“I am here to lend my voice to concerns reported in local newspapers about the disposition of assets owned by the recently dissolved local hospital foundation,” former Mayor Paul Freeman announced at the Dec. 2 council meeting. “Let me say at the outset I share such concerns.”
Adventist Health spokeswoman Alicia Gonzalez denied any wrong doing in the dissolution of the foundation. She warned that critical public statements could harm the negotiations.
“It would be a shame if some public statements, although they may mean well, have the untended consequences of delaying or endangering the transfer of South Coast Medical Center to a qualified buyer,” Gonzalez said.
Adventist Health, which announced plans to sell the medical center in September, dissolved the foundation at a meeting of the board held Nov. 15 and presented documents that authorized the assumption of foundation assets.
Foundation board member Susan Morrison blew the whistle on the takeover at the Nov. 21 council meeting. Her position subsequently hardened.
“I feel more strongly than ever,” Morrison said the day after Freeman’s denunciation.
According to Morrison and confirmed by Gonzalez, the document presented to the foundation board at the dissolution meeting asserted that assets of the foundation can legally be distributed to the medical center upon dissolution of the foundation to cover losses.
Morrison said Adventist claims to have lost a total of $44,735,000 since taking over the hospital in 1998 could be accounted for by the $500,000 monthly fees paid to Adventist, which about equals the stated annual losses, and the salaries paid center officials, which Adventist declined to confirm.
