The Observation Deck

I hesitated for several days about posting this and risking the wrath of JOB, but it's a comment from the other board that is too good to let slide. I thought about paraphrasing or making the thoughts my own, but there's no point to that. Over on the other board, the "baby buzzers" (many here know what and who that means) promptly sidetracked and buried it. The commenter has been around forever and is known as a conservative Republican. He's controversial but respected and is no sock puppet. Other than that, I can tell you it's not me. For now, I'll accept it as the explanation until someone provides me a better one.

"Originally posted by Banshee1:
"Years ago, CCF decided they wanted to phase out Lakewood Hospital and they've finally succeeded. Towards the end CCF starting crashing the boards, throwing elbows, and politicians Fitzgerald, Summers. Butler, and City Council stepped out of the way.

"These "leaders" lacked the skills and fortitude to take on the powerful entity CCF and rationalized the crumbs they were offering to Lakewood.

"Credit CCF for leveraging their opportunity and rolling over one feckless politician after another.

"Enjoy the pile of rubble at the corner of Belle and Detroit this summer. The citizens got what they demanded this fall at the ballot box."

Who is Banshee1?

Patrick Wadden wrote:Who is Banshee1?

Don't know and don't care. I respect the anonymity of the other board - except when it is abused - just as I admire the transparency of the Deck.
What do you think about what he said? That's what is important to me.

Dan,
CCF didn't push Summers and Council out of their way, in fact, it appears that they all were a big part of the demise of the hospital. I don't mean to sound nasty, and please don't take this personally, but, maybe this is one of the reasons why SLH has not done so well. How long do we keep blaming the Clinic? How long do we keep trying to be "nice"? Just saying, it is obvious that it has not worked so far.

[quote="Dan Alaimo"]I hesitated for several days about posting this and risking the wrath of JOB, but it's a comment from the other board that is too good to let slide. I thought about paraphrasing or making the thoughts my own, but there's no point to that. Over on the other board, the "baby buzzers" (many here know what and who that means) promptly sidetracked and buried it. The commenter has been around forever and is known as a conservative Republican. He's controversial but respected and is no sock puppet. Other than that, I can tell you it's not me. For now, I'll accept it as the explanation until someone provides me a better one.

"Originally posted by Banshee1:
"Years ago, CCF decided they wanted to phase out Lakewood Hospital and they've finally succeeded. Towards the end CCF starting crashing the boards, throwing elbows, and politicians Fitzgerald, Summers. Butler, and City Council stepped out of the way.

"These "leaders" lacked the skills and fortitude to take on the powerful entity CCF and rationalized the crumbs they were offering to Lakewood.

I said long ago, back in May, that CC will out lawyer and out spend whatever and whoever gets in their way. I think I posted that on Facebook. I'm sure Deneen has a screenshot. But either way, it was the reason for my position of taking what the Clinic was offering or negotiating it up. This constant drumbeat of "Metro will come in", "SDP wants the Columbia road facility", etc..... Never rang true to me. Still doesn't. I will say this, I no longer openly advocate for BL. Not because I don't believe in their plan. But because IF the hospital can be saved, then save it. I also said that Lakewood is obviously better off with a fully functional hospital, I just don't believe that it is or was an option once the Jacobs developed the Nagel Road exit. Whose name is on the side of that Hospital?

We can't really say that the hospital could not be saved when , even though I believe Summers and Council violated the Federal Trades Laws, there was NEVER any OPEN bidding process allowed. I believe it was sneaky, immoral and probably illegal. Like I said before, Summers, Council CCF and the county should have a theme song: "I've got friends in low places".

Patrick Wadden wrote:

Dan Alaimo wrote:I hesitated for several days about posting this and risking the wrath of JOB, but it's a comment from the other board that is too good to let slide. I thought about paraphrasing or making the thoughts my own, but there's no point to that. Over on the other board, the "baby buzzers" (many here know what and who that means) promptly sidetracked and buried it. The commenter has been around forever and is known as a conservative Republican. He's controversial but respected and is no sock puppet. Other than that, I can tell you it's not me. For now, I'll accept it as the explanation until someone provides me a better one.

