The Observation Deck

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the first in the final group of meetings the Foundation Planning Task Force will be holding.

We are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, in terms of our work being completed. We’ve put in over a year of extremely hard work on this project. It will be much easier for you to understand the scope of our work, and why we are coming to specific decisions, if you attend the meetings.

Upcoming schedule:

Thursday, March 15 at 6pm-Women’s Pavilion

Thursday, April 10 at 6pm-City Hall

Thursday, April 24 at 6pm-City Hall

Thursday, May 10 at 6pm-Women’s Pavilion

bump.

For my first post on the Observation Deck, I thought I’d comment on my first attendance to a Foundation Task Force meeting. This happened March 15th, 2018.

Last night, the group was still in the process of developing and refining the guiding principles and structure under which the Wellness Foundation should function.

Everyone seemed quite sincere and earnest in their task and mentioned ‘transparency' and ‘accountability’ multiple times during the meeting. The layers are many.

At the conclusion of their meeting, the public was asked for comments. One statement was in regards to the ‘Regulators’ (Mayor Michael P. Summers, Lakewood Hospital Association and City Council) formulating the Health foundation trustee application to be used by a third party, Business Vision Unlimited.

He went on to say, “If the goal of the HPTFC is to help heal the city, then the decision making process of selecting the Health Foundation trustees needs to be as far away from the Mayor and LHA as possible.”

The organization, BVU, was chosen by Summers, Shannon Strachan (Ex. Assistant to the Mayor, Secretary for Foundation Task Force) and Randell McShepard (consultant and facilitator for the Foundation Planning Task Force.)

There still needs to be approval for the recommendations of the Task Force and its guiding principles.

Summers stated, “I can’t speak for city council”, but he thinks there will be at least two readings.

Another public comment was the suggestion of adding educational diversity to the mix for the selection of the Directors. While age, race, ethnicity, etc. are already supposed to be considered in the choosing, so should the level of education.

I silently agreed with him, because I feel that whether or not someone has a degree, life’s experiences should not be discounted. Quite often, it is those without initials after their name, who can cut through the B.S. and see things for what they really are. These people can think outside of the box, because they were never in a box to begin with.

Besides the facilitator and secretary, there were 13 members of the Task Force in attendance.

Not sitting at the ‘tables’ were Summers, Ward 3 councilperson John Litten (who stayed for less than a hour), Council-At-Large Tom Bullock (who arrived 1 1/2 hrs late, and then stayed for 1 hr.), Toni Gelsomino (Lakewood Human Services), Pam Smith and approx. 7 other folks (including myself).

The last sentence on a handout reads, Positive change is driven by shared priorities, coordinated efforts, and community trust.

Considering that I, like many of you, have been robbed, betrayed and lied to by elected officials, that ‘trust' thing is far in the future, for me.

Now, that ‘choice’ of healthcare has been removed from the town I live in, and I have to drive to other communities to get checkups, my ever regaining ‘trust’ is again…. far in the future, if ever.

Hopefully, if I’ve made any errors in the above or left out something that should be shared with you, Mike Bentley will jump in with corrections or fill in the blanks.

pj---haven't had the pleasure of meeting you yet-- but from a half distance away I think you are spot on. Stan Austin

Ms. Bennett, thank you for taking the time to report on the meeting last night. I was unable to attend. I appreciate your taking the time to write a detailed description of the event.

pj bennett wrote:For my first post on the Observation Deck, I thought I’d comment on my first attendance to a Foundation Task Force meeting. This happened March 15th, 2018.

Last night, the group was still in the process of developing and refining the guiding principles and structure under which the Wellness Foundation should function.

Everyone seemed quite sincere and earnest in their task and mentioned ‘transparency' and ‘accountability’ multiple times during the meeting. The layers are many.

At the conclusion of their meeting, the public was asked for comments. One statement was in regards to the ‘Regulators’ (Mayor Michael P. Summers, Lakewood Hospital Association and City Council) formulating the Health foundation trustee application to be used by a third party, Business Vision Unlimited.

He went on to say, “If the goal of the HPTFC is to help heal the city, then the decision making process of selecting the Health Foundation trustees needs to be as far away from the Mayor and LHA as possible.”

The organization, BVU, was chosen by Summers, Shannon Strachan (Ex. Assistant to the Mayor, Secretary for Foundation Task Force) and Randell McShepard (consultant and facilitator for the Foundation Planning Task Force.)

