Suzanne St. Louis protests with about 30 others against privatizing Massena Memorial Hospital. She is former MMH employee and CSEA member. NorthCountryNow photo by Andy Gardner.

By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- After three years of discussion and an emotional public meeting on Wednesday night, the Town Council voted 4-1 to allow Massena Memorial Hospital to start the process of becoming a private, non-profit entity.

Councilman Samuel Carbone Jr. was the dissenting vote, with affirmative votes coming from Town Supervisor Joseph Gray and councilmen John Macaulay, Thomas Miller and Albert Nicola.

However, an official from CSEA, the union representing MMH hourly employees, says they “absolutely” plan to fight the decision.

“We’re extremely disappointed. We were hoping for support,” said CSEA Labor Relation Specialist Kyle Weaver. “We’ll file a petition for a referendum vote and see where that leads us.”

He said townspeople in the near future will see CSEA members collecting signatures, some of whom will go door-to-door.

Prior to the vote, there was a brief demonstration in front of the Town Hall by about 30 people from CSEA and local chapters of NYSUT, which represents local teachers and United Steelworkers Local 420-A, which represents Alcoa laborers. They held signs demanding the vote be left to the public and chanted slogans such as “people over profit, that’s what we want.”

What This Means

The resolution, which Macaulay read aloud prior to its ratification, calls for the new corporation to find a successor to the state pension and make bridge payments for those close to milestones in the state retirement system. It also says the new corporation will maintain at least 345 full-time equivalent positions, the current staff level, and have sitting members of the Town Council participate in board meetings. The new MMH will also have to adopt union agreements “to the extent legally possible.”

Carbone voiced a number of concerns with the terms of the deal.

“When the hospital goes private, it’s going to wipe out the union and negotiate with another union,” he said.

Macaulay said that could work out in favor of the employees.

“There are a lot of private unions in this country … that have a lot of advantages,” he said.

He also noted that many of the MMH labor contracts are expired and going under the terms of the expired deal pursuant to the Triborough amendment of the Taylor Law. That’s state legislation that says any out-of-date contracts governing state employees remain in place under the old terms until they bargain a new deal.

MMH CEO Robert Wollebin said “there is not art to the language” and they are not trying to get around collective bargaining.

“Yes you are,” shouted a handful of the 100 or so people in attendance.

“We have done a premlinary analysis … we would want to sit down with the unions and work on bridging the most affected group of employees,” Wollebin said. “That language was written with the existing agreements … as long as the law allows us to.”

Wollebin said the first step for MMH leaders is to meet with the state Department of Health and get a new certificate of need.

“A change in ownership requires a certificate of need,” he said. “A typical CON takes four to six months.”

Weaver questioned the town’s legal ability to force the new MMH corporation to adhere to the jobs pledge.

“It seems there were a lot of unanswered questions … how they can guarantee 345 equivalents,” he said.

Public Benefit Corporation

A lot of the talk leading up to the vote centered around a proposal to convert to a public benefit corporation rather than privatizing.

That means the hospital would be a quasi-governmental authority still under the town’s auspices that would have bonding power among other leeway they wouldn’t havc as a municipal institute.

Assemblywoman Addie Russell showed up and said she was prepared to introduce legislation in Albany to allow MMH to become a PBC. She is a Democrat from Theresa representing the 116th Assembly District, which covers all St. Lawrence County communities along the St. Lawrence River, including Massena.

She said her bill would allow MMH “the flexibility to work with other facilities,” which is a requirement for state and federal aid.

“I made specific proposals such as a bond cap so they wouldn’t have to come to the board for every need,” she said. “What I am here to say is that every institution has cost of doing business … what we are experiencing in healthcare is much larger and we cannot ignore that.”

She said it’s drafted as a boilerplate and she is willing to work with town and hospital officials to custom-tailor the final version.

“We stand ready, willing and able to work with the assemblywoman, with the town board,” CSEA Legislative Specialist Rick Noreault said.

Weaver and many of the union members in attendance agreed the public benefit corp. route is the best option.

“[Russell] offered a viable option … and it was ignored,” he said.

“Why not give her six months to do it,” said Loren Fountaine, who serves on the Massena Board of Education.

“We do not believe the PBC model solves the problems we’re talking about and we don’t believe it’s the right course,” Wollebin said.

He pointed to two other PBCs in New York, Erie County and Westchester medical centers.

