Mark Shelden's blog

That was the response of more than one expert I talked to in the last week about the costs of obtaining our Certificate of Need and subsequent work.  That's even after some of the complicating issues.  Of the $600,000 that we have paid Duane Morris, approximately $400,000 was related to our Certificate of Need, alterations to the same, and then followup work on our final cost report and compliance.

So what's the going rate for doing this work from people who actually do this work?  How about $25,000-$50,000.  That's right.  And some of these experts actually work for, can you believe it, a FLAT fee.  For example, DeKalb County, a county which we are looking to as a model for our own, paid about $30,000 to their consultant for their Certificate of Need 9 years ago.

As one person put it to me,  it appears that we paid for the education of Duane Morris.  This becomes painfully obvious when you consider that they weren't even aware of the impact of the new rules on our project. 

I have no idea why we have this firm representing us.  And after hiring them, I have no idea why we kept them after their deficiencies became painfully obvious.  Earlier this week I gave Julia Rietz a letter asking her for examples of other work that Duane Morris has done along the lines of what we were asking them to do.  I also asked for some names of the State's Attorneys who so highly recommended their services.  I'll let you know if and when she responds.  The audio below is Ms. Rietz with another empassioned attorney defense.

I wrote yesterday about Julia Rietz and the attorneys she supports.  I’ll add a little more perspective later on the outrageous fees they’ve charged us overall.  But today I want to focus just on the costs associated with the fine from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board.

If you recall, last year the County Board learned that they would be subject to fines for failing to inform the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board about changes they made in the Nursing Home project after it was approved.  I predicted that it would happen a year earlier and even suggested on more than one occasion that our legal counsel was not doing a good job for us.  In my mind, they were the primary cause for our fine for their failure to properly inform us of our obligations under the new rules as well as to give us sound advice about the old rules.

For a year and half it’s been clear to me that this firm was in over their head.  They claimed to be experts but weren’t.  Even hiring someone away from the HFPB didn’t seem to help us.  So the idea that somehow their incompetence would result in us paying $50,000 seemed ridiculous.

At the County Facilities meeting on Tuesday, we were tol that we have apparently reached a deal on the fine with the HFPB.  It will be discussed at the full County Board meeting next week.

But perhaps the most outrageous part of this whole thing is what we are going to pay to try to get out of this fine.  In the months of November, December, January and February, Duane Morris had already charged us $26,529.42 to try to fight the fine.  That figure doesn’t include probably another thousand or so dollars in the October billing that appears to be related to our compliance problems.  And it doesn't include the amount they are going to bill us in March, April and May for the completion of this whole mess.

So we're likely to have legal fees in excess of $30,000, perhaps even $40,00.  Plus, we’re likely to still have to pay a fine.  It is very likely that the total package will exceed the original fine.

But no one should be outraged, no should ask questions, and certainly no one should think they’re out to get us.

RSW mentioned this in a previous post and some of you might have  heard some of these comments on WDWS.  I've put a media file link below that hopefully you can listen to, although I'm hardly a pro in such things.  The gist of it is that Julia Rietz at last week's County Facilities meeting tore into those who would dare to question how much our attorneys are charging us.  There's a lot to get into here, and I'm going to try to do it over the next couple days.  Suffice it to say in this post that we've now paid Duane Morris over $600,000 to represent us on various issues related to the nursing home.  Not only should County Board members be questioning that, they'd be remiss if they didn't.

If you caught last month's County Board meeting you would have heard  Brad Jones suggest that we use the Nursing Home Construction Fund to make this year's Nursing Bond Payment.  It probably confused a good number of people including most Board members.  But it comes down to this.  The County borrowed an extra $4 million for the nursing home to cover the costs of mold and HVAC repairs as well as increased legal fees and various cost overruns. This extra bond payment is being made out of the General Corp fund that had a fund balance last week of $70,000 (that's with receiving a loan from another County fund).  Since there is still about $700,000 unspent from the bond sale, this makes a lot of sense.

At the finance meeting last week, they passed unanimously a resolution to do exactly what Jones suggested.  But he didn't stop there.  In light of the goofy expenditure for the new sign at the Nursing Home, the resolution passed cuts off all expenditures from the fund except for legal fees.  There won't be any way for someone to spend the remaining money (about $400,000) on anything akin to the pricey sign that just went up.  So next year we can make another payment from this fun, although the hope at that time will be that we'll have a nice settlement that will pay off a good portion of the $4 million.

This is on the consent agenda for the County Board meeting later this month.  That means it's likely to pass without discussion.  But it's a good move initiated by Jones and a nice response to the dual problems of a depleted County fund balance and outrageous spending decisions.

