The Observation Deck

The Huron report (at pages 43-45) sets forth facts that Mayor Summers and his Step 2 LHA Committee can't get around:

1. LHA did not hire a broker-dealer. Subsidium "instead assisted LHA in the marketing of the asset"--Huron says. So the wrong people were put in charge of a flawed and rigged process--Step 2: Tom Gable (a real estate guy) and Bill Gorton (an insurance guy), both CCF trustees, Dr. Tabbaa (a fine doctor, but one whose business was and is a tenant of the successful bidder), Ken Haber (a numbers guy) and Summers (a guy who sold only one business--his grandfather's using the right professionals) None of these cats know how to sell a hospital---Would Summers have hired these guys to sell his own business?

2. No Release by CCF---this was fatal and shows how the Step 2 "gurus" cowed to CCF from the start. There has been no leadership at LHA willing and able to stand up to the Clinic. How can you sell a business when the Gorilla can be clearly seen standing behind the sock puppet mouthpieces purportedly trying to "sell" a hospital---Once the Gorilla told newcomer Dr. Boutros (Metro) the facts of life, he had to retreat as a bidder--I give him credit for trying and I empathize with how he felt "USED"---because it was all a show--Step 2 just went through the motions whether they realized it or not---NUTS.

3. No Attorney Huron's report fails to say that the Step 2 and Subsidium "genius" wanna be broker-dealers failed to have any lawyers involved in the process--(other than the Gorilla's attorney--Mike Meehan). Does anyone still believe that this was not intentional? The only alternative is that they were all just IDIOTS!

Several of the trustees have told me that Summers was the ring leader and "LED". He and his cronies can put a bow on the 89 pages of the Huron Report, but it will still smell and look like something that is wrapped in toilet paper.

Excellent!

The most serious lapse was the failure to obtain the release. Anyone in receipt of the RFP would have known that without the release any response would leave them open to a lawsuit filed by the Cleveland Clinic.

If the failure to get the release was an oversight then the level of incompetence on the LHA is greater than we thought.

If the failure to get the release was deliberate then the duplicity and dishonesty is greater than we thought.

Pick your poison.

Mayor Summers made a handwritten note from his meeting with Tom Zenty, head of University Hospitals :"TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE". So did the Mayor even attempt to get a release from Cosgrove & Co. to make Zenty & Co. comfortable coming forward?

Answer: NO!

It is becoming clearer that this whole thing with the Mayor and LHA was mishandled and contrived from day 1.

Council can go a long way to solve the immediate problem by posing one simple question to CCF:

1. Will CCF sign an enforceable release in favor of LHA and the City (and any third party), to the effect that in the event that the City finds a health system partner to take over, buy, lease etc. Lakewood Hospital, then CCF will cooperate in a transition and leave upon a stated period of time?

If CCF says yes and signs it, then the City can truly see if it can find a partner---understanding it could take years.

If CCF says no, they are stuck here until 2026 because they are intentionally impairing our ability to get the best prices for our asset in their custody. Saying no to the release would also expose CCF as duplicitous---consider this: The Mayor is on record saying that in 2013-early 2014, "the Clinic was not asked to deliver an inpatient service. They already said that they didn't think that was in THEIR best interest." See July 20, 2015 City Council YouTube video at 1 hour 42 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1bjR5AKd30.

So if CCF won't let us control OUR FUTURE by letting us market OUR ASSETS TO GET THE BEST PRICE, then they need to stay until 2026 and honor the LETTER AND SPIRIT OF THEIR AGREEMENT (Summers' words is his July 3, 2014 letter to CCF).

Why would we let CCF tear down OUR HOSPITAL at OUR expense and give them a monopoly in health care in OUR City if they won't help us get to best price for OUR ASSETS?

This is not "rocket science" folks!

Does anyone out there think that Summers, his Step 2 picks and Subsidium were that incompetent that they didn't get this basic issue from the get go?

If the answer is that they are not that incompetent, then what was the point of Subsidum, Summers and Step 2 pretending to look for buyers with the RFP process if not to fool the rest of LHA trustees and the public into thinking there was some sort of real bidding?

Jay Carson or anybody else on Build Lakewood, how can you get around these basic facts?

Thank you Brian Essi and Bill Call for your analysis and comments.

The LHA, Mayor Summers et al are NOT incompetent...

They are counting on the residents to go along with their agenda.

They are counting on people to listen to them WITHOUT reading the documents themselves.

They are counting on their abilities to SPIN the facts into whatever they want them to say, to distort the truth, to lie and to mislead Lakewood's citizenry.

Now they are being backed into a corner and they insist on acting as if the hospital closing is set in stone and that they still have our best interests at heart.

Do not let these people off the hook. Read the Huron Report.. and all the documents on the City of Lakewood site. You cannot and will not believe that Lakewood Hospital should be torn down and replaced by a Medical Office Building and an Urgent Care once you have read these documents. Read the Observation Deck as well...every last word about this issue.

The Huron Report has some very positive things to say about maintaining a hospital and the current financial status of Lakewood Hospitals Liquidity, Accounts Receivable etc... We can and should SAVE LAKEWOOD HOSPITAL.