The Observation Deck

The June 19, 2015 CCF letter was made public by Kevin Butler last night.

On August 30, 2015, at 4:44 a.m., Law Director Kevin Butler alleges on the Build Lakewood Facebook Page that:

Kevin Butler wrote:

Donna Kolis, Richard Cole: MetroHealth received a full release from the Cleveland Clinic to propose an inpatient facility in Lakewood. In June 2015, in response to invitations from both Mayor Summers and city council members, MetroHealth indicated in writing it was not interested in making a proposal.

Butler, a lawyer representing the City in pending litigation involving public corruption, fraud and conspiracy by Mayor Summers, made that misleading statement on the public site of a Political Action Committee. The CCF letter was dated the same date that Metro pulled out--supposedly for good--according to a local news outlet with questionable reliability and objectivity regarding the hospital:

http://www.cleveland.com/lakewood/index ... erest.html

So, the CCF letter:
1. Is not a full release- it does not let Metro bid on an FHC.
2. It does not say CCF will cooperate in a transition.
3. It pressures Metro with a false need for
4. It does not address the numerous other conditions that Metro set forth in previous letters.

What the letter does do is underscore the failure of Summers and LHA to act sincerely and professionally throughout the bogus RFP "bidding" process.

Every healthcare system in our area or anywhere knows that CCF is a rapacious predator trying to retain and expand it market share.

Without a comprehensive and enforceable legal document protecting them from CCF, nobody will waste their time and energy working with this compromised Mayor.

The CCF letter was clearly too little way too late for Metro.

It is a fig leaf that does not begin to hide the ugly truth of what Summers has done to our beloved institution and how he shunned Metro.

If I was advising Boutros/Metro I would tell them they have to wait for a new Mayor and City Council President in Lakewood who care about the health of Lakewoodites before Metro can help Lakewood.

That letter is a joke and was hastily written to cover their a$$es.

All of the interaction with Metro occurred BEFORE the date of that letter and Metro made it clear by May 2015 that they felt they were being used and would no longer participate in a flawed and secretive process. What good does that letter from two months ago do when all of the interactions took place LAST YEAR! It's already over!

I'm not even sure (someone with a legal background would know better) that Donley had ANY legal authority. That's really not a legal document. If I was Metro, I'd require a letter from their legal department, not the operations department.

Bridget Conant wrote:All of the interaction with Metro occurred BEFORE the date of that letter and Metro made it clear by May 2015 that they felt they were being used and would no longer participate in a flawed and secretive process. What good does that letter from two months ago do when all of the interactions took place LAST YEAR! It's already over!

I'm not even sure (someone with a legal background would know better) that Donley had ANY legal authority. That's really not a legal document. If I was Metro, I'd require a letter from their legal department, not the operations department.

To Bridget's point, Metro raised its concerns with Mike Summers' January 2015 announcement to close the Lakewood Hospital, as well as tortious interference claims, in Metro's May 20, 2015 letter to Summers.

Perhaps Team Summers and Build Lakewood will just marginalize the PD as producing mere "yellow journalism" but here is was the PD reported on May 26, 2015:

Bruce Geiselman, Northeast Ohio Media Group wrote:The closure plan was announced in January.

Boutros, in his May 20 letter to Summers, said MetroHealth was "uncomfortable re-engaging in any discussion about the proposal that MetroHealth and our partner, Premier Physicians, submitted in May 2014, and augmented with an in-person presentation in September 2014."

Boutros also wrote he would be uncomfortable undertaking new conversations with the city of Lakewood because of reports that the city and Cleveland Clinic have an agreement regarding the future of Lakewood Hospital.

"We do not want in any way to interfere with that agreement," Boutros wrote. "This is both a legal concern (tortious interference with any legally binding agreement) and an unwillingness to act with anything less than transparency and cooperation with all the parties involved in the future of Lakewood Hospital."

http://www.cleveland.com/lakewood/index.ssf/2015/05/metrohealth_declines_to_discus.html

So, yes, a June 19, 2015 letter from CCF would be too little, too late given the May 20, 2015 Metro letter.

I also find it interesting that the June 19, 2015 CCF letter is the same date as the PD reported that "MetroHealth no longer interested in operating Lakewood Hospital." See http://www.cleveland.com/lakewood/index.ssf/2015/06/metrohealth_no_longer_interest.html.

I find it amazing how many things are being offered with "past due dates."

The cover-up continues.

.

1. Written by a Doctor, not CCF Attorney or any attorney.
2. Written same time/day as the announcement that Metro was not interested anymore was made public.
3. States no binding agreement between CCF, City, LHA, LHF. ie. no LOI Letter of Intent has been signed by all parties (partially true. LHA did agree to the LOI)
4. Does not address the Lease/Definitive agreement which is the whole reason a letter allowing Metro or any other medical group to propose a contract with Lakewood Hospital is necessary. This letter does not protect Metro from being sued by CCF.

Someone has clearly underestimated the public's ability to put 2 and 2 together. I think I smell rat(s).


“

When people tell a lie about something, they have to make up a bunch of lies to go with the first one. ‘Mythomania’ is the word for it.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Summers and Donley proudly admit that they have craeted the current circumstances that make the hospital unsustainable.

Honorable people would be embarrassed.

This popped up in my facebook 'on this day' feed. An oldie but goodie. I love my community but you couldn't imagine a worse government.

Kate McCarthy wrote: I love my community but you couldn't imagine a worse government.

Ms. McCarthy,

I agree.

Due to our local government, in Lakewood, free speech and public records are not "free" anymore--they come at great financial expense, personal sacrifice and ridicule.

Our local government has cast a dark shadow over Sunshine Laws---Senator Skindell and his lawyers have been viciously attacked for trying to enforce such laws with O'Leary, Bullock, Butler, Marx et al lying, concealing, biting, scratching and/or slithering lower than snakes' bellies to maintain "power".

Among the first words I wrote on the Deck were: "I'll be the first one up the hill" to defend our local leaders and community.

Unfortunately, the real "enemy" was always within the local government and they viewed the citizens and the Truth as their "enemies".

A Large corporation was only capable of such "evil" with the complicity of a government that lacks integrity and leadership.