CCF Moves To Strike Plantiff's Motion To Compel

[Jim O'Bryan]

As filed...

DEFENDANT THE CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION’S MOTION TO STRIKE
PLAINTIFFS’ “EMERGENCY” MOTION TO COMPEL

Plaintiffs are five Lakewood taxpayers with no individualized, special interest in Lakewood Hospital. To be sure, they, like all of Lakewood’s 50,000 residents, have a common interest in their community and in their City’s assets. But unlike the other 50,000 residents, these five residents filed a lawsuit with the hope that their views about Lakewood Hospital would, by judicial fiat, outweigh the views of every other resident, the City Council, and the Mayor. Undeterred by the legal defects in the complaint, the Plaintiffs have used this lawsuit in the media to accuse the defendants of a wild conspiracy and other nefarious acts, giving momentum to their political agenda while cloaked with the litigation privilege. Consistent with the rules of civil procedure and well-established judicial process, the Court has provided Plaintiffs with every opportunity to shore up those defects, providing a more than generous briefing schedule for the motion to dismiss, which Plaintiffs have had since July 10 (with minor revisions to address the amended complaint that was filed on August 21).

Read the entire document here.
http://media.lakewoodobserver.com/media ... 371662.pdf

As a side note, as this moves forward might as well sit back and gets some civics lessons and legal lesson. Many things will be played out in the coming months and discussions, with some of the best legal minds available appearing in starring and supporting roles.

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[Brian Essi]

LOL!

I love the line "enough is enough!"

CCF is desperate. If they really gave them all the discovery, why did CCF file the motion to strike the motion to the stuff CCF is hiding?

Silly!

LHA parroted CCF's motion too--the same day. Tom Gable is a CCF sock puppet.

http://cpdocket.cp.cuyahogacounty.us/i_ ... 9OA-TeiZU1

[Bridget Conant]

My favorite is the insinuation that they are the ONLY ones in Lakewood against the plan! That is a LMAO idea. If they want to take a poll, they'll see they actually DO represent the majority of Lakewood.

[Brian Essi]

Its funny that CCF uses Cleveland.com as a source for facts in their "Motion to Cry Foul"

NEOMG and Cleveland.com are sock puppets for all CCF messaging.

CCF is in trouble and getting scared.

Their mouthpieces are focusing of Kucinich and SLH to distract from the fact that they have not produced the documents they were supposed to and they have no good excuse for stonewalling.

It is truly ironic that CCF is crying foul about bad publicity when they virtually guide the hands of the Clevaland.com editors on a daily basis.

They are angry that they are out of control of what they call "media fodder"

They blame the "Decanting Plan" on their architects, but the documents show Ankit Chhabra CCF's former Military Intelligence Officer and others were in a on "Star Chamber" committee to plan the demise of Lakewood Hospital behind the backs of Lakewood residents.

This is a great civics and legal lesson and the "lessons learned" will form the backdrop of Lakewood's politics for years to come.

[Bill Call]

The Clinic knows it faces a potential liability of hundreds of millions of dollars so their lawyers are working overtime to end the discovery process. If they had nothing to hide they wouldn't be hiding.

One odd fact is that the Mayor and his supporters are working hard to end the discovery process, end the lawsuit and end healthcare in Lakewood. What are they thinking?

One hard fact is that judges read election returns.

One observation is that the Plain Dealer was doing a lot of reporting during the first half of the year about the importance of hospitals and the medical industry to local communities. I haven't seen any of those stories lately.

[Bridget Conant]

One hard fact is that judges read election returns.

Not only that, they read and listen to the news. The judge knows perfectly well that the 5 plaintiffs are not alone in their outrage. That's why CCF cannot continue to use that argument that the plaintiffs do not represent the majority of Lakewood residents.

Are they desperate? Yes, they see the groundswell of opposition and they sense a change in leadership come November. Expect more manuevering.

[Bridget Conant]

Read the final sentence. If the court doesn't grant our request, at least give us seven days to respond to the motion. LMAO!

BTW, I found the quality level of the actual writing, as well as the argument itself, to be about high school level. I'm surprised that a Jones Day associate produced that.