There still needs to be approval for the recommendations of the Task Force and its guiding principles.

Summers stated, “I can’t speak for city council”, but he thinks there will be at least two readings.

Another public comment was the suggestion of adding educational diversity to the mix for the selection of the Directors. While age, race, ethnicity, etc. are already supposed to be considered in the choosing, so should the level of education.

I silently agreed with him, because I feel that whether or not someone has a degree, life’s experiences should not be discounted. Quite often, it is those without initials after their name, who can cut through the B.S. and see things for what they really are. These people can think outside of the box, because they were never in a box to begin with.

Besides the facilitator and secretary, there were 13 members of the Task Force in attendance.

Not sitting at the ‘tables’ were Summers, Ward 3 councilperson John Litten (who stayed for less than a hour), Council-At-Large Tom Bullock (who arrived 1 1/2 hrs late, and then stayed for 1 hr.), Toni Gelsomino (Lakewood Human Services), Pam Smith and approx. 7 other folks (including myself).

The last sentence on a handout reads, Positive change is driven by shared priorities, coordinated efforts, and community trust.

Considering that I, like many of you, have been robbed, betrayed and lied to by elected officials, that ‘trust' thing is far in the future, for me.

Now, that ‘choice’ of healthcare has been removed from the town I live in, and I have to drive to other communities to get checkups, my ever regaining ‘trust’ is again…. far in the future, if ever.

Hopefully, if I’ve made any errors in the above or left out something that should be shared with you, Mike Bentley will jump in with corrections or fill in the blanks.

Thank you, this is what this project is all about.

We all cannot got to all meetings, but if we share our experiences, and observations of the meetings we go to, we can get a better understanding of what is going on in this community.

.

Thanks, pj

pj bennett wrote:For my first post on the Observation Deck, I thought I’d comment on my first attendance to a Foundation Task Force meeting. This happened March 15th, 2018.

Last night, the group was still in the process of developing and refining the guiding principles and structure under which the Wellness Foundation should function.

Everyone seemed quite sincere and earnest in their task and mentioned ‘transparency' and ‘accountability’ multiple times during the meeting. The layers are many.

At the conclusion of their meeting, the public was asked for comments. One statement was in regards to the ‘Regulators’ (Mayor Michael P. Summers, Lakewood Hospital Association and City Council) formulating the Health foundation trustee application to be used by a third party, Business Vision Unlimited.

He went on to say, “If the goal of the HPTFC is to help heal the city, then the decision making process of selecting the Health Foundation trustees needs to be as far away from the Mayor and LHA as possible.”

The organization, BVU, was chosen by Summers, Shannon Strachan (Ex. Assistant to the Mayor, Secretary for Foundation Task Force) and Randell McShepard (consultant and facilitator for the Foundation Planning Task Force.)

There still needs to be approval for the recommendations of the Task Force and its guiding principles.

Summers stated, “I can’t speak for city council”, but he thinks there will be at least two readings.

Another public comment was the suggestion of adding educational diversity to the mix for the selection of the Directors. While age, race, ethnicity, etc. are already supposed to be considered in the choosing, so should the level of education.

I silently agreed with him, because I feel that whether or not someone has a degree, life’s experiences should not be discounted. Quite often, it is those without initials after their name, who can cut through the B.S. and see things for what they really are. These people can think outside of the box, because they were never in a box to begin with.

Besides the facilitator and secretary, there were 13 members of the Task Force in attendance.

Not sitting at the ‘tables’ were Summers, Ward 3 councilperson John Litten (who stayed for less than a hour), Council-At-Large Tom Bullock (who arrived 1 1/2 hrs late, and then stayed for 1 hr.), Toni Gelsomino (Lakewood Human Services), Pam Smith and approx. 7 other folks (including myself).

The last sentence on a handout reads, Positive change is driven by shared priorities, coordinated efforts, and community trust.

Considering that I, like many of you, have been robbed, betrayed and lied to by elected officials, that ‘trust' thing is far in the future, for me.

Now, that ‘choice’ of healthcare has been removed from the town I live in, and I have to drive to other communities to get checkups, my ever regaining ‘trust’ is again…. far in the future, if ever.