It would be kinda fun to see Hillary take this thing after all, wouldn't it?

I don't know who puts together the News-Gazette polls, but today's poll on the County Nursing Home is pretty indicative of the attitudes of some.  The question is "What should Champaign County do about the financial problems at the county nursing home?"

The choices are Sell, Lease, Raise Taxes, Close, or Nothing.  Whoever crafted the question apparently never considered that the home could actually be run more efficiently and could actually make some money. 

On the positive side, after years of opting for "nothing" at least some members of the County Board seem committed to something.

The first meeting of the County Nursing Home Board of Directors was this morning.  Charles Lansford was elected Chairman.  Mary Ellen O'Shaugnessey was elected as Vice Chairman. 

I was impressed with the discussion at this first meeting.  Lots of sound questions and insight.  I think their expertise is going to bear some good fruit in the months ahead.  Certainly what I saw today validates the votes of those who voted to create a board. 

There is still the issue of the need for the Nursing Home for another loan in June.  The question now is whether the Nursing Home Administrator and the new Board of Directors will be able to instill enough confidence in the future financial viability of the home in order to get County Board approval for the loan.  It requires a majority vote. 

The County Board finally has received the billing from Joe Phebus for the legal work he's done since he took on the litigation surrounding the construction problems at the nursing home.  The bill to date is about $150,000.  About $10,000 of that was spent in a failed effort to move the HVAC issue from arbitration to the court system. 

To put this in context, the mold at the nursing home was discovered over three years ago and so the County has been paying on these problems for over three years.  Our costs on these problems exceed $3 million.  We've recovered approximately $100,000.  I don't have the exact cost of litigation so far, but I believe that it exceeds $300,000.

Further, I  think the lengthy battle is convincing various board members that our case is not quite as sound as they have been led to believe.  Most people feel that there will be no resolution to this issue until after the November election, comfortably placing a bad settlement or arbitration finding past the elections of both Rietz and Weibel.

Of course, while the Phebus billing gives us a best case scenario on our costs, it doesn't take into account the big loophole in the contract which Rietz negotiated that  basically sets no limit on what she can pay Phebus.

There are additional bills for the law firm of Duane Morris, who continues to represent the County in front of the health facilities planning board, including in defense of our failure to comply  by the rules that Duane Morris failed to adequately advise us about.

SI did a fan survey and while by their own admission, the survey doesn't do justice to the older parks like Wrigley and Fenway, the internals are interesting, including the observation that Cardinal fans have the highest baseball IQ.  I wish I could say I disagree, but I can't.  I will argue with the Sox fans being ahead of the Cubs' fans however.  I guess it depends on how you rate eternal pessimism vs. eternal optimism.

A constitutional amendment proposed by Sen. Mike Frerichs got pretty well killed on the floor of the Senate today, receiving just 19 of the 36 votes necessary for passage.  While there is no direct tie in to education in amendment, it's hard to imagine that this is a good sign for people who want to raise the income tax on everyone to fund education and property tax relief.

In the surreal world of Champaign County government, a new sign is going up at the nursing home.  Three bricklayers have worked on it for the first three days of the week, and more work needs to be done yet.  So the nursing home, which is bleeding hundreds of thousands a year, and which is getting bailed out by the general corp fund for a million a year, gets a nice new sign. 

And before anyone suggests that this is a different pot of money, I'll say that is balderdash.  Every nickel that was spent on this sign could have been used instead to lower the $300,000 that the County's General Corp fund has to pay toward the $4 million bond that we sold in 2006. 

Obviously, reasonable people can agree that a sign on the home is a good idea, although we've done fine finding the place in the year that it's been open without the sign.  But couldn't we have found something more modest?  This will be the nicest sign on any county building, and perhaps any government building in the county. 

Hopefully they'll be using something other than engraving to put the name of the home on the sign. 

Your property tax bill is being sent out on May 2nd.  But you can see the damage now.

We've changed things up a bit at our website, www.champaigncountyclerk.com in an attempt to get people where they need to be quicker and easier.  Not much different in the way of content, but hopefully a few other changes are on the way.

Also, I noted on my County Clerk blog that we're now using the GIS consortium to help us produce maps.  Let me know if you'd like to volunteer to improve that area of our office.

Our webmaster and I are principally Firefox users so I'm especially interested in how the IE, Safari and other browser users are doing with the site.

