The Observation Deck

Lakewood Misses The Economic Trends II

We've seen this chart before.

Healthcare jobs in Lakewood drastically declined.

Again, Lakewood bucks positive national trends to go follow its own path; exporting high-paying jobs to other towns and cities.

Mark,

Those of us who work in healthcare industry are aware of these trends. This administration spent 100s of thousands on consultants who restated the obvious. Healthcare is around 20% of GDP and the trends continue to grow. Absent new leadership and a third party investigation, Lakewood will miss out on economic growth:

“Hospital spending growth is projected to accelerate to 5.7 percent per year on average over 2020- 27, because of faster spending growth from all payers (and Medicare in particular). Also contributing to faster growth over 2020-27 is somewhat higher price growth arising from expected increases in wage growth and tighter labor markets for hospital employees”.

https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics ... ummary.pdf

The lack of political courage by members of council still baffles me. This administration needs to be investigated by the Department of Justice or the Ohio Attorney General. The fact that Lordstown,Ohio is continuing to press the state and federal government to retain those jobs is inspiring.

I wish our mayoral candidates and members of council would realize that public pressure generates inquiries. The Summers administration and his allies need to be held accountable.

Nadhal

Lakewood Observer 2016 Job Loss Impact Article Confirmed

Today's New York Times Magazine (May 5, 2019) has this to say about the impact of job loss in Lordstown, Ohio:

"A recent study by the Center for Economic Development at Cleveland State University estimated that the elimination of all three shifts at the plant would ultimately cause the loss of nearly 8,000 jobs and more than $8 billion in economic activity in the regional economy."

I reached similar conclusions about the economic job loss impact to Lakewood from the closure Lakewood Hospital in an article published in June of 2016 in the Lakewood Observer.

(The local impact was high, the regional impact may be lower since the hospital jobs were exported from the city, but not the region.)

Lakewood Municipal Democrats are a unique brand:

1. Crashed the State ticket in 2014.

2. Refused to fight for high-paying healthcare jobs.

3. Abandoned the delivery of local acute care hospital services to the neediest residents.

4. High on public subsidies to the private sector.

Maybe the road ahead is closed.

The Hospital site is already claimed.

There will be a development on Bunts and Detroit, 275 apartments.

There will be a development on Detroit at the old Steve Barry lot.

$70 million in City funds have been transferred to private foundations.

That is all set in stone. So what's left?

The Mayor and his pals have set the City up for failure and I am not sure there is anything anyone can do about it.

Since the Mayor and his friends are big fans of regionalization maybe that was the plan all along.

Bill Call wrote:Maybe the road ahead is closed.

The Hospital site is already claimed.

There will be a development on Bunts and Detroit, 275 apartments.

There will be a development on Detroit at the old Steve Barry lot.

$70 million in City funds have been transferred to private foundations.

That is all set in stone. So what's left?

The Mayor and his pals have set the City up for failure and I am not sure there is anything anyone can do about it.

Since the Mayor and his friends are big fans of regionalization maybe that was the plan all along.

Our Citizen Expectation of Honesty, Integrity, Accountability, and Transparency

I agree with Mr. O'Bryan that each elected and appointed public official in the City of Lakewood has a duty to meet of honesty, integrity, accountability, and transparency.

Despite the negative civic outcomes of recent years, as citizens and voters we have our own duty to press these individuals to a higher standard of performance.

We press that duty upon them with positive encouragement and sanction it with electoral defeat, when encouragement fails.

There is no excuse for insider access/self-dealing, conflicts-of-interest, misuse/abuse of public assets, or open meetings/open records violations.

Loss of Charity Care Can Be Illustrated

Lakewood Hospital Foundation previously supported a public community hospital that delivered significant and valued charity care in our city and community.

Lakewood Hospital Foundation is now the Three Arches Foundation and it is now mostly just a Wall Street investment vehicle without a significant healthcare mission.

Here we see an investment pool over $35,000,000 in funds formerly and formally dedicated to a public hospital now doing nothing. That was the policy choice executed.

Same Story for 2018

The $562,000 grant total amount is from the Three Arches website.

For any non-profit foundation with $35,000,000 in investments, this would be a ridiculously minimal distribution on annual investment gains.

Question As To Whether Foundation Grant Performance Is Below Normal

Even at a 5% grant distribution rate, the Three Arches Foundation would not support as much charity care through-put as LHF affected in its support of Lakewood Hospital.

This was not just a poor public policy choice, it was a disastrous public policy choice.

"New Model of Healthcare" & "Healthiest City in America"

Of course, these were always code phrases. But why were they inflicted upon us?

If you have followed this essay this far, you can see that all the metrics show that healthcare services delivered in Lakewood and from within Lakewood have declined over the past 4 years and that that decline has been steeply dramatic.

So, why all the cheer-leading from local public officials and the civic leadership about the decimation of healthcare in Lakewood?

Hospital demolished.

independent Physician practices decimated.

Hospital charity care ended.

Hospital real estate goes for $1.00.

Hundreds of high-paying jobs eliminated.

Income tax revenues lost.

$100,000,000 proposal to right-size hospital simply ignored.

Bogus appraisals.

Everyone has their own list.

In what universe do public officials do this?

I am happy to look at any rebuttal documents or calculations, but I'm not interested in listening to more horseshit.

Mark Kindt said

horseshit

Dad Gummit-- you hit the nail on the head!

Poor Public Policy Outcomes Can Be Measured

Lakewood Hospital Foundation supported a public community hospital that provided acute hospital care (Level 2) to our city and a community cachement area of 145,000 local residents and that provided tens of millions of dollars of care to those privately and publicly insured.

Lakewood Hospital Foundation understood that they were supporting a path that would lead to the closure and demolition of the hospital that they had a duty to support.

LHF leadership also supported continued negotiations with the Clinic toward closure and demolition when they knew that Metro Health System had a sophisticated $100,000,000 proposal to right-size Lakewood Hospital.

I have previously posted my sources on the charity care delivered by Lakewood Hospital.

Three Arches has more than $35,000,000 invested on Wall Street and its impact can easily be illustrated from its actual performance. Folks, this is a failure, not a success.

Other Forms of Performance Measurement Can Be Used

Here I compare the grant-making performance of The Three Arches Foundation with peers with similar amounts of foundation assets dedicated to making grants to the community.

Mark Kindt wrote:Other Forms of Performance Measurement Can Be Used

Here I compare the grant-making performance of The Three Arches Foundation with peers with similar amounts of foundation assets dedicated to making grants to the community.

Asset Peer Foundation Comparison 2017 -2018.jpg

Mark

This is somewhat unfair for a couple reasons I can think of right off the top.

1) Most of the people on the Board have spent most of their time asking others for money. Unseccessfully

2) They have not found enough friends to give the $$$ to, errrrr non-profits run by friends, errrrrr non-profits.

Give them some time. Look at who they gave $$$ to, supporters of the $$$ grab or with connections. By this time next year they will be buying influence, and all sorts of stuff.

I actually never thought this nightmare could get any worse. Then I read your piece on where they invested. Right now, I would not be surprised if it was in Purdue Pharma, and Soy Bean futures!

You know Grandma always said. "A fool and their money are soon parted."I imagine but down on the giving extends the "are soon" part longer.

.

Mark Kindt wrote:Other Forms of Performance Measurement Can Be Used

Here I compare the grant-making performance of The Three Arches Foundation with peers with similar amounts of foundation assets dedicated to making grants to the community.

Asset Peer Foundation Comparison 2017 -2018.jpg

5% of $35M suggests a run rate of $1.75M per year.