine is changing (only in Lakewood it seems).

When I mentioned that all of this was driven by a desire to build a recreation center he said there is no way he would support a recreation center and anyway the people pushing that story were "nuts".

When he finds out that he has been lied to and there WERE plans for a recreation center he will still support the Mayor.

Once he finds out that he was lied to about Metro, about the Clinic, lied to about the Hospital finances, lied to about the Foundation and lied to about the proposed "Family Health Center" he will still support the Mayor.

This election is going to be a referendum about replacing a hospital with a recreation center. It's going to be harder than you think to win that referendum.

Word is out among Lakewood Hospital employees that anyone who talks "will never work again". If the Cleveland area had a newspaper that would be news. During the last Council meeting Ms. Madigan said it is time to "push".

The desperation is palpable. That tells me there is even more yet to be discovered.

[Michael Deneen]

This election is going to be a referendum about replacing a hospital with a recreation center. It's going to be harder than you think to win that referendum.

There is good news, Bill.
Despite a corporate media blackout, word is spreading.

City Hall can't stop folks from communicating on social media.
Neighbors are talking to neighbors all over town.....it's no accident that there are over 800 "Save Lakewood Hospital" yard signs (and more each week) out there.
Those are 800+ signs reflect people that are COMMITTED to the cause...not simply folks who may or may not have allowed their name to be used by Pam Smith.

We're going door-to-door, street-by-street.
We've got an army....they've got the water bill, the PD, and a ton of cash.
It won't be easy, but I like our chances.

Unlike Bill's friend, I don't think many folks will stand with Summers.
The truth matters to people.

[Brian Essi]

http://www.onelakewood.com/pdf/Lakewood ... %20RFP.pdf

This is the document on OneLakewood.com that on page 3 includes a Community Center to be funded through “residual resources of LHA and LHF”.

[Michael Deneen]

Here is a comment I got back from Jen Pae on Facebook regarding the document:

"If you actually read those minutes was a discussion that reflected things the community has been taking about for years. There is no link in those school board minutes and the future of Lakewood Hospital."

Here is a link:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... hare_reply

[Brian Essi]

From what I see and hear at the public meetings, I think that Jenn Pae is very smart and honest.

I agree that the "minutes" don't reflect a discussion about Lakewood Hospital's future. Minutes rarely reflect all that is said at a meeting. But if Ms. Pae's speaks with the attendees, she will learn, as I have, that Mayor Summers and Siley did propose the Hospital campus as a site for the new Rec Center. Anyone can do their own due diligence on this. Different attendees has different memories, but the hospital site was discussed.

Perhaps Ms. Pae could ask them as well about follow up discussions they had through over those next three month that explain how the Summers/LHA/Clinic May 2014 plans mention the Lakewood City School as a potential partner in the new Rec Center.

Three School Board members have signed on to the Summers Plan via a letter to Council and they remain silent about what they may know about what is to be done with the "significant parcel of land" they are so excited about.

[Jim O'Bryan]

This election is going to be a referendum about replacing a hospital with a recreation center. It's going to be harder than you think to win that referendum.

There is good news, Bill.
Despite a corporate media blackout, word is spreading.

Mike

They can't stop social media, but they have employed more than one that has no problem
using dozen of fake names to make people think whatever they are pushing. In the day
we called it Serious Internet Fact. Back during the Westend debacle one person would sign
on as Bun E. Rabt, and say something, then sign off, and back on as someone else and
say, I heard that too! Do it a couple more times and people believe it. They certainly would
never think it was City Hall lying to them.

This is one reason we started the Deck, and those that cannot face the light, or a fair
discussion run from it like the plague. Tom George, even Ed FitzGerald had no problem
engaging voters and residents. But this group of thieves and cheats avoid it like the plague.

In the past 12 months the city has spent more on spinning and misinformation then they
spend on two parks for upkeep. Approaching a 1/4 million dollars to tell us how well they
are doing, spin the facts, and help the mayor run for reelection. YEP WE PAY FOR IT.

At the same time they are looking to shorten the amount of time to keep records, no doubt
a desperate attempt to keep more facts from the public.

If that map exists, it proves everything Matt and I have said, and proves they are liars,
cheats, thieves, schemers and cannot be trusted by the public.

This might be some of the darkest days for Lakewood ever.

.

