The Observation Deck

An internal CCF document revealed in the Court filing shows that CCF knew it was legally liable under the 1996 Agreements to cover capital improvements and operating losses through 2026 and that that liability was estimated at 279.5M. This one document completely undermines Kevin Butler’s erroneous and fraudulent legal “opinion” claiming that CCF was not contractually liable for the losses. WOW!

Straight from the Court filings

“In September 2010, just weeks following the orchestrated presentations made by high ranking CCF executives to City Council [including the complicit Council President Kevin Butler] CCF began to backslide on its promises. Dr. David Bronson, the President of CCF regional hospitals and a close strategic adviser to Defendant Dr. Cosgrove, testified in his deposition that he advised Lakewood Mayor FitzGerald [close political ally of Summers, Butler and Bullock] that the Vision for Tomorrow Plan for sustainability of Lakewood Hospital was not effective, even though the long-term plan had not yet been fully implemented. (Bronson Tr. 180-183). Dr. Bronson testified that he wanted to make sure that the Mayor [and his allies Summers, Butler and Bullock] had an accurate view of the probability of success of the Lakewood Hospital plan. (Bronson Tr. 180).

Keep in mind that a political ally of Summers--and LHF trustee--Jay Foran had orchestrated a presentation with CCF executives prior to 2010 that foreshadowed the shady scheme of Summers and Fitzgerald with CCF to further their political careers.

In late 2010, the new Mayor of Lakewood, Defendant Summers, who had not read the City Charter establishing and mandating a public hospital for Lakewood and completely untrained as to his duties to the citizens of Lakewood, joined the Lakewood Hospital Association. (Summers Tr. 9-12). After joining the Hospital Board, Defendant Summers began to engage in discussions with Dr. Bronson concerning future health care options for Lakewood Hospital. Those discussions thereupon evolved as to options for an outpatient office building, a new recreation center, and acres of land for commercial development. (Bronson Tr. 235). [So political allies Butler and Bullock].


“The closing of Lakewood Hospital provided a great opportunity for the Mayor to “Think
Big” as to the possibilities of re-purposing ripe land available for thirsty developers and a
Hospital Foundation of $31 million to benefit a hospital that no longer existed. The assets of
land combined with the financial strength of the extinct Lakewood Hospital Foundation, in
which the Mayor's own wife served as a board member, created opportunities to control the
wealth, feather a political nest, and direct development for years to come. All contrary to the
Charter of the City of Lakewood that mandated a hospital for the citizens of Lakewood.”

“In early 2011, Mayor Summers, Dr. Bronson, and a few CCF employees and LHA trustees began the secret planning process to close Lakewood Hospital and establish an exclusive medical office building on the Lakewood Hospital property.”

“Dr. Bronson also testified that he later abandoned the request for a land use restriction, yet it remained in the final Master Agreement between the City of Lakewood, CCF, and LHA. (Bronson Tr. 239-242). Defendant Summers testified that he supported a restrictive covenant, so as to eliminate the opportunity for CCF competitors to open on the Lakewood Hospital campus, as he wanted CCF to be successful. (Summers Tr. 232-233).” So it was Summers’ who insisted on the non-compete on the former Hospital Site real estate to “feather his political nest” and help his developer friends and powerful banking connections.

An internal CCF document revealed in the Court filing shows that CCF knew it was legally liable under the 1996 Agreements to cover capital improvements and operating losses through 2026 and that that liability was estimated at 279.5M. This one document completely undermines Kevin Butler’s erroneous and fraudulent legal “opinion” claiming that CCF was not contractually liable for the losses. WOW!



Repeat: Summers and Fitzgerald used the concocted legal opinion of Butler to let CCF out of a $278.5 Million contractual liability to “feather their political nests.”

WOW!

Here is the full Court filing from yesterday:

Please read the entire filing Essi linked above if you are interested in how we lost our hospital.

It contains many gems of information regarding the process and the people who planned the demise of Lakewood Hospital.