Hopefully, if I’ve made any errors in the above or left out something that should be shared with you, Mike Bentley will jump in with corrections or fill in the blanks.

PJ,

BVU was Business Volunteers Unlimited. It is a nonprofit organization that helps primarily with board matching and community involvement for businesses. The Mayor did say they had reached out to see if they could put together a board application and suggest best suited candidates based on the matrix being put together, but hasn’t heard back from them. Mr. McShepard stated that he was a former vice-chair of their board at one time, so he could try to get the ball rolling. It was also suggested that if anyone knew a firm that specialized in that, it would be helpful to get in touch there. No one in attendance had such contact, at least that they had mentioned.

As for who picks the board, nothing is concrete, as of yet. This is something the FPTF isn’t taking very seriously, based on feedback in the Community Engagement report put out in October. I think ideas will be floated at the April 10 meeting on how to address that.

We did add the education piece in, as the gentleman suggested.

Much of the conversation and debate centered around the code of regulations, and the need to input a transparency plan. I had notes in my packet, but to her credit, Phyllis Dykes had prepared remarks that she wouldn’t vote for anything if the promise of transparency didn’t have teeth, and a community engagement plan be put in the code of regs. Self-Dealing & conflicts of interest were also dealt with. Primarily deciding around the self-dealing issue, which will be prohibited. It’s common for
Public charities to have self-dealing arrangements, but we felt it was in the best interest, and what was requested, not to allow it.

The code of regs will likely be decided on April 10. We’re weeks away from submitting our final recommendations.

There will be a posting next week on the website updating progress.

bentleymike wrote:As for who picks the board, nothing is concrete, as of yet. This is something the FPTF isn’t taking very seriously

This should say IS TAKING VERY SERIOUSLY

That’s what I get for responding from a phone.

Thank you for your clarifications, Mike. I find them helpful and encouraging.

I’m glad you mentioned Phyllis Dykes’ remarks, as they were weighty…. and, I had failed to mention them.

BTW, I was impressed that the FTF group was so engaged in their exchange of ideas and thoughts. The discussions never lagged.

(It’s probably unfair to compare this one FTF meeting that I attended, to the multitude of Committee Of The Whole meetings, that I’ve sat in on….. but my goodness, those COW mtgs. are anything, but informative. A nod here, maybe one question there…. followed with everyone saying Yay. No one ever, [or perhaps dares is a more appropriate word] to go against the grain.)

And, it’s nice to know that public comments were actually considered. I find that quite refreshing. Thanks again.

pj bennett wrote:
At the conclusion of their meeting, the public was asked for comments. One statement was in regards to the ‘Regulators’ (Mayor Michael P. Summers, Lakewood Hospital Association and City Council) formulating the Health foundation trustee application to be used by a third party, Business Vision Unlimited.

He went on to say, “If the goal of the HPTFC is to help heal the city, then the decision making process of selecting the Health Foundation trustees needs to be as far away from the Mayor and LHA as possible.”

The organization, BVU, was chosen by Summers, Shannon Strachan (Ex. Assistant to the Mayor, Secretary for Foundation Task Force) and Randell McShepard (consultant and facilitator for the Foundation Planning Task Force.)

bentleymike wrote:

bentleymike wrote:As for who picks the board, nothing is concrete, as of yet. This is something the FPTF isn’t taking very seriously

This should say IS TAKING VERY SERIOUSLY

That’s what I get for responding from a phone.

Does anyone know if CEO Brian Broadbent of BVU is related to CEO Kristin Broadbent of the new Three Arches Foundation that replaced the Lakewood Hospital Foundation?

Meg Ostrowski wrote:Does anyone know if CEO Brian Broadbent of BVU is related to CEO Kristin Broadbent of the new Three Arches Foundation that replaced the Lakewood Hospital Foundation?

pj bennett wrote:The organization, BVU, was chosen by Summers, Shannon Strachan (Ex. Assistant to the Mayor, Secretary for Foundation Task Force) and Randell McShepard (consultant and facilitator for the Foundation Planning Task Force.)

Mr. Bentley

Over the years I have known you, and the many conversations I have had with you, you have earned my respect. We disagree on less than we agree on, and that is always a great foundation to build from.