[Michael Deneen]

They can't stop social media, but they have employed more than one that has no problem
using dozen of fake names to make people think whatever they are pushing. In the day
we called it Serious Internet Fact. Back during the Westend debacle one person would sign
on as Bun E. Rabt, and say something, then sign off, and back on as someone else and
say, I heard that too! Do it a couple more times and people believe it. They certainly would
never think it was City Hall lying to them.

It's not 2003 anymore. The venues that allow multiple accounts have "virtual tumbleweeds" rolling across them.
"Bun E. Rabt and Pals" can post all he wants in a vacant forum, but very few will read it.
Even those that do will notice a stark contrast between the "anonymous" forums and the real one, where actual people use actual names.

[Bridget Conant]

Kareem of Wheat, Pete Zahutt, I remember those phony identities. Good thing I know how to use "cut and paste." I have tons of stuff I saved, screen shots, links. What's put on the Internet never goes away.

[Bill Grulich]

[/quote]
In the past 12 months the city has spent more on spinning and misinformation then they
spend on two parks for upkeep. Approaching a 1/4 million dollars to tell us how well they
are doing, spin the facts, and help the mayor run for reelection. YEP WE PAY FOR IT.
[/quote]

Jim, Don't forget the Subsidian Report on Lakewood Hospital. A mere $500,000 to create eighty seven slides for a power point spin document! Still waiting for ALL of the background information that went into that report.

In the public meeting at Beck Center on January 28, 2015, Tom Gable was asked to release ALL of the audited statements. His response, "Well anyone can ask for them...", We asked and Mayor Summers promised to put those statements on the website. So far, LHA has released 2009 - 2013. What about the audited statements before 2009? Where is the 2014 audited statement? Are the facts not spinning the right way?

[Jim O'Bryan]

"Bun E. Rabt and Pals" can post all he wants in a vacant forum, but very few will read it.
Even those that do will notice a stark contrast between the "anonymous" forums and the real one, where actual people use actual names.

Unless the citizen decided to hide beneath another name.

Hmmmm yet another faux name and shadow site for city hall to control.

Makes me sick.

.

[Bill Call]

On February 18, 2014, Mayor Summers and Dru Siley attended a Lakewood Board of Education meeting and requested their discussions to be held in executive session i.e. secretly—the Board refused.

Since I like to read between the lines and jump to conclusions:

The Mayor and Dru Siley asked for an executive session even though the executive session would not have been legal. The sole purpose of the request was to keep their plans a secret.

Is it wrong to leap to the conclusion that they have used a similar ploy at Council meetings?

[marklingm]

Is it wrong to leap to the conclusion that they have used a similar ploy at Council meetings?

Bill,

No. It is not wrong to take that leap.

And nobody on City Council can plead ignorance. See, e.g., http://lakewoodobserver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13497&sid=5b4a2097b469b36357e4f01ac360e4f9.

It's sad.

The Sunshine Laws aren't hard to understand.

And executive sessions are the exception to public discussion.

Matt

[Lori Allen _]

Speaking of Sunshine Laws, I feel that all of the minutes of the meetings where the hospital is discussed should be posted on the city's website. This includes the LHA Board minutes (the minutes from the more recent meetings held should be online), COW meetings (although most of these are in executive session), and the city council meetings. As of tonight, the most recent city council meeting minutes on the city's website are from the April 20th, 2015 meeting. This was over two months ago. I think it is great that these meetings are video-recorded, but sometimes it is cumbersome to sit through 45+ minutes of video when you could get a paper summary online. As far as I can tell, the city does not post the minutes of the COW meetings anywhere online. Although some of the information discussed in the meetings is allegedly privileged (executive session), I feel that the non-privileged meeting minutes should be posted online, as the COW meetings are where the majority of the conversation about the hospital actually takes place.

I would personally like to see the minutes of all of the boards, commissions, and task forces at City Hall put online. I feel this would have been especially beneficial with the Active Living Task Force. Only a handful of the boards and commissions at City Hall appear to regularly put their meeting minutes online, while the majority either don't update them or don't post them at all.

If all of these meeting minutes were put online in a timely fashion, it would allow citizens to see what the city council, committees, boards, and commissions are planning and recommending in Lakewood. I also feel that this would restore some of the trust for City Hall that has been lost.

[Brian Essi]

He also asked for a tax increase that was estimated to cost $211 per $100,000 household.