"Originally posted by Banshee1:
"Years ago, CCF decided they wanted to phase out Lakewood Hospital and they've finally succeeded. Towards the end CCF starting crashing the boards, throwing elbows, and politicians Fitzgerald, Summers. Butler, and City Council stepped out of the way.

"These "leaders" lacked the skills and fortitude to take on the powerful entity CCF and rationalized the crumbs they were offering to Lakewood.

I said long ago, back in May, that CC will out lawyer and out spend whatever and whoever gets in their way. I think I posted that on Facebook. I'm sure Deneen has a screenshot. But either way, it was the reason for my position of taking what the Clinic was offering or negotiating it up. This constant drumbeat of "Metro will come in", "SDP wants the Columbia road facility", etc..... Never rang true to me. Still doesn't. I will say this, I no longer openly advocate for BL. Not because I don't believe in their plan. But because IF the hospital can be saved, then save it. I also said that Lakewood is obviously better off with a fully functional hospital, I just don't believe that it is or was an option once the Jacobs developed the Nagel Road exit. Whose name is on the side of that Hospital?

I think you were right. Probably the City was threatened to the point where the leaders believed this current deal was their only option. The problem is they never said that. They never said anything that made sense to me as much as Banshee's post does. If they had said so, it would have made a huge difference to me, but without that admission, let's press on with the referendum.

Lori, I've never bought the corruption line. I've come around to thinking that the "leaders" did what they thought was best, but that thinking - and more importantly the presentation of it - was flawed. In struggling to make sense of it, this is as good an explanation as any. And my opinion is not representative of SLH's.

Dan,

Keep drinking the kool-aid!

As a side note, this is my opinion and not that of SLH.

I only drink JOB's Kool-Aid. It's caffeinated.

That post says nothing new....basically it regurgitates the "decanting plan" that was uncovered in this forum.

The content on the other forum (there isn't much) is derived primarily from content on this forum.

Dan, Lori and Patrick,

In my opinion, Banshee is closer than the three of you, but close only counts in horseshoes.

There are several areas where Banshee is a few clicks off and Patrick now understands he and BLers were 180 degrees off.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall--it is simple physics. You don't negotiate with a giant like CCF with the blind advising the blind.

It is true that Summers, Butler, Madigan, Bullock and a few others lack skills and intestinal fortitude. If the weaklings at City Hall would have been open and listened to David Anderson and other well intentioned citizens they could have easily overcome their shortcomings. But we will soon learn several had motives not to listen.

Also, having been in direct contact with Metro and SDP, I can say unequivocally that those deals were and are real---remove the non compete, leave the equipment and bed licenses and Lakewood could still have a hospital. I would bet my entire net worth on it. I'm aware of others.

So with all due respect, people who say otherwise just don't know what they are talking about and have little knowledge of the healthcare market.

The citizens were misled by CCF, BLers, Summers and others at City Hall.

The whole deal boils down to leadership and accountability.

I have no doubt that we could install a team at City Hall right now that could turn this around in 2 months.

So the lack of skill at City Hall is not the problem, it never was----it was their unwillingness and inability to listen that killed the hospital.

As for SLH somehow failing to have a plan, in my opinion that is just silly.

You can't have change without accountability. And you can't have accountability without good leadership.

Brian Essi wrote:The citizens were misled by CCF, BLers, Summers and others at City Hall.

The whole deal boils down to leadership and accountability.

I have no doubt that we could install a team at City Hall right now that could turn this around in 2 months.

So the lack of skill at City Hall is not the problem, it never was----it was their unwillingness and inability to listen that killed the hospital.

And this is where I maintain my serious difference with Brian Essi.

