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Proposition H Grossmont Hospital Lease Continuation Grossmont Healthcare District Majority Approval Required
See Also:
Index of all Propositions |
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League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Pass:
56559 /
86.68% Yes votes ......
8694 /
13.32% No votes
| Results as of Jun 24 9:29am, 100.0% of Precincts Reporting (292/292) |
| Information shown below: Yes/No Meaning | Impartial Analysis | Arguments | | |||||
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In order to continue providing high quality, comprehensive medical and emergency healthcare services at Grossmont Hospital and to ensure that future hospital repairs and improvements are completed at no additional cost to taxpayers, shall the Grossmont Healthcare District enhance and extend the existing Lease Agreement with the nonprofit organization operated by Sharp HealthCare in accordance with Resolution No. 02-14 of the Grossmont Healthcare District Board of Directors adopted March 5, 2014?
District Representatives negotiated an extension of the 1991 Lease. The terms of the Lease extension were presented at four public meetings and public testimony was received by the District Board of Directors. On March 5, 2014, the Board of Directors passed Resolution No. 02-14 approving the Extended Lease Agreement, and Resolution No. 03-14 placing the Extended Lease Agreement on the June 2014 ballot. The Extended Lease A91reement provides that the term of the 1991 Lease will be extended from May 29, 2021, to May 29, 2051. GHC will continue to manage, operate, and maintain the Hospital in good condition. Major operational decisions will be made without discrimination against the interests of the community, and essential core services at the Hospital may not be terminated without the consent of the District Board. GHC is required to keep the Hospital adequately insured and provide periodic reports on the Hospital's financial and physical condition. GHC is responsible for the cost of all alterations to the Hospital, including mandated future seismic upgrades and the completion of Alternatives 1 and 2 of the Heart and Vascular Center.
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| Arguments For Proposition H | Arguments Against Proposition H | ||||||||||||||
| VOTE YES on Proposition H to continue one of San Diego's and East County's greatest
success stories - Grossmont Hospital. This premier model of public/private partnership with
Sharp HealthCare combines the public resources of a state-of-the-art community hospital with a
nationally recognized nonprofit healthcare system.
For nearly 60 years local residents have relied on Grossmont Hospital for life-saving, comprehensive medical and emergency healthcare. For much of that time, nationally recognized Sharp HealthCare has served as the hospital's operating partner, delivering consistently high quality patient care. Grossmont Healthcare District first affiliated with Sharp in 1991, knowing that a private provider with significant healthcare expertise could operate the hospital better than government AND control government spending to further benefit the public. Since then, Sharp has saved taxpayers millions, investing over $300 million to improve our hospital while NO employees of the hospital have received public benefits or public pensions. Prop H ensures this success story continues. Your YES VOTE means:
Prop H makes good economic sense. As an award winning healthcare provider, Sharp does operate the hospital better and more efficiently than a government agency. Please join local doctors, nurses, EMTs, firefighters, former patients, senior citizens, and leaders throughout our community in taking this step to support Grossmont Hospital. Learn more at: http://www.yesgrossmonthospital.com Please -VOTE YES.
It would seem logical to require similar payments under the 30-year lease extension. Inexplicably the Healthcare District Board i§. not seeking rent payments for the next 30 years. This lost income (totaling millions of dollars) would have been available for vital health programs such as the Burn Center and Food Bank, whose grant requests were recently rejected solely for lack of funding. Sharp HealthCare [promises instead to pay for "earthquake safety retrofits" and to "complete the Heart and Vascular Center" as evidence of their commitment. How soon they forget that the district's taxpayers are already paying for these projects under the 2006 Proposition G $247,000,000 bond authorization. A more meaningful commitment would be a promise to relocate Sharp's offshore insurance company from the Cayman Islands to East County. In June 1996 the Columbia/Sharp Partnership offered $53,000,000 for a thirty-year lease of Grossmont Hospital. It is likely worth much more today. Unfortunately we will never know how much more. The elected officials sponsoring this ballot proposition have refused to seek other offers and are instead proposing a non-competitive extension. East County can be taken advantage of only if we allow it. Please join other thoughtful residents in voting "no".
JIM STIERINGER | Please join me in casting a "no" vote on the proposed 30 -year extension of Sharp HealthCare's
non-monetary ("free") lease of publicly-owned Grossmont Hospital.
Our hospital is too valuable to simply bestow without competition. In 1996 the Healthcare Board rejected Columbia/Sharp Partnership's offer of $53,000,000 prepaid rent for a 30-year lease. Perhaps an even better offer is available today but we will never know since the Board is neither seeking other offers nor demanding a market rent. They never determined whether another organization such as the Mayo Clinic would consider Grossmont Hospital for its California operations. This vote is not about health care. The consensus is that Sharp provides adequate care. The real issue is a free gift of our publicly-owned $500,000,000 hospital. Under the current and proposed lease Sharp collects all hospital revenue and profits from which the Hospital's CEO is paid more than $500,000 per year. Sharp's wholly owned insurance company "Continuous Quality Insurance SPC", is headquartered in the Cayman Islands. Why not relocate it to East County as a show of commitment to our local communities? Although an extension of the 1991 lease may ultimately prove to be a good idea, what's the hurry? The current lease doesn't expire until 2021. There is plenty of time to negotiate a better deal including hospital discounts for local residents. Let's compel the District to do it right by voting "no" on this improvident lease extension.
JIM STIERINGER
The San Diego County Taxpayers Association has concluded that voting Yes on H makes good economic sense and is a good deal for local taxpayers. If support from our local taxpayers association isn't enough, consider this: This is the way a public/private partnership should work- where the public resources of a state-of- the-art community hospital join with an award winning nonprofit healthcare system to benefit the public. Grossmont Healthcare District doesn't penalize Sharp HealthCare with a lease fee to operate the hospital. That money instead goes into patient care at Grossmont Hospital. Sharp operates Grossmont Hospital on a not-for-profit basis, guaranteeing that all profits are reinvested in our community to improve healthcare services and hospital facilities. As a nationally recognized non-profit healthcare provider, Sharp invests hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements, repairs and state-of-the-art, life-saving equipment at Grossmont Hospital. This funding would be the responsibility of East County and San Diego taxpayers if it were not for the public/private partnership with Sharp, one of the best examples of successful government outsourcing in California. YES on H allows Sharp to continue investing in hospital improvements without further delay - including $20 million to complete the Heart & Vascular Center at no additional cost to taxpayers. Residents deserve these high quality healthcare services. Join the San Diego County Taxpayers Association and hundreds of medical professionals, first responders, former patients, and leaders throughout our community supporting Prop H. Please Vote YES.
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Created: July 9, 2014 18:44 PDT
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