I arise in the morning torn
between a desire to improve the world
and a desire to enjoy the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day. E.B. White
From fire comes new growth
Right now there is smoke wafting up through the canyon, into the valley, where it is settling in all of our lungs. I have been a bit out of touch due to a few health issues, and wish all well, in Havila and Bodfish and have called friends in the area to make sure they are playing it safe with fire.
I don't know what they are calling it the "Canyon fire" as maybe fires should have names like hurricanes which are giving the gulf all it can handle already this year after the oil leaks and sinking ships.
Maybe we could call the canyon fire "Chet" or "Pam" or "Cathy," could be "Jerry" "Donald" too. I don't know, but I have little info on that situation, I'm still choking on the smoke coming from the Kern Valley Healthcare District.
It's a sad time for many people all over the world, and I have given my brother strict instructions to stay away from watching the TV news as it has no answers to give, only pictures of the pain repeated like a mantra. We need to have hope and faith to survive.
This has been one heck of a fire season up here in the Kern River Valley and I also know it can be quite unpredictable. We have to stay aware of our surroundings, leave nothing to chance, as it can suddenly come up on you from behind.
The fire though is under KVHD, as administrators have left no other options for themselves in the case of the new "property tax" bond measure which could lead to a financial default which in turn could lead the retiring of these bond selling administrators...by the very contract they signed us all up for in 1986, the original debt (No not Columbia House, though it's close, but Cal Mtg.)...
No, they don't have anything to lose, they have everything to lose including their jobs if they don't convince 2/3 of this community to pay for the past transgression which lead to our current predicament or I mean "construction project" or whatever they are saying now.
And this bond will not solve the problems for KVHD in the future, they will have to come to the voters of this valley again, for another round of money, as this is only the first bond. As the CEO said, "we're trying to get a head start," with what?
Since the meeting in August KVHD board meeting
After I witnessed the board of directors and the administrators basically put up a "roadblock" to other options than a property tax debt for the community for the next 30 years, I couldn't help but want to know why they chose the easy way out or actually the easy way to big money and fast.
This bond has been used as collateral or a lure, to obtain credit already, as they are pretty sure of themselves over there that they can get this community to saddle itself with almost the same amount of money which caused the problems in the first place, 22 years ago, 22 million dollars.
That would be true irony. (I will admit, I will laugh heartily if that happens as this is a Divine Comedy...)
There are other options no one has openly discussed and we will analyze them on and around November 2, election day.
Monday I will have a post to respond to the KV Sun "snowdown" with the questions and answers.
Here's an answer you may want to listen to:
It's an opinion: called "just build it"
http://www.tehachapinews.com/content/just-build-it/31485
Persistance and Tenacity, requires a new chapter, a new beginning....
Showing posts with label Tehachapi Hospital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tehachapi Hospital. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
KVHD wants taxpayers to foot bill for former financial errors: Caldwell Winters Flores Study shows two thirds of residents agree, how convenient
KVHD CEO and CFO hand in hand, word for word, on bond...
We're just like Tehachapi, they say...
UPDATED
With the financial number's crunching so loudly it sounds like someone eating potato chips in church, the Kern Valley healthcare District, administrators, Tim McGlew, and CFO Chet Beedle, have made the statements that the hospital cannot go on without a big multi million dollar bond to pay off old debts which have been hampering progress at the hospital for twenty years.
The two administrators who have narrowed the field of potential remedies for the financial woes to either a general obligation bond which would increase property taxes or taxes which would just increase.
The word bankruptcy is like saying hit me with a hammer, as it has been a rumor that because the hospital's debt is covered by Cal Mtg. insurance, that solution is too risky. But with bailouts across the nation one must wonder why a small hospital cannot find a creative solution to their problems without raising taxes.
Even though the tax potential would fall away from the senior population and fully on what is left of a middle class here in the valley. I don't have numbers yet, but I'm hunting, and have help, but the situation here in the KRV grows worse each time another government agency or even a water company who maybe didn't get the best deals on their wells which contain uranium, arsenic, too much flouride and chlorine, which are eating up their filters so the community must pay them to fix that too.
This community has been hit with a smart bomb, and we have knuckleheads leading or misleading the public.
The issue of the hospital, it's perpetuity, it's potential tax grab, is all so important to get into the minds of voters. However, the Kern Valley Sun Newspaper has kept that information to themselves as they have made themselves the judge, jury and monopolists of our local media.
I'll not go into the chamber issues yet, but to say that a sign at the bottom of the canyon, is a sign of potential action on our parts, is sad. People might say, well it's something, just like the sidewawalks we put in on Lake Isabella Blvd. But until we fully see the picture up here, most especially homeowners, businessowners, and employees, we won't be able to rebound, we will most likely be assimilated by the pseudo problem solvers of the government.
Caldwell, Flores and Winters remember them from Measure M?
At the last KVHD special meeting which again took on the issue of keeping the hospital afloat while the healthcare reform is battled out on Capitol Hill and then to the Supreme court, the only two "creations" were higher taxes and a general obligation bond.