The Cleveland Clinic owed nothing to the city of Lakewood outside of their contract. Nothing. They didn't owe us their plans, not even favorite hospital status. After all they tried to buy it, where we would be where Fairview is now, and we said, "NO run our hospital for us." For the market share, they agreed.

They are a corporation with a board, that is run like a corporation.

But Lakewood Hospital Association was there to help protect us, and even if that was a stretch. Certainly the mayor and elected officials on the Lakewood Hospital Association owed it to the city to mention it the first time it was apparent, we were losing out hospital and largest advertisers.

But instead, the Mayor, with some close friends and advisers saw an opportunity. If they played their cards right, they could siphon off the $43 million from LHF, for their own new formed corporation dedicated to wellness/economic development, and maybe grab another $10 - $20 million from LHA for yet another non-profit like the Cleveland Foundation, to cover for them deciding how they could spend the money. Development, Art, Wellnnes, and taking over the Rec Department. As I have said from day one.

Remember, the mayor willingly getting into a stolen car metaphor from January? Or, the Mayor letting the horse (CCF) out of the barn for a walk and it took off.

The Clinic only took what elected Lakewoodites helped them take, and they had secret reasons to let it happen.

Do you really think, 5 years of closing the hospital by our mayor, just happened to coincide with Active Living Task Force looking for ways to spend new money on Wellness? Really? You eally think the mayor's flying monkeys were talking tax raises, domes over fields, new running tracks, rec centers and on and on just daydreaming, and stumbled into Lakewood new Bataan Death March to wellness in Lakewood.

If you look back over the time from when Ed FitzGerald was mayor and look at everything that was done from appointments, to how things were done. It was done to get this done, to get this handled, smoothly, and give the clinic the easy slam dunk they were promised by our elected officials.

Now how good did out champion of business, and elected officials do?

The City of East Cleveland got a settlement of $20 from the Cleveland Clinic when they closed Huron Road Hospital. It did not go into a private foundation. It was not funneled to a friend new non-profit, it went to the City of East Cleveland. The City of East Cleveland did not own Huron Road Hospital, CCF did. The City of East Cleveland did not have a contract of any kind with the Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic also built and staffs the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Family Medical Center on proper they bought and own.

We loose all our $$$ all of our assets, and some of our property, and pay to tear the hospital down. We pay for the clinic's new family health center, while allowing no one else in the city.

IF ONE MORE PERSON TELLS ME THE MAYOR AND THESE PEOPLE ARE GOOD BUSINESS PEOPLE I WILL FREAK OUT.


Ex East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer seems to have done better at dealing with the clinic.
Can't wait to see whose laps the non-profit money ends up in.

I put ten names of the new non-profit in an envelope and sent it myself back in February. Let's try this Nostradamus thing one more time.


.

Jim

I'm not sure how to respond since it seems you did not contradict what I wrote (but I don't agree with all of what you wrote either)

Since I'm new to the cast of bad actors in the con, I'm curious if Jay Carson's name is in your envelope? Some of these mouthpieces for the "nonprofit" greed club look like 1960s hookers from Prospect. Or do you think he is just one of the uncompensated stooges in the scheme?

I do agree that this deal was greased from the beginning with Backroom pay offs for some in the inner circle. Others are still chasing the carrots they will never taste like the carriage horses led around Central Park

Jim,
Good post. I don't know what it is going to take to get some SLH members and some of their Lawyers to see , what I feel is corruption, involving this deal. I believe they may have made some very costly mistakes by being so trusting. Madeline Cain threatened CCF with a lawsuit when they tried before to mess with contract. Why did Summers and Council and LHA not do the same? I believe this mayor is sly enough and knows enough people, including the media, to get away with just about anything and everything. Does anyone really think that he "was bullied" by CCF. This kind of mentally, more than likely,if continued, will cost us our hospital. IMO

This kind of mentally, more than likely,if continued, will cost us our hospital. IMO

Ya think, Lori? Don't go out on a limb or anything!