Last night's discussion about the problems at the county nursing home featured a lot of handwringing, but little in the way of problem solving.  I think the chances of getting 14 votes together to actually make changes in how the operation runs are slim.  Except for a select few board members, it seems like the hope is that somehow this will all be resolved or go away without the board actually making tough decisions.  Kudos are in order for Al Nudo especially who has really dug deeply into this issue.  In a week the nursing home director is to come back with some ideas for the full board meeting.  But Weibel shut down any idea of another meeting to discuss any suggestions so I don't really know if we can expect action next week. 

Also next week, we may have people appointed to the oversight board for the nursing home.  That board was created in January but still hasn't had the positions filled. 

This is truly a dire situation.  Even with a sound plan of action on the part of the board there are going to be cutbacks in other county services.  The general corporate fund has bailed out the nursing home in the amount of millions now in both operational and capital expenditures.  Last night I was told that the County actually had to cash in a Certificate of Deposit early in order to make payroll.

I'm here at the meeting but getting to this discussion late.   A little brainstorming happening that I will try to get down here.

Deb Busey is keeping  a list of questions/points/discussion items.

1.   Resolving the issue of whether the County has an obligation to provide care for the elderly.

2.   Legislative support for increasing the Medicare rate - have talked with Rep. Jakobsson regarding this support.

3    Nursing shortage--creates the need to use agency nursing.

4.   Marketing to new nurses -- offer scholarships to new nurses for 2 year commitment of employment.  Work with Parkland to develop nursing program.

5   Recruit donations for scholarships fund for nurses - - possibly by revamping or revitalizing the Auxiliary.

Summer is coming, and that means vacations for some people.  This year we're joining my sisters and mother on a trip to Colorado in June and then making another trip to see my mother in South Carolina later in August.  Two vacations in one summer is pretty luxurious by my standards and I truly feel blessed to have that opportunity.

Growing up, we only took three noteworthy trips as a family.  Once  to New York, via Niagara Falls for a wedding.  Another time for a few days to St. Louis.  And a third time to North Carolina to visit Grandma.  That was the vacation when we actually had a station wagon.  The first two were in a Chrysler Newport in the days when one of the four children sat in the middle of the front seat.  (Is any car made with a bench seat in front anymore?)  I'm still not sure how we got a week's worth of luggage (including three lime green leisure suits) and  a cooler (so we could save by avoiding restaurants) into that car. 

So that's my background going into the AP story I read this morning about the plight of Edward and Dena Brody.

The Brodys, like many Americans feeling economic strain, are spending their family vacation closer to home. The couple has rented a vacation home in Martha's Vineyard instead of a 12-day family vacation to Europe.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to feel sorry for the Brodys.  I'm not sure what the Brodys want me to feel about them after participating in this story.  This is at least the second trip to Martha's Vineyard for the Brodys.  I suspect for most people a trip to anywhere in Cape Cod is a once in a lifetime trip and a trip to the exclusive pricey Martha's Vineyard might never happen. 

I recall the '82 recession (the last big recession) pretty clearly.  High unemployment, high interest rates as the country tried to tackle inflation, farmers losing their land, people in the "Rust Belt" losing their jobs or the lucky ones like my father merely getting transferred to the "Sun Belt".  There was enough real misery at that time to fill the newspapers so I guess they didn't have to go out and write articles about people like the Brodys.  I don't recall any complaints in that recession about the price of arugula or the escalating cost of dance and piano lessons.  And I don't recall the plight of people losing their vacation homes to foreclosure. 

I know that there are plenty of  people having a tough time.  In fact, increased costs for basic necessities are hitting the working poor and middle class the hardest.  If the AP writers hung around in different circles, they might even find someone who's trip to Florida was cancelled and replaced by a camping trip to Turkey Run, or someone who's feeding their family macaroni and cheese for dinner instead of steak, or opting out of a dance class for their daughter and enrolling her in park district soccer instead.

Instead we get the sob story of the Brodys.  Perhaps next week we'll find out about yacht owners who can't afford the high cost of boat fuel.

Otto Baum, the general trades contractor on the Champaign County Nursing Home Project, is suing the project manager PKD as well as the Environmental engineers hired by the County and the supplier of the wood.  The case is 08-L-70.

This is not unexpected.  As I said a year ago, the amount that PKD settled with the County for was a pittance.  At the time I also predicted that Otto Baum would put all the blame for this problem on PKD.

But the lawsuit once again begs the two most basic questions.  Why didn't construction on the project stop upon the discovery of the mold and why was any moldy wood allowed to be put up.  In the lawsuit, Otto Baum clearly blames PKD.  You can bet that within the negotiations with the County over a settlement, they are blaming the County.  And while much was made a year ago about how PKD would be helping us in our negotiations with Otto Baum, you can bet if this thing ever gets to court, they'll be pointing their finger straight at the County as well.

