Monday, September 17, 2018

MASSILLON: STARK COUNTY'S MOST SECRETIVE GOVERNMENT?

Updated, Tuesday, September 18, 2018:  (12:46 PM)  Paramount Maxtrix Healthcare Withdraws Offer (LINK)




Government transparency takes another hit in Massillon government, so thinks The Stark County Political Report (SCPR,  The Report).

The whole "let's us find a 'full service hospital' provider to replace Quorum former Affinity Medical Center by Massillon government (primarily Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry) has all the earmarks of Massillon taxpayers, in the end, getting the shaft.

Affinity Medical Center closed on February 12, 2018.

"Secrecy" has been the order of the day on the mayor's part seemingly from day one of the announcement by Quorum that it was abandoning Affinity due to Quorum's assertion that it was losing in the neighborhood of $1 million monthly.


On May 7, 2018, Massillon City Council approved a settlement of the lawsuit whereby it agreed to take title to a complex of former Affinity Medical Center facilities valued to be worth some $25 million for $1.

From the beginning, SCPR coverage of the Affinity matter has been skeptical of Massillon's ability to successfully make the best of a bad hand that was dealt to it with the Quorum closing of Affinity.

Links to SCPR coverage:
In a "if its too good to be true, it's probably not" scenario, Mayor Catazaro after playing the secrecy card to the hilt, to wit: (from the August 24th SCPR blog)


So it seemed to be a "financial coup" on the part of Massillon officials, with the lead official being, of course, Mayor Catazaro Perry, when it was announced as a consequence of "closed door meetings" of August 20th and August 27th that a tentative agreement had been reached (September 4th) with Paramount Matrix whereby:
  • Paramount Matrix Healthcare reportedly offered up to $1 million of reimbursement to Massillon government to offset costs incurred to maintain former Affinity facilities,
  • $50,000 in monthly rent going forward with a:
    • purchase option for Paramount Matrix for $20 million in 5 years,
      • which would bring some $24 million in revenues to city coffers by 2023.
In what can only be described as a monumental blunder on the part of Massillon city officials working on the Affinity replacement, it appears that city officials did not thoroughly and fully vet at least one official in the Paramount Maxtrix Healthcare mix to learn of, according to media reports, the following allegation:


One has to wonder about what else might be missing from the vetting process, in anything, no?

It appears that it was The Massillon Independent that brought the Brock allegations to light and not the vetting processes of Massillon government.

As late as September 11th, Mayor Catazaro-Perry was saying that the Paramount Matrix Healthcare proposal was a go.  It is reported that the allegations against Brock was made on August 22nd.

By Friday, September 15th an announcement was made by Massillon officials that the purported deal with Paramount Matrix Healthcare was off.

Hmm?

One Stark Countian who has a relationship with a county sited healthcare entity reaffirmed with the SCPR that it is had to see how any prudent healthcare company could project that a full service healthcare facility can succeed in Massillon especially so in light of the fact that Massillon has been without Affinity for over seven (7) months.

Perhaps, an emergency room, the source says but clearly not a full-service hospital.

Given the secrecy on which companies are in play to succeed Quorum in Massillon, a, perhaps, discerning citizen did not have an opportunity to ask questions that might have prompted city officials to do a better job of due diligence.

There is no doubt that the Mayor Catzazaro-Perry administrative has "egg-on-its-collective-face" along with, perhaps, all of Massillon City Council.

The jury is still out on whether Massillon's government settling the above-encaptioned litigation was acquiring a "white elephant" or demonstrating a "stroke of genius."

Massillonians should be wary of the thoroughness and due diligence capabilities of Massillon officials involved in reviving the former Affinity medical facility.

The Paramount Healthcare Healthcare matter underscores why doing things like this in secret is never a wise course of action.

Massillon government needs to reverse course and make available to the public information on the relative merits/demerits of the bidder proposals on the replacement of Affinity.

Open as is prudently possible government is the best government!

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