Board members were practically mute and seemed to totally rely on the two administrators, McGlew and McBeedle to handle the planning, which they were told had to be a bond or taxes.
Oh, I asked Chet and I'll put up the video of the response, why last year he claimed all was well in Hooville, and now the Grinch showed up and we must have a bond or Christmas will be ruined.
Well, McGlew, saying that KVHD directly compares to Tehachapi, and that is what they are basing their numbers and strategy on. Tehachapi had to give up a bond, because they need to actually build a hospital, and they need to agree where it will be built. You see they already bought property, but not everyone is going for it. They are a mess KVHD would hope never to be. Yes, we have maimed, killed, fired, lied, covered up, squandered all our cash, but somehow we still manage to see a patient or two in the ER.
Now, as I mentioned Caldwell, Winters and Flores, who had the hospitals' ill be gotten 2006 bond, Measure M, which lost by less than one hundred votes, won all their other bonds that year. You see they get paid a percentage. If the bond was say one hundred million and another was fifty million, they would get a chunk of the sale. Now they lost the smallest bond they had, our bond.
So, I questioned why they would bring back a company who let your last bond slide to go for the landslide of bonds passed in 2006? I said it was something to consider.
And when McGlew told us all about the survey which showed that this community supports another bond to the tune of the two thirds majority vote needed to pass a bond, the survey amazingly showed that 67% agreed. (Next I'll be showing you the survey from 2006) How interesting, that in a depressed year where the hospital is holding out it's hand looking for scraps, that the community would be willing to pay these taxes. Now this must be true, as there is a 4% error rate. Right? You can't fake these kinds of things, or can you?
Look at your bond options: it's like buying a new car, I'll take the CD player please...
We're just like Tehachapi, they say...
UPDATED
With the financial number's crunching so loudly it sounds like someone eating potato chips in church, the Kern Valley healthcare District, administrators, Tim McGlew, and CFO Chet Beedle, have made the statements that the hospital cannot go on without a big multi million dollar bond to pay off old debts which have been hampering progress at the hospital for twenty years.
The two administrators who have narrowed the field of potential remedies for the financial woes to either a general obligation bond which would increase property taxes or taxes which would just increase.
The word bankruptcy is like saying hit me with a hammer, as it has been a rumor that because the hospital's debt is covered by Cal Mtg. insurance, that solution is too risky. But with bailouts across the nation one must wonder why a small hospital cannot find a creative solution to their problems without raising taxes.
Even though the tax potential would fall away from the senior population and fully on what is left of a middle class here in the valley. I don't have numbers yet, but I'm hunting, and have help, but the situation here in the KRV grows worse each time another government agency or even a water company who maybe didn't get the best deals on their wells which contain uranium, arsenic, too much flouride and chlorine, which are eating up their filters so the community must pay them to fix that too.
This community has been hit with a smart bomb, and we have knuckleheads leading or misleading the public.
The issue of the hospital, it's perpetuity, it's potential tax grab, is all so important to get into the minds of voters. However, the Kern Valley Sun Newspaper has kept that information to themselves as they have made themselves the judge, jury and monopolists of our local media.
I'll not go into the chamber issues yet, but to say that a sign at the bottom of the canyon, is a sign of potential action on our parts, is sad. People might say, well it's something, just like the sidewawalks we put in on Lake Isabella Blvd. But until we fully see the picture up here, most especially homeowners, businessowners, and employees, we won't be able to rebound, we will most likely be assimilated by the pseudo problem solvers of the government.
Caldwell, Flores and Winters remember them from Measure M?
At the last KVHD special meeting which again took on the issue of keeping the hospital afloat while the healthcare reform is battled out on Capitol Hill and then to the Supreme court, the only two "creations" were higher taxes and a general obligation bond.
Board members were practically mute and seemed to totally rely on the two administrators, McGlew and McBeedle to handle the planning, which they were told had to be a bond or taxes.
Oh, I asked Chet and I'll put up the video of the response, why last year he claimed all was well in Hooville, and now the Grinch showed up and we must have a bond or Christmas will be ruined.
Well, McGlew, saying that KVHD directly compares to Tehachapi, and that is what they are basing their numbers and strategy on. Tehachapi had to give up a bond, because they need to actually build a hospital, and they need to agree where it will be built. You see they already bought property, but not everyone is going for it. They are a mess KVHD would hope never to be. Yes, we have maimed, killed, fired, lied, covered up, squandered all our cash, but somehow we still manage to see a patient or two in the ER.
Now, as I mentioned Caldwell, Winters and Flores, who had the hospitals' ill be gotten 2006 bond, Measure M, which lost by less than one hundred votes, won all their other bonds that year. You see they get paid a percentage. If the bond was say one hundred million and another was fifty million, they would get a chunk of the sale. Now they lost the smallest bond they had, our bond.
So, I questioned why they would bring back a company who let your last bond slide to go for the landslide of bonds passed in 2006? I said it was something to consider.
