The Observation Deck

Questions about the letter from Mayor Summers

What is meant by state of the art emergency room?

What will be left out of Lakewood’s new emergency room?

The letter states that 16 primary care physicians will be moving their practice to Lakewood. Who are they are where are they moving from?

The Clinic employs 13 doctors in its health centers on Detroit and Madison. Are these the doctors that are referred to?

Will the Clinic be closing its Family Health Centers on Detroit and Madison if Lakewood Hospital is replaced with a new family health center?

If so then isn’t the new Family Health Center just a replacement for the two existing buildings?

If so what has the City gained?

All other Cleveland Clinic family health centers are much larger than what is proposed in Lakewood. The only other Clinic Family Health Center that comes close in size to the proposed Lakewood Family Health Center is their facility in East Cleveland.

How will the Lakewood Family Health Center be different than the building in East Cleveland?

The letter contains a list of services to be offered at the proposed family health center that mirrors those listed in the Letter of Intent (LOI). However, the LOI has expired. Is there another agreement that has not been made public?

What assurance do you have that the Clinic will keep those services in Lakewood once the Hospital is demolished? We all remember the false promises the Clinic made about the Vision for Tomorrow in 2009.

Where does the $32 million in the new wellness foundation come from? The existing Lakewood Hospital Foundation has about $32 million. Will that Foundation be dissolved?

If so doesn’t the original charter for the LHF call for the City to take ownership of the Foundations assets?

Why should the City transfer its assets to a Foundation?

The letter states that the Foundation will be “operated” by Lakewood residents. By “operated” do you mean that ALL of the trustees will be Lakewood residents?

The letter is silent about the $55 million in investments owned by Lakewood Hospital. If the Hospital is demolished any money left in those accounts will be the property of the City of Lakewood. What happens to the money?

It’s been said over and over that “health care is changing” and that hospitals are the past and that out-patient care is the future. If so why is the Cleveland Clinic building a Hospital in Avon and other much smaller communities?

The Hospital made money in 2014 and in most of the previous years even after the Cleveland Clinic moved its most profitable services to Avon and other areas. To what extent are the 2015 loses due to the removal of those services?

To what extent are the current loses caused by the premature announcement that the Hospital will close?

The letter states that only the Cleveland Clinic “submitted a comprehensive proposal”. That is not true. Metro Health submitted two comprehensive proposals and named its negotiating team. The City refused to respond. Why?

The Metro proposal called for the retention of all Hospital personal and expansion of services at the hospital and support for expansion of physician choice in Lakewood and support for a health and wellness center in Lakewood. The Metro proposal would have left 3 acres for other development.

Why did the City fail to respond to the Metro proposal?

The Mayors letter fails to mention his meetings with school board officials to endorse a tax increase to support a recreation center in Lakewood. Why?
Does Lakewood need a recreation center?

add to your list of questions "Was this letter paid for by the water department? Is there a process in writing as to what and by whom attachments can be added to the water bill?

While it irks me to no end, as it was full of lies, I believe that using the water bill to disseminate information has been done in the past and is probably completely legal.

The problem I had is that while supposedly containing information, the letter was full of distortions, half-truths, and blatant lies. All done in the name of propaganda. They sure had a captive audience!

Bridget Conant wrote:While it irks me to no end, as it was full of lies, I believe that using the water bill to disseminate information has been done in the past and is probably completely legal.

The problem I had is that while supposedly containing information, the letter was full of distortions, half-truths, and blatant lies. All done in the name of propaganda. They sure had a captive audience!

This is nothing. I do not even see it as a political issue, I see it as the mayor taking
advantage of yet another way the city spends money to spin lies and misinformation.
Before Mike Summers information was a side line issue at $30,000. Mike has turned
spin into a $300,000 line in the budget. $300,000 is a lot of bullshit.

It seems to me far better than when this crew used to send home letter preaching the good
lies and BS of commercial economic development in DowntowN Lakewood. Peddling their
one sided untrue drivel to kids and making them take it home to their parents.

Let's be honest this group is capable of anything.

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A couple reasons Summers never responded to Metro is that by the time Metro submitted their proposal, the administration, it's friends and the Clinic already knew what they wanted to do with the hospital. Apparently, Summers was not looking for proposals in good faith when he put out the call. See the timeline of all this in Brian Essi's article in the most recent Observer.
One must also consider the "class" of people that Metro serves and the "class" of people the Clinic serves. The folks at the top (the administration and "friends") don't want any more of the poor here in Lakewood than absolutely necessary.

I believe these two reasons are why Metro was ignored, no matter how good their proposal was.

I distinctly remember during the 47 West End debacle that they were so desperate they held meetings at the high school with seniors, presumably some were 18, and tried to get them to vote for the development.

I was appalled that the high school would allow the students to be used like that - politicking has no place in the school, especially when it was done during the school day when the students should be being educated, not brainwashed.

It showed also how tight these cliques are - the school board, the "development" group, the city pols. And how desperate they were, and continue to be.

I want the full printed issue of The Archie Comics "The Marriage of Kevin Keller" mailed out with next month's water bill