A VOTE AGAINST Issue 64 Is A Vote For Accountable, Honest, Transparent Government

You will have to excuse me, but some of the latest untruths from Councilman Bullock and Finance Director Jenn Pae, have made me take to the keyboards.

Those of you who have followed the Lakewood Observer from the beginning know how rare it is that I write anything but fun pieces. Rarer still is writing about my political views, or to further any agenda, and I hope I am not perceived as furthering any agenda now, outside of one: Honest, Transparent and Accountable Government.

Lakewood, known for decades as a great place to raise a family and go to school, a place dedicated to knowledge, education and conversation, has become a place where City Hall and their minions will single you out, find you, and harass you. Which is nuts!

What is most worrisome is the secrecy and the nastiness of City Hall as their lawyers try to hide, protect and get rid of documents associated with not just the nightmare hospital deal, but the growing cover-up that is following it.

Since the LO broke the story of Lakewood Hospital closing in the winter of 2014 we have heard nothing but lies, misrepresentation, and camouflage instead of facts. There are still hundreds of documents being requested nearly a year after the deal was announced.

The only reason for the government to keep any facts out of the eyes of citizens, would be in the case of a competitive bidding process --which we now know never occurred, according to documents that were released. They also claimed HIPAA which did not apply, they tried a million different ways, all LIES.

Why?

The single largest deal in Lakewood’s history over the last 50 years was handled terribly, according to the architects of the deal. Let’s see the paperwork and documents.

The Mayor of Lakewood stood at the first press conference and looked Lakewood in the eyes and said, “The Hospital is not closing. The Observer is wrong and wrong about their numbers.” The Observer was right about the closing, and we have been right ever since.

It was our elected officials that cost us $350 million in assets. While they lost the $350 million in public assets, along with their friends they stashed away about $75 million, now in private foundations, to play with, to develop with and to pay themselves with.

I see it as a theft of public assets, money laundering, and all the things that run parallel to a criminal organization.

Elected officials working in secret for over 6 years have cost us our hospital, $350 million in assets, and our largest employer. But we still have time, lots of time to look at the deal, study what happened, and with time on our side, figure out what would be best for the future of our community.

It is important right now to VOTE NO on issue 64. Even Mayor Summers has said it will be at least 5-7 years before anything is built. The Post Office and the Lakewood School Board Building are coming up for sale, who knows where we will be in 7 years?

What we cannot do, is trust this group to continue with this secret plan. Every inch of the way they have lied, and covered up, always declaring they have the right to lie and not allow us to know what they have done with our money and our future.

They have had fake committee meetings, fake task forces, fake studies, even fake fundraising over the past couple years all in order to get the money they are counting on for their own secret pet projects.

We must stop this now, and take a good look at this entire deal before continuing.

The community cannot afford to allow the same group that brought us this nightmare and massive loss to Lakewood’s economic future to be anywhere near new foundations or money.

Anyone connected with what everyone, now including the Mayor, is calling “the worst deal in the world,” must not be allowed to give us the second worst deal of all time, or potentially an even a worse deal.

Vote Against Issue 64.

I am not a member of Save Lakewood Hospital, or Lakewood Voters for Progress. I don’t know if we need a hospital. What I do know is that Lakewood has no future with a government we cannot trust.