Revised 2:08 p.m. March 26 to indicate Councilor Sam Carbone also attended.

BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

MASSENA -- Crouse Hospital officials recently came to town to present an affiliation plan to the hospital and town boards, but St. Lawrence Health System officials have not set a presentation date although their CEO has talked privately with a Massena Memorial Hospital doctor and the board chair.

At Monday night's MMH board meeting, Board of Managers Chair Loretta Perez said she spoke with SLHS CEO David Acker on the phone on Sunday and Dr. Jayant Jhaveri said he met with Acker in person earlier the same day. SLHS operates Canton-Potsdam and Gouverneur hospitals.

Jhaveri said Acker's vision is a takeover of MMH, whereas a consultant earlier in the meeting said Crouse envisions a loose affiliation.

"He's committed to take over the hospital and ... he's saying, 'my hospital cannot absorb anything more than what we have at the present time.' He said they are overwhelmed with the patients, with the service. Even if he builds more, he cannot accept anything more," Jhaveri said. "He says most of the services will be open. He cannot judge what will be or what will not be open. He has to evaluate ... and give this report to the state Health Department."

Craig Holm, a private consultant from Veralon whom MMH pays to assist with their transition to a non-profit entity, said Crouse Chief Medical Officer Dr. Seth Cronenberg sees Massena as having potential for program growth, but they don't want to inject cash. Holm at the meeting summarized a presentation Cronenberg gave to the MMH and town boards on March 12.

"He was very interested in keeping local care local, not transferring patients to Syracuse for care," Holm said. "His interest was really in program growth ... their position is not to transfer money, but their idea is for program growth."

Holm said the Crouse CFO's presentation essentially circled around "this idea of Massena being able to maintain local autonomy through this relatively loose affiliation arrangement rather than a transfer of ownership."

On the heels of a CFO's report that said MMH lost $786,000 from operations in March, Perez said the hospital desparately needs money. Both she and Jhaveri left their conversations with Acker with the feeling that SLHS can give Massena Memorial the cash they need to survive.

"It goes down to one word - money. I'm sorry. It goes down to money. We can't push [SLHS] out. They've got the money," Perez said.

"I'll take care of it. That was the word [Acker] used," Jhaveri said.

"He did say that he wants to make this a profitable, surviving, thriving hospital, which was one of my major concerns with us being affiliated with Potsdam," Perez said.

MMH employees and other members of the public spoke up and said they're not thrilled with the prospect of being taken over by SLHS.

"Do you trust him?" MMH registered nurse Tammy Mitchell asked.

"I do think he's an honest man. He's very blunt ... he's not a people person, I don't think. You don't get that warm fuzzy feeling about him. He's a lawyer ... But a signed legal document, that's what we need to be very diligent about," Perez said. "My whole purpose of being on this board is to help you and keep this hospital."

Perez refused to comment when asked if Acker is refusing to make a presentation, at least in part, because he wants the MMH board to fire CEO Chuck Gijanto.

Jhaveri said they did not discuss the CEO. Perez, when asked if she discussed Gijanto with Acker, said "not yesterday."

When pressed for more information, she clammed up and cited a non-disclosure agreement.

Julia Rose, president of the MMH Auxiliary, said she has a bad feeling about SLHS based on Acker's approach to dealing with the MMH board.

"One potential partner is doing it the right way and the other potential partner isn't. There's secret letters and there's secret meetings and there's 'I don't want to come to the table,'" Rose said.

"There are certain individuals hiding stuff and not making it public. That's what makes us worry," said Clyde Leffler, MMH endoscopy clerk.

The "secret letter" to which Rose referred is what Jhaveri described as a "letter of intent" Acker sent Town Supervisor Steve O'Shaughnessy over the fall that appears to not have been shared with the hospital Board of Managers.

"He gave me the report what's going on, what he knows about the hospital. What I gathered from that ... he had sent a letter of intent to take care of the business to Massena and I think it was sent to Mr. O'Shaughnessy," Jhaveri said.

"He told me there was a letter of intent and I should have seen it ... he assured me I would see it," Perez said.

Four members of the town board were in attendance -- O'Shaughnessy and councilors Al Nicola, Sam Carbone and Melanie Cunningham. They, and town attorney Eric Gustafson, refused to say the contents of the letter when asked.

"I'm not comfortable talking about negotiating for this huge asset in a public session," O'Shaughnessy said, who referred to the letter as a "draft."

Later in the meeting, Gustafson said there has been no proposed agreement or affiliation plan presented from SLHS. When asked how the letter can be kept from the public on the grounds that is is part of a negotiation when allegedly it contains no offer or terms, he said he wasn't going to talk about what the letter says. None of the town board members said anything in response.

"I think we will talk about that in executive session," MMH board member Lenore Levine said.

Former town supervisor Joe Gray during public comment said his experience in office tells him the letter should be subject to disclosure through a FOIL request.

"If there's a letter out there in the supervisor's office, it's a public document, unless it's from their attorney. It shouldn't be a secret, it shouldn't be kept under wraps," Gray said. "If the letter exists in the supervisor's office, draft or not, it's a public document."

Gustafson said the town residents will have a mechanism to get any affiliation agreement on a ballot. He said if the town board approves a deal they don't like, they can collect petition signatures within 30 days to put it to a permissive referendum.