And when McGlew told us all about the survey which showed that this community supports another bond to the tune of the two thirds majority vote needed to pass a bond, the survey amazingly showed that 67% agreed. (Next I'll be showing you the survey from 2006) How interesting, that in a depressed year where the hospital is holding out it's hand looking for scraps, that the community would be willing to pay these taxes. Now this must be true, as there is a 4% error rate. Right? You can't fake these kinds of things, or can you?
Look at your bond options: it's like buying a new car, I'll take the CD player please...
Click on images to enlarge:
The administrators don't have their minds dead set on this bond, no not at all. They actually show a budget without the bond. It's all so preliminary.
The administrators don't have their minds dead set on this bond, no not at all. They actually show a budget without the bond. It's all so preliminary.
That's what he told me after the meeting
I suggested to Mr. McGlew that he consider looking at other bond companies and quit copy catting what they are doing at Tehachapi, if we wanted that, we would have paid Robert Duncan, another Post Pam Ott era, CEO, the $250,000, we are paying McGlew. Duncan was a Tehachapi find we lured over to our rotten mess in 2007 to see if he could make things good. I think he was here at least three months.
After the April monthly KVHD board meeting, where the talk was "preliminary" about the bond or tax increase, it got more concrete at the end of the night when McGlew announced he wanted the bond on the November ballot.
Since the board members are not sure of their positions on this obviously, they have added no new ideas to the stew, therefore, it's been pretty bland with bonds and tax increases only.
After the meeting McGlew told me that KVHD was not going to use Caldwell Flores Winters, that he was dealing with a different group now. I complimented him on his decision.
Then I'm at the pharmacy the other night chatting with Chet about the situation, and he said, no, they were in fact still using CFW. I said no you're not, Tim told me that you are branching out and have found a different company to use.
So, what other bad information is there?
Okay, so obtaining public information at the hospital has become more like dentistry or a root canal, as I'm not kidding I can't get a straight answer from the CEO or the CFO and the board has basically dropped out of sight afraid to be the "taxman."
I have sent questions, asked for documents, and now, I can tell you that information I will cover will be from the inside. If it's good information great, if not, it can't be any worse than the wild goose chases I have been lead on by the administration.
Sometimes I wonder why this feels so much like the Ott era. (Our former CEO, Pam Ott, will be heading to court leading the way on elder abuse charges stemming from her time at the hospital early this summer. I'll take a look at the criminal case, as we have to wonder if Dr. Pormir another defendant, will have told the Department of Justice the truth about Ott. Now Pormir, wearing two new attorneys, Donald Etra and William Ginsburg, may not have to spill the beans, I'll get into that soon.)
And just a head's up to family members of residents of the nursing facility, the annual survey will be coming up, and you might want to keep your ears to the ground and make sure we have finally implemented a compassionate, fully staffed 24 hours a day, skilled nursing unit.
We know that the nurse's aides will once again be accessible come summer as they are out of school. But just how many will come to KVHD knowing about the hiring firing practices of late? (coming soon, where did all the people go, except Chet McBeedle who is waiting for retirement; were the employees that bad? Can we afford to constantly fire and have employees quit? How much is that costing every year? Good managers, have little turnover, don't forget.)
One more thing, the survey...
'
Of course, I found it highly suspicious that the survey from a company hired by CFW, found on their survey that more than two thirds of the residents want to help pay the debt the hospital accrued through mismanagement and the help of a government agency lacking a feasibility study, Cal Mtg., and the bleed out from the skilled nursing disaster.
I decided to call someone who donated thirty thousand to the hospital four years ago, and I asked him if he would be willing to put up some more money for the hospital, as they need the community to take over the financial care of the hospital, as it cannot find the correct people with good ideas who can save the hospital without pickpocketing the community?
Before I could get the question out, he said if this has anything to do with raising taxes then I totally disagree.
His name is Richard Blomgren, and you can find his name around the tree of life in the hospital lobby, where his thank you for that donation is in the form of a rock under the tree. Wonder what happened with that money? Did we pay it to Cal Mtg.?
I told him I hate to tell you but it does have to do with taxes. He told me "no way." I said what if, as Chet McBeedle is saying that it is the only way to keep the hospital open?
Blomgren, long time small businessman in the KRV, paused and said, what I think we are going to hear more and more as the economy disintegrates under federal and state mismanagement, "That's not my problem."
I have made more than fifty calls and have yet to get one single person to agree to this.
I also asked if they heard about this tax increase. They said no. I asked where they get their information as I said before, and they said the local newspaper and some TV.
Well, Television hasn't picked it up yet, and the "Mad Canadian" Susan Epstein Barr, reporter for the Sun, omitted all detail of this story. What sort of product are they producing? One that gives them power over your information.
I'll give you no more names but there are people in this community who aren't as stupid as some think. And talking with one of them recently, he was quite upset to learn the hospital was coming after money, and especially to use to pay old debts. He was also concerned as to why it was not broadcast on television or mentioned in the paper as people "need to know about this" he said. He went on to say that as I mentioned this valley is in deep financial trouble and the hospital issue would be a good place to start...
Next up: Finance Commit me meeting Wed. 9 am in the "grieving room."
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