Letter to the Editor: Summit Park Hospital: The Legislature Made the Wrong Choice

To the Editor,

Tuesday night, the Rockland County Legislature voted 11-6 to create a Local Development Corporation (LDC) to sell the Summit Park Nursing Home & Hospital. I was left no choice but to vote against this measure, and I stand by my vote both on principle and practicality.

An LDC, a quasi-public corporation that is funded by tax dollars but operates independently, removes all control over who eventually buys the facility, and what costs we as a County are forced to bear until that point.

We cannot afford to cede control over budgets and over buyers, especially when the health and welfare of patients and jobs of workers are on the line.

The correct decision is, as I have been continually advocating for years, to fire the current administrator, develop a full efficiency and profitability turnaround plan with a strict timeline, and, if only if those concerted efforts fail, then sell the hospital to a carefully selected and responsible buyer directly rather than through the budgetary gimmick of an LDC.

It is unfortunate that by creating this LDC and avoiding the tough decisions for years, the County Legislature and current administration has handcuffed any future administration and weakened our representative government. It is my hope that we are able to salvage something from this wreckage should I be elected this November.

All the best.

Ed Day
Rockland County legislator and 2013 candidate for county executive

  LDC, legislature, letter to the editor, Summit Park Hospital