I read an article today form my assigned list of news feeds that GA gave me. I send up smoke signals if I read about something important. Before she left for the woods, she kept telling me to watch out for the words "frog march". And to make sure that I signal her right away if I see them. Didn't see anything like that today, but one story did catch my eye. The 600k pay out of the ex-CEO of Hoboken Hospital. What does everyone call it? I still call it St Mary's. I don't get the University part in the new name - which University is it a part of? Anyway, from the title, I think you can guess what my reaction was. As a business owner who has been stiffed by a company or two that has filed for bankruptcy, I guess my thoughts went immediately to those vendors who were going to get hosed by the bankruptcy. How in the hell do you pay someone 600k after less than two years on the job to resign and then have the business file for bankruptcy two weeks later? Is this the political definition of a "success fee"? This is yet another thing that I don't get about politics. Why was the City of Hoboken in the hospital business to begin with? Governments are really bad at running things. Just look at the PA and their uneffing believable grab for a 40% fare hike in the middle of the Great Recession. What genius thought up that move? But to get back to HUMC. Whoever thought this idea of paying this guy - and I don't care who he is, the freakin company was gong into the toilet and it was known that the bowl was ready to flush and yet the HUMC signed off on a pay out of 600k. This guy better have pictures of everyone of the board members fucking donkeys to get this deal. Too bad GA is not around to put a graphic to that comment. Now that would be embarrassing. And embarrassing is what this payday really is. I read that is only a down payment and there is a possible move available to claw some of it back. But then the agreement requires HUMC to pay his legal bills. Blah, Blah, Blah. I just want to know who is so tone deaf and out of touch with regular normal people that they could hear the number 600k and not explode? Sorry, there is no amount of spin or donkey fucking that can clear the stench off of this one.
The "University" part was designed to make St. Mary's a teaching hospital. There is a federal/state matching grant system for these institutions. The plan was for the state to put up $8 million and have the feds match it, reducing the $52 million HUMC debt by 1/3. Unfortunately Gov. Corzine in a cost savings measure cancelled the program. HUMC was forced to cannibalize a capital investment fund and use the money to pay bills.
ReplyDeleteThe golden parachute involved in the "elimination" of this apparently "Peter-Principled" CEO means a "golden shower" for everyone else.
ReplyDeleteThe sad, sick standard operating procedure for upper management contracts--- remember the travesty with LaBruno's departure?
One wonders who originally negotiated this one--was it Franciscan Health System or Bon Secours or the HUMC board? And then what possibly made it so iron-clad it was non-negotiable in the current scenario?