Charlotte bound!

As some of you may know, I'm a delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC next week.  I'm representing NY's 24th Congressional District - which no longer exists.  The delegate selection was done before the re-districting, so we're all representing the map the way it used to look (Oneonta's now in the 19th CD, which roughly covers the Catskill Mountains).

I'm going to try and record my experiences at the Convention right here at Otsego11.  I say 'try' because the schedule looks pretty full, especially if you factor in getting around an unfamiliar city. Things start early and end way past my bedtime.

I'll be driving our Prius down to Charlotte, a two day trip with an overnight outside Lancaster, PA, at my wife's sister's house.  I'm looking forward to the Shenandoah Valley.

I'll do my best to keep you up to date.  It's an entirely new experience for me, and I don't know what to expect.  Leave questions in the Comments, and I'll take a shot at answering them.

East Street Parking Lot Project

Not much has changed at the corners of East St., Bugbee Rd. and Meadowbrook Lane in the last few months. What looked like construction work on the property has stopped, and the status of the land use applications is about what it was at that time.

A parking lot is not considered a proper use of this land, in the City or the Town, so Mr. Ranieri must apply for a use variance from both the the Zoning Board of Appeals, in the City, and the Town Planning Board. The ZBA has not acted, as far as I know, and the Town Planning Board considers the application incomplete, and will not act, one would assume, until all the elements of the application are presented.

I received a copy of the County Planning Board's “Notice of Recommendation” for the project last week. The Planning Board neither approved nor disapproved, since there was 'no significant county-wide or inter-community impacts;' this is consistent with their responsibility in these matters. However, the document does mention some concerns, including the impact on the community character. I talked with Karen Sullivan, Director of the Otsego County Planning Board, this morning, and she noted that Mr. Ranieri has not produced the kinds of plans necessary for the various agencies to come to a decision, so significant change up on the corner is, apparently, still in the distant future – if at all.

More Detail on the Future of the Manor

As promised, a little more detail regarding the Manor and its future.

As I noted yesterday, keeping the Manor open and functioning, unchanged, will cost Otsego County taxpayers four to six million dollars a year above and beyond the expected revenues. Given that revenues (mostly Medicaid and Medicare) are dropping every year, and expenses are increasing, that annual subsidy will increase with time.

Here are the four options for the future, as developed by the Manor Committee and Manor Director Ed Marchi:

• Option 1: No change. See above.
• Option 2: Turn in the operating certificate, and sell the building to be used as a hotel. This would get us out of the nursing home business, and leave us only with debt service (depending on purchase price) and legacy costs (retirees' health insurance, etc.), which would diminish over time. As noted yesterday, this is somewhat unattractive to a potential buyer, because current residents have the option of remaining in the building for the rest of their lives, or moving voluntarily, and the transition to a hotel could not be done until the last resident was gone. This is not an option we are likely to pursue.
• Option 3: Retain the building with reduced Skilled Nursing beds, which would be operated by the County, and find “Community Partners” to run the Medicaid Assisted Living program. This would retain most of the services currently available through the Manor, and reduce the annual subsidy somewhat, but it wouldn't eliminate it, nor would it slow down its growth. In addition, for rather technical reasons, this option would probably lose money – above and beyond the subsidy – in the range of two million dollars per year.
• Option 4: Sell the building and lease the Skilled Nursing portion of the Manor function, but reduce the number of beds. This would be economically viable (as Option 3 would not be), and would leave us only with debt service on the building (depending on purchase price) and legacy costs (retirees' health insurance, etc.), which would diminish over time.
• Option 5: Sell the building and the operating certificate to an entity which would operate the Manor, to the greatest extent possible, as it has been. This process might be costly up front, and we would need to retain staff to continue to claim outstanding reimbursements for up to a year after the sale, but it would leave us, as in Options 2 and 4, only with debt service on the building (depending on purchase price) and legacy costs (retirees' health insurance, etc.), which would diminish over time.

On Wednesday, we empowered Cathy Clarke, Board Chair, to negotiate with a well-recommended consulting company who is in the business of doing just this: helping with the transfer of health facilities.

Our first priority is still the care and comfort of our residents. Stay tuned for further develpments.

The Future of the Manor

My apologies for the long absence from this blog – life tends to get complicated. As a friend says, “So this is retirement, is it?” Yes, it is. But everything I'm up to is something I've always wanted to do.

I have some more detailed information regarding the proposed parking lot on East and Bugbee, and I've been working on a series of posts detailing some of the committee work I'm involved in. They'll be finished, and up on this blog, within a month or so. But I wanted to make sure I said a word or two about the Manor today.

At today's Board meeting, much was accomplished. We hired a new Personnel Director for the county; we set an end date for our involvement in MOSA (April 30, 2013), and took the first step toward changing the Representatives' term of office from two years to four (Public Hearing 9:30 AM, Wed. Sept. 5, in the Board Room). But most importantly, I think, we took the first step in solving what is, on one hand, an exceptionally expensive problem, and on the other hand, a crucial part of the lives of many of our friends and neighbors.

I'll be back with more details, and update them as time goes on, but the single most important number to consider when discussion the Manor is 6 million. That's how many dollars, give or take, it takes, from the County budget, to bridge the gap between the Manor's revenue and its expenses every year. This is an major burden on the Otsego County taxpayer which is unsustainable, especially since revenues (mostly Medicaid and Medicare) are being reduced each year, and expenses are increasing.

The Manor Committee and Director Ed Marchi laid out options for the full Board this morning. They ran the gamut between making no changes and selling the building, with a couple of combination sale/lease options in the middle. The Board voted unanimously to negotiate a contract with a highly qualified consultant to lead us through the process and negotiate any changes we decide on.

As I said, more details later. But here's the bottom line for most, if not all, citizens of the County:

Public Health law prohibits us from displacing any residents of the Manor against their will, ever. So if the Manor is sold to an entity intending to use it for something other than a nursing home, they can't have it until every patient is placed, by their own choice. If they choose to stay, they can stay for the rest of their life. This makes the Manor unattractive to prospective buyers who want to use it for something else, and makes that kind of sale very improbable. But regardless of what the final disposition of the Manor is, current residents get to stay as long as they choose to.

We, the Board, affirmed our commitment to patient care as our first priority, and whatever happens, the quality of care will be our first priority in choosing among alternatives. At no point will the process be out of the Board's hands, so your Representative is the point person for questions, concerns and suggestions.

We all know how important it for the folks who live at the Manor to continue to be assured that their home will not be taken from them or changed substantially. We have an obligation to provide them with that assurance for as long as they choose to live there, and the Board is committed to doing that. Today, we started the process that will lead us to that goal, without having to continue to pay the massive subsidy required for the County to own and operate the buiding.