[image-1]As we know now, Lakewood City Council opted not to place the Lakewood Hospital referendum on the March ballot. What that means for the future is unclear.

On one hand, the Save Lakewood Hospital crowd has pointed out that 2,868 certified signatures remain on file and in support of a ballot issue.

With the March election set to pass with no mention of the hospital matter, SLH leadership warns that the city’s voters will have to wait until a possible special election later this year — or until November. At that point, of course, Lakewood Hospital and its services will look much different. Were the measure to pass sometime later this year — signalling residents’ will to maintain in-patient hospital services, among other services — the state of the hospital would be further deteriorated and that much more difficult to restore to its former condition.

On the other hand, Lakewood Law Director Kevin Butler has said that the contract in place with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation — one ratified unanimously by council in December — cannot legally be reversed by a vote of the people, whenever and however that might take place.

“By now the moving parts of the contract approved by Ordinance 49-15 are certainly moving,” Butler said Feb. 11. “The hospital is now closed. The employees have largely been moved to other facilities or have found other work.”

In other words, what’s done is done, the city asserts. Or rather, to paraphrase Miles Straum in LOST: “Whatever happened, happened.”

So what’s to come? Both sides of the issue — the city and the SLH campaign — will continue to stake their claims and make moves to enact them as the year goes on. Stay tuned.

This article appears in Feb 10-16, 2016.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.

5 replies on “No Clear Path for Lakewood Hospital Referendum, City Maintains Its Stance”

  3. The SLH moment to Save the hospital has come and gone. However, their tactic hasn’t changed. A passing vote will not and can not override a legal binding contract the city, LHF and CCF already signed.

    To save the hospital at this point they need to start thinking about what company can purchase the building, upgrade it with $90 M in repairs, bring in the equipment, staff it and manage it profitably. It is a hard pill to swallow, it is much easier push ballots that really don’t help anything.

  4. This has turned into a massive dumpster fire. So now the question is, which one is worse: The 2015 Browns, or This Hospital Situation?

  5. It is not a valid contract if rejected by the voters. At the very least the immunity granted to Board members is invalid, the immunity granted to the Clinic is invalid, the $34 million in Lakewood Hospital Foundation money is preserved and the remaining $60 million in Hospital assets will returned to the City as required by the original agreement.

    Whether or not the rigged bidding and gifting of City assets to the Clinic will stand is up to the Courts.

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