He noted they are “10 to 15 times larger” than MMH, and their respective county governments pick up the cost of their bills for the uninsured, which costs about $1.5 million per year.

Macaulay was critical of those calling for the public benefit corporation.

“Nobody did anything, nobody’s done anything for three years except criticize this board and the hospital board,” he said. “Now everybody’s got ideas. Why did nobody do anything before?”

Charles Raiti, a former councilman, said they tried to covert to a PBC around 2000 and got no help from the state.

“We asked Albany … we got stone cold shut down,” he said. “Nothing happened.”

Money, Money, Money

Although MMH has been in the black by razor-thin profit margins this year for the first time in a while, there was a lot of concern among the town lawmakers and MMH heads that staying afloat will be tough.

“In the last year-and-a-half, we’ve received over $7 million in state aid and not a penny of that went to improving facilities. It all went to pension payments,” Macaulay said.

If MMH was to be in a situation where they couldn’t make their pension payment and no aid came from the state because they didn’t get any aid, the taxpayers would be stuck with the bill.

Wollebin said when applying for state funds, the first question they ask if the applying institute is affiliated.

“That was a requirement,” he said.

Raiti pointed to research he did while he was in office that showed every $500,000 the town levies for taxes would equal $1 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Last year, MMH received about $4 million at the eleventh hour to cover its pension payment, which it wouldn’t have been able to make otherwise. If that had gone to the taxpayers, it would mean a tax bill increase of $8 per $1,000, meaning the owner of a $50,000 property would be taxed an extra $400.

“The talk about taxes is very real. I’ve been in many, many meetings. I as a board member would never approve a tax levy … to keep that hospital open,” he said.

He said to get to where they are today, MMH has squeezed an extra $3.1 million from operations compared to the same time last year, and “90 percent of it is from expense-cutting,” including cutting dozens of full-time equivalents.

“You people are pretty much guaranteed to not have a job here pretty soon if we don’t do something different … the data supports that,” he said. “We’re losing money this year … how are we going to continue cutting our way out of this issue.”

Differing Opinions

MMH employees and citizens mostly said they were against the town relinquishing control of MMH, but some sided with the town’s belief they need to act now.

A crowd of more than 100 fills the Massena Town Hall for a Town Council meeting that ended in a vote to privatize Massena Memorial Hospital. The crowd included hospital employees, town citizens and a state lawmaker. Front, at far right is Assemblywoman Addie Russell. To her left is Kerrie French, the president of MMH’s CSEA chapter. NorthCountryNow photo by Andy Gardner.

Tracy Tupper, an MMH registered nurse said hospital workers have voluntarily agreed to pay lower than competing facilities in the region, in exchange for the promise of a good pension from the state.

“They have negotiated for decades for lesser wages in lieu of a good pension plan,” she said. “You are going to have a mass exodus of workers … I urge you to vote no for privatization.”

“I am convinced unless this hospital has an opportunity to get its funding from either the state or other hospital and healthcare organizations to make their ends meet, including pension promises … the entire future of Massena hospital is very much in question,” said Richard Gramer of Massena, an anesthesiologist who does contract work with MMH. ““This hospital may not survive … I don’t see much of a future here for myself unless this happens.”

“Massena Memorial is in the midst of its heyday. The quality of the staff … is outstanding and I think we need to recognize the quality and how we got to that place and more importantly stay at that level,” Gary VanKennan of Massena said. “We have an opportunity” to save MMH “and I hope that is the action you take this evening.”

“Why would you privatize … every other first world country has single payer healthcare. They find the idea of privatization preposterous,” said Laura Fair-Schulz of Potsdam. “A whole chunk of money is not going to the people … the money is trickling up. If you vote for privatization, why don’t you also vote to restore rotary phones, and I mean that.”

Macaulay pointed to state law that requires all healthcare facilities put profits back into the organization.

“When you say the money is going somewhere else, that’s not true. It has to be reinvested,” he said.

“A lot of polticians are influenced by lobbyists who can lobby for the money to go wherever it wants to,” Fair-Schulz said.

“The administrator gave the comment that next year, he will come to you and ask for several million dollars in bonding authority … to improve outdated equipment at the hospital,” Joe Macaulay of Massena said. “If we don’t make any changes and the hospital makes no money next year and you authorize the hospital to float $10M in bonds and they make no money to make those paym ents, who’s going to make those payments? The taxpayers.”