[tom monahan]

I keep reading and hearing the other side of the hospital issue keep saying that only five of 52,000 represent people who want to save the hospital. There is no limit to the number of people who can file a lawsuit against anything. But most competent lawyers will limit the plaintiffs to a minimum so as not to overburden the judge and civil court system. That is because all of the people listed as plaintiffs must be notified of any actions taken by the defendants. It just saves a lot of time and expenses for the court and all others involved.

The defendants in this case the Clinic, Summers et al etc.,surely cannot deliberately ignore the fact that on two occasions more than 4,000 Lakewoodites signed petitions to keep Lakewood Hospital open. Their answer to those people really amounts to a snubbing and campaign of misinformation.

One of the biggest fallacies being thrown out there by Summers and company is the if the hospital is saved, your taxes will go up. This point was brought as recently as last week by someone doing another phone poll. That person asked a friend would she support the hospital if she knew her taxes were going to increase?

I have a question for Jen Pae, since we haven't seen Mike Summers up front on this topic in weeks: When was the last time Lakewood tax dollars were used to keep the hospital in operation? And, how much was that amount?

[Jennifer Pae]

Tom - The Hospital has always been supported by the revenues generated from operations, and when it was on the City's books up until 1986, it was reported as an Enterprise Fund. Therefore, no tax derived revenue sources ever supported the hospital. You can find more information regarding the hospital's finances when they were reported on the City's financial books at: http://www.onelakewood.com/wp-content/u ... 042015.pdf

[Pam Wetula]

From Jen Pae:

[quote][Tom - The Hospital has always been supported by the revenues generated from operations, and when it was on the City's books up until 1986, it was reported as an Enterprise Fund. Therefore, no tax derived revenue sources ever supported the hospital. You can find more information regarding the hospital's finances when they were reported on the City's financial books at:/quote]

Ms Pae:

Please refer to the Build Lakewood Postcard that just went out (you are a member) stating:

" Don't save old Lakewood Hospital

Proposed City Charter Amendment will force Lakewood Taxpayers to finance a stand-alone hospital in competition with more efficient regional healthcare providers."

1. Per your own words taxpayer revenue sources have Never supported the hospital. The Build Lakewood postcard is spreading untruths (and the above statement is just of1 of 13 misleading statements on that postcard).
2. Additionally, the City has not been open to regional healthcare providers interested in maintaining Lakewood Hospital. They ignored Metro's proposal and refuse to demand that the Cleveland Clinic provide a Release that would allow interested healthcare provider to come forward without fear of being sued.
3. The City has not moved to compel CCF to provide the documents that the lawsuit requests. If there is nothing to fear, then Lakewood would insist on transparency.

The truth is - Lakewood taxpayers will pay more INCOME TAX if we allow the hospital to close.
The truth is - CCF & LHA & the City are hiding pertinent information from the public
The truth is- We will loose dozens and dozens and dozens of small businesses if Lakewood Hospital closes & the taxpayer will pay that bill. There has been no plan forwarded that even begins to cover what we lose in economic viability if we allow Lakewood Hospital to close.

Pam Wetula

[Pam Wetula]

More accurate information - Thank you to Tom Monahan from Pam Wetula...who is still learning details despite having read thousands of pages over the last few months!

The Following is from Tom Monahan to Pam Wetula:

There were TWO metro proposals and they were the only ones that met the criteria set forth in Subsidium's RFP.

I will quote the Subsidium RFP in part:

"Through this process the municipality is only interested in proposals to operate the Hospital as an inpatient facility with substantially
similar services as those offered today and for a period of no less than 20 years." That is very clear language that most people would understand.

However, Mike Summers and his pals on Council and other LHA folks must have panicked when they saw the Metro proposal come back and say: yes sir, we can do that and here is our plan.

You know what happened after that: the Clinic said, no sir...we want to tear down Lakewood Hospital and replace it with a medical office building

There were two RFPs sent out (Exhibits G and H ) in our lawsuit.

Also, I believe it was in May of this year that Citizen Brian Essi asked about the RFPs and Summers told he was unaware of a second RFP.