I learned today that Champaign County's request to alter their certificate of need and their request for a declaratory ruling have been dropped from the tentative agenda of the Health Facilities Planning Board. The reason I was given was that HFPB believes that we improperly altered our permit without board approval. I don't know which of our experts in the regulations of the HFPB is to blame for this, Beckett, Inman, or our attorney Neville Billimoria. The renewal of permit is on the agenda. The agenda right now is tentative, so there is a chance that it will change yet.
After hearing Mr. Beckett quote from Mr. Billimoria's letter last month, I have to say that I have lost all respect for his knowledge of FOIA as well as his knowledge of the regulations of the HFPB. As I said two weeks ago, it might be time to seek new legal counsel. And it would be a good time to figure out why Julia Rietz recommended this attorney to do this work.
In June, I questioned how we could pay this same law firm $150,000 for a year of work on the litigation aspects of this project and get absolutely nothing for it. Less than two months later, Rietz canned Billimoria and gave the contract to the well connected politically but legally excellent Joe Phebus.
Right now, I'm unable to tell anyone the implications to this decision to take us off the agenda. It is clear that we aren't going to get a change in our permit prior to the time we want to occupy the nursing home. I don't know if the folks who inspect the nursing home for compliance will certify the home without a valid permit, which ours is not. If we can get them to certify us, perhaps we can move into the home in January, and pony up the fines later. Hopefully, we'll have a new law firm negotiating with HFPB by then. The utter ignorance of this firm to the new regulations is baffling, especially at $500 per hour.
Update: WDWS has a report that includes Executive Secretary Jeffrey Mark saying that the HFPB will be considering fines against the County at the December 20-21 meeting. Steve Beckett blamed the attorney who he feels gave the County bad advice. Which is what I said last month and for which Steve Beckett lambasted me. I'm guessing this news item will circle throughout tomorrow morning.
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| Dec 2006 Draft Agenda December 11.pdf | 70.27 KB |
the GOP was criticized for "going negative" about the nursing home, and Beckett was re-elected by a huge margin, but that doesn't mean we should just look the other way and hope that eventually this nursing home project will be completed.
thank you, Mark, for your continued diligence
Secrecy--the first refuge of incmpetents--must beat a bare minimum in a democratic society, for a fully informed public is the basis of self-government." House Committee on Government Operations, 1960