Suggested topics:
- The merits of Ernest Hospitals. Here's an added "due diligence" tidbit. And here's a good WaPo alticle on HealthSouth, which seems to be a springboard for at least one new Ernest hospital executive. (sorry... WaPo requires free registration.) Dian's been doing some very diligent background research on this company. Who knows? Maybe she'll add more information in the comments section.
- Did our newly-elected council just roll over and suck up to Safsten and Emperor Godfrey? Many of Rudi's emails said they rolled over like little bitches.
- And this is really good. America... what a country! Take a bribe -- donate some of it to charity.
- Here's one world leader I'll resist sending a get well card.
- And WTF is wrong in America with this "communitarian" B.S.?
Let your consciences be your guide... but please don't let the cat get your gentle Weber County Forum Reader tongues!
13 comments:
From today's [Thursday's] Standard Examiner, from an article by John Wright:
OGDEN — An 8-acre retail plaza just southeast of the Harrisville border appears back on track, after ... a favorable recommendation [by a 6-3 vote] Tuesday from the Planning Commission.
Before making the recommendation, however, the Planning Commission grappled with the question of how much Ogden should restrict uses to ensure the success of the downtown mall redevelopment project....
Planning Commissioners Carol Brockman and Cathy Blaisdell voted against the recommendation because they objected to a clause in the agreement stating HM Investment Corp. cannot include a bookstore of more than 10,000 square feet until the city attracts one to the mall project.
Planning Commission Chairman Bob Herman voted against the changes because he felt it should prevent HM Investment Corp. from including a bookstore at all.
Did anyone else know that approval of the Mall project meant development in other parts of the city could/would be prevented or delayed [note the bookstore restrictions above] in order to force-feed mall development? I didn't.
So Cannon is just planning to give the Abrahoff bribes back and be done with it?
Only in Utah.
Like he needed a few lousy grand anyway.
"Only in Ogden," Curmie, would such restrictions be put on a new retail plaza in another part of town 3 miles from the mall! The rest of the town can go to hell, but the Mayor's pet project must be a smashing hit so His Lord Godfrey looks good.
Seriously, we do want the mall to succeed, but, Planning Commissioners, aren't those restrictions a little too much?! I doubt that anyone who lives south of the Ogden River would drive to North Street to go to a book store. It's about like expecting people who live in Salt Lake to drive to Ogden to shop!
Let's get real! Let the people who live north of the river and in Harrisville and maybe North Ogden have a decent place to shop!
But then those of us who live north of the Ogden River know that according to Ogden City leaders, the north boundary of Ogden is the river! Just like Lagoon is the north State line for Utah as far as the Legislature, UDOT and Governor's Office is concerned.
Do you think with two Council Members from the north part of town, that maybe now we can get a fair shake for a change? I doubt it. It would probably be another 5 - 2 vote for the Council.
The agreements between the RDA and Boyer restricts the RDA from doing any other development, that Boyer deems competitive, on any RDA owned or backed projects - except the proposed WalMart site.
This includes the Riverfront project incidently! The Riverfront deal can not have any businesses in it that Boyer finds in any way undesireable, at their sole discretion!! I just gave it a once over lightly but that's the way I read that part of the contract.
I don't know what other properties around town that the RDA owns, but the restriction applies to every one of them. Does any one know if the RDA owns any of the other buildings in the surrounding mall area?
This restricting a book store seems to go beyond the RDA however and deal with city restrictions in the zoning and permiting area? If this is so, is it not pretty unfair to the other commercial property owners in the city for the city to make rules to skew the free market and give the city owned properties a distinct advantage or worse a monopoly?
Can some one enlighten us on the details of this bookstore restriction?
The score on the hospital outfit seems to be:
Started and run by a group of guy's who got their hospital management chops in the fraud infested Scrushy hospital group that has been in the news a lot lately..
This may not mean he, or they, are shady, but it certainly calls for some serious due dilligence on just exactly who these guys are and where the money is coming from and what the real - no bull shit - projections are - and how, and how fast, is Ogden tax payers going to get their $2 million subsidy back from good old Ernest.
And what exactly is the mechanism that will gaurantee us tax payers our money back?