Go figure. The people involved in arranging the agreement, for the city, were correct in thinking that it provided them with actual enforceable rights.

http://lakewoodobserver.com/forum/viewt ... =7&t=22938

That does make more sense than the suggestion that they invested all that time on an agreement in which no one agreed to do anything.

mjkuhns wrote:Go figure. The people involved in arranging the agreement, for the city, were correct in thinking that it provided them with actual enforceable rights.

http://lakewoodobserver.com/forum/viewt ... =7&t=22938

That does make more sense than the suggestion that they invested all that time on an agreement in which no one agreed to do anything.

Mr. Kuhns,

Spot on!

Wow. This is really damming. It appears that it all started with our fearless former mayor, Fitz! We also can't forget that Butler and Summers were on council at this time, I believe.

I am still waiting for an answer as to why there were millions of dollars missing from the county coffers after Fitz! left there.

Also, what happened to that "non-profit" Fitz! wanted to start a few months back? Hmm....

Keep in mind that in the fall of 2010:

1. Fitzgerald was elected to be County Executive.
2. Summers was to be Mayor and was appointed to the LHA board, so Fitzgerald told him that Lakewood hospital would be closing.
3. Butler as Council President, cut a backroom deal with Summers to be law director--a huge pay day for Butler who struggled to make a living at law.
4. Bullock was begging to be appoint to be part of LHA to rub elbows with CCF big wigs to advance his political career.

The was the perfect cocktail of corruption that Toby Cosgrove stirred with his martini stick.

Wannabes ripe to be bribed with insider deals, resume padding and political advancement.

All at the expense of the poor, the sick and Lakewood taxpayers.

Brian Essi wrote:Keep in mind that in the fall of 2010:
1. Fitzgerald was elected to be County Executive.
2. Summers was to be Mayor and was appointed to the LHA board, so Fitzgerald told him that Lakewood Hospital would be closing.
3. Butler as Council President, cut a backroom deal with Summers to be Law Director--a huge pay day for Butler who struggled to make a living at law.
4. Bullock was begging to be appointed to be part of LHA to rub elbows with CCF big wigs to advance his political career.

The was the perfect cocktail of corruption that Toby Cosgrove stirred with his martini stick. Wannabes ripe to be bribed with insider deals, resume padding and political advancement. All at the expense of the poor, the sick and Lakewood taxpayers.

Of course, Butler.
Finally the motivations of each of the players are becoming more clear, at least to me.

Summers, Butler and Bullock simply cannot be trusted.

A smoking gun? Or more a smoking cannon?

Can you imagine sitting around, shooting the sh*t with your buddies, lamenting that "our political careers are going nowhere, fast."

And then someone says "Hey I know, let's kill the well-financed public hospital built across generations, give away a lot of money for nothing, get a tiny plot of land to play sandbox with, and create some private foundations that we can use to feather our political careers."

**Silence

And then someone says "That's f-n brilliant, it solves all of our problems!"

cmager wrote:Can you imagine sitting around, shooting the sh*t with your buddies, lamenting that "our political careers are going nowhere, fast."

And then someone says "Hey I know, let's kill the well-financed public hospital built across generations, give away a lot of money for nothing, get a tiny plot of land to play sandbox with, and create some private foundations that we can use to feather our political careers."

**Silence

And then someone says "That's f-n brilliant, it solves all of our problems!"

Ladies and Gentlemen

I think we have a winner.

To quote one of my earliest posts on this subject...



Lakewood, we have been played for suckers by a very small group of "civic leaders."

All of the truth you know of this deal came from the lawsuit, the handful of documents, and putting Observations together.

All the Mayor and surrogates have done is lie, spin, over control of message, and send out the goons.

The meet in secret coffee catches, because they are ashamed of the lies they tell that do not stand up in the light of day.

City Hall, Mayor Summers release the paperwork, stop the madness.

.

Orange.

[*]

Brian Essi wrote:Orange.

Is The New Black.

m buckley wrote:[*]

Brian Essi wrote:Orange.

Is The New Black.

The color Orange is making some at City Hall seeing red.

After six years of planning, the best they could come up with was "Healthcare is changing" and "No one else was interested."
It's a lot of things, but it's also marketing malpractice.