HOWEVER

Here in two quotes is the inbred nightmare that permeates this city and City Hall. There is less than two degrees of separation on many, many, many levels of a Foundation you have fought to be honest, above board, and transparent. In less than 2 months the organization will go black as all private foundations go, and the view from outside to the inside will be highly regulated if seen at all.

Your foundation represents the pennies we received from the Mayor's, Bullock, Madigan secret 5 year deal to liquidate Lakewood's single largest asset behind out backs. Which we all know is true now. Had the Lakewood Observer not broken the story, the plan was to keep it quiet until June 16, 2015. Not December of 2014.

We both have agreed one of this Administration single biggest problems is optics, and they cannot even begin to understand how things look to the rest of us. This City Hall has a serious problem with accountability, honesty and transparency.

So here we go again. Do we have half of LakewoodAlive V1 on one side, and half of LakewoodAlive V1 on the other side of OUR MONEY?

Don't you feel it odd, they all flee LA where they raised ZERO FUNDS to much greener pastures of OUR MONEY?

I do not mean to be harsh on a Sunday morning my friend, but this is starting to shape up exactly as I said it would, and I hate being right.

.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:

Meg Ostrowski wrote:Does anyone know if CEO Brian Broadbent of BVU is related to CEO Kristin Broadbent of the new Three Arches Foundation that replaced the Lakewood Hospital Foundation?

pj bennett wrote:The organization, BVU, was chosen by Summers, Shannon Strachan (Ex. Assistant to the Mayor, Secretary for Foundation Task Force) and Randell McShepard (consultant and facilitator for the Foundation Planning Task Force.)

Mr. Bentley

Over the years I have known you, and the many conversations I have had with you, you have earned my respect. We disagree on less than we agree on, and that is always a great foundation to build from.

HOWEVER

Here in two quotes is the inbred nightmare that permeates this city and City Hall. There is less than two degrees of separation on many, many, many levels of a Foundation you have fought to be honest, above board, and transparent. In less than 2 months the organization will go black as all private foundations go, and the view from outside to the inside will be highly regulated if seen at all.

Your foundation represents the pennies we received from the Mayor's, Bullock, Madigan secret 5 year deal to liquidate Lakewood's single largest asset behind out backs. Which we all know is true now. Had the Lakewood Observer not broken the story, the plan was to keep it quiet until June 16, 2015. Not December of 2014.

We both have agreed one of this Administration single biggest problems is optics, and they cannot even begin to understand how things look to the rest of us. This City Hall has a serious problem with accountability, honesty and transparency.

So here we go again. Do we have half of LakewoodAlive V1 on one side, and half of LakewoodAlive V1 on the other side of OUR MONEY?

Don't you feel it odd, they all flee LA where they raised ZERO FUNDS to much greener pastures of OUR MONEY?

I do not mean to be harsh on a Sunday morning my friend, but this is starting to shape up exactly as I said it would, and I hate being right.

.

This will likely be my last response. I have a ton of family stuff today.

I don’t know if there is any relation of Kristin Broadbent & Brian Broadbent. I’m sure anyone who does a quick Google will be able to answer that question.

As for Jim’s statement, I want to repeat something: NO DECISION HAS BEEN MADE WHO THE INDIVIDUALS WILL BE ON THE BOARD. THERE HAS BEEN NO DECISION ON WHO ACTUALLY SELECTS THESE INDIVIDUALS, EITHER.

The Mayor simply stated that he had put a call out to BVU in an effort to be proactive, and McShepard stated that he could vouch for the organization. As of Thursday, BVU hadn’t even responded to the Mayor’s outreach.

No one said they’re being hired. Let’s not take it too far out of context. Please give the FPTF the ability to actually make recommendations before you put out more assumptions, Jim.

bentleymike wrote: I don’t know if there is any relation of Kristin Broadbent & Brian Broadbent. I’m sure anyone who does a quick Google will be able to answer that question.

Thanks for your response. I did a quick Google search yesterday before posting the question because I wasn't able to determine if they were related. I didn't want to make any assumptions but would like to know.

Upcoming schedule:

Thursday, March 15 at 6pm-Women’s Pavilion

Thursday, April 10 at 6pm-City Hall

Thursday, April 24 at 6pm-City Hall

Thursday, May 10 at 6pm-Women’s Pavilion

FYI: April 10 and April 24 are both Tuesdays. The April meetings for the FPTF are listed this way at http://www.onelakewood.com/calendar/2018-04/