I hope that if this proposal the RDA board approved the other night really commits the tax payers to a deal with Ernest, that the board had the answers to the above and many more questions.
The most basic questions in any deal is - just who the hell is it that we are dealing with, and what exactly is being proposed - in the simplest terms possible?
My indignation and anger is burning brightly this morning as I watch C-Span and hear yet again an attempt to get the U. S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
As usual, it is a group of male attorneys arguing that women have no right to decide for themselves as to what is best for the fetus, themselves and society.
No woman should be forced to carry to term a fetus that is known to be deformed or in any way a lifetime tragedy for society. Nor should she be forced to carry to term a fetus caused by a violation of rape.
It is always the far right extremists who will not quit attempting to take away a woman's right to an abortion
no matter what the need may be.
I have always questioned why men in government think they are adequate to be playing god with a woman's life.
For the convenience of those readers who may have missed the Std-Ex story that's being discussed in this thread, I'm linking the full online version here.
"Concerned Citizen?"
Is this a new name for the former and most eloquent "Enthused Citizen?"
Thank you, Rudi. I wasn't sure I could link to stuff on the SE digital site, if it would be available only to subscribers.
BTW, I've heard lots of criticism of the SE here and elsewhere [and I've made a few comments in that direction myself]. A lot of folks unhappy with the editorial bent of the SE tell me they do not subscribe to it or read it. However, and I think Wright's story you link here is a good illustration, in my view you cannot stay on top of events and public policy matters in Ogden without reading the Standard Examiner. Every day. However ticked off one might get at editorial policy or particular stories, reading it regularly seems to me essential for folks who want to be informed active citizens.
Disclaimer: Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been a card carrying employee of the Standard Examiner, nor are any of my relatives, nor have I ever received pay from the Standard Examiner for writing for it or for performing any other service for it, nor have I ever benefited financially from my subscription to it except to cash in a Javier's or Rooster's coupon now and then.
Ah ha....EC here, and no, I am not the newly posting CC. I'm still around, just briefly taking a back seat.
AP Poll: Democrats will win Congress in 2006.
Link
Dorothy
Could you enlighten us on more details concerning this Ernest group and your efforts to do some legitimate due dilligence on them?
Has the mayor's office all ready veted these guys? and did he tell the new RDA board what his office knows, and what has been done in the due dilligence area? This would be pretty elementary for the CEO to research, investigate and report to the board his findings that support his proposals. So hopefully these concerns have been illiminated and that fact is just still secret priestly knowledge.
There are a couple of things about this deal that seem a little squirrily. The first is the apparent secrecy as to who these guys are and what they are really proposing. Hopefully the RDA board has been informed by the mayor on these questions and that these things are only unkown to us unannointed..
The second is the questions that could arise about how this Ogden hospital fits in with this group's overall big time plans. I understand they are very new, have very ambitions national plans, have two hospitals in operation, several under construction, and a large grundle of them on the drawing boards - presumably including the one in Ogden. In addition they have one piss poor web site for such a hot prospect.
Are all of their deals predicated on cities giving them $2 million bucks worth of land to build on? If so that in itself could be a red flag on their financials. Every deal like that could add that much more to their asset column and give them that much more borrowing power. How much of a problem that could be would depend on their debt equity ratio. If this company is being built on borrowing and leverage, then it could be dangerous for Ogden to be involved with them. If, on the other hand, they have some very deep pockets with very deep committments then Ogden could have a very good partner. In either case however, I believe it to be evil to subsidize them with tax payer money.
Finally we must ask if the underlying business conditions exist in Ogden and Nationwide to support the idea of building 80 or 90 new special care facilities like this? Has any one ask the honcho's at MacKay and Ogden Regional if this is a viable idea?
Here are a few links to other Ernest Health facilities and the cities and corporations that are dealing with them.
Coer d'Alene Idaho
Prescott, Arizona
Provo, Utah
Casper, Wyoming
Laredo City Minutes Regarding Deal, see Item VIII
Brownsville Economic Development Council Incentive Offer
Keane, the Information Service Provider
Broadlane, Contracting and Procurement
Sorry about typo--Coeur d'Alene.
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