On December 24, 2007, the News-Gazette, in making just one more apology for the Inman/Beckett nursing home fiasco, said this. 

The irony of the health facilities planning board - where all kinds of shenanigans have been documented - calling out Champaign County for its benevolent nursing home project is delicious enough, but it also had the gall to demand a fine as well. And that won't be the end of it.

Now it turns out that our own law firm might have some shenanigans to explain themselves.  In August, 2006, Duane Morris, a firm with little to no Health Facilities Planning Board experience when we hired them, hired an attorney from the Health Facilities Planning Board.  As early as December 2006, that same attorney, Mark Silberman started billing hours to Champaign County.

This probably runs afoul of two rules. First, the Rules of Professional Conduct, which reads in part:

Rule 1.11. Successive Government and Private Employment

(a) Except as otherwise expressly permitted by law, a lawyer shall not represent a private client in connection with a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially as a public officer or employee, unless the appropriate government agency consents after disclosure.

Second is the revolving door prohibitions in Illinois law.

(b) No former officer of the executive branch or State employee of the executive branch with regulatory or licensing authority, or spouse or immediate family member living with such person, shall, within a period of one year immediately after termination of State employment, knowingly accept employment or receive compensation of fees for services from a person or entity if the officer or State employee, during the year immediately preceding termination of State employment, made a regulatory or licensing decision that directly applied to the person or entity, or its parent or subsidiary. 

In regards to Silberman, he appears in the Health Facilities Planning Board minutes at least one time regarding Champaign County and memos from our attorneys on more than one occasion cite conversations with him about our case.  How "substantial" his involvement was may be an open question.  However, I have talked with a couple of attorneys who suggested that he just flatly should not have done any work on our project.  They didn't even care about the nature of his involvement.  It was enough for them to know that he worked for the agency.

I sent a FOIA to HFPB asking whether Silberman had ever asked for permission to do such work or whether it had been granted.  There is no written communication regarding this. 

On the positive side for Champaign County, we may be able to use Mr. Silberman's connections to lower our fine.  If Mr. Silberman and Duane Morris has run afoul of the rules, it probably isn't our problem.  Since Duane Morris has been especially incompetent in their representation, it's nice to know that they've brought someone in who has at least some experience in these matters. 

We've discussed free wireless internet access here a few times.  A recent article I ran across details some of the problems that cities like Chicago are facing.  I'm curious about how the City of Champaign's wireless project is going.

For a couple of years now I've wondered about the legal representation the County has received from Duane Morris, a high priced Chicago law firm.  Every action we've had before the Health Facilities Planning Board has been surrounded in crisis.  It seems like nothing gets done in a timely fashion and more than once we've had to contact our legislators to have them intervene in an attempt to get us on an agenda to deal with a particular issue.  My lack of faith in Duane Morris was always tempered by the fact that I knew they had to deal with the inept pair of Inman and Beckett who are perpetually behind on facility issues at the County.

However, I also knew some attorneys who did HFPB work and they weren't familiar with Duane Morris in this context.  An employee of the HFPB also expressed doubt about their level of expertise.  Unfortunately, the HFPB doesn't keep a list of which attorneys represent which clients in front of the Board. 

I was going to ignore this because I just don't have limitless amounts of time, but when I saw that the County is going to shell out another ten grand to Duane Morris for legal services to defend us because they didn't know the HFPB rules, I couldn't stand it.  So I got the transcripts of the meetings from the HFPB in 2002, the year prior to the nursing home project starting.  It seemed reasonable that if we were looking for an "expert" who was familiar with the procedures of the HFPB that they would likely have appeared at some point in front of the board.  Those transcripts can be viewed in the links below.

There is no reference to Duane Morris at any meeting of the Health Facilities Planning Board in 2002.  45 different cases featured representations by the following 12 law firms:  Arnstein and Lehr; Bell Boyd and Lloyd; Chuhak and Tecson; Foley and Lardner; Freeborn and Peters; Hinshaw and Culbertson; Ross and Hardies; Sidley and Austin; Sonnenschein, Nath and Resenthal; Sorling, Northrup; Ungaretti and Harris; Winston and Strawn.  Many people will recognize many of these firms as highly capable and well connected politically. 

Since we hired Duane Morris, they have hired an attorney from HFPB who has assisted us so their bona fides in this area have improved, but it appears to me that when we hired them they had no business getting our business. 

Duane Morris does have expertise in health care law, but there is no evidence that the expertise stretches to this particular area.  I should also note that Duane Morris could have represented people in 2002 but not appeared in front of the Board.  I'd welcome a list of clients that Duane Morris had prior to picking up Champaign County.