The troubles at the Children’s Hospital are coming to a boil.
Their new CEO raised the issue of the rent that they pay to our county hospital.
You may recall that the county hospital issued $120 million in general obligation bonds back in May 2008 to pay for the Children’s Hospital and Women’s Tower construction.
These bonds were not revenue bonds that would normally be paid from the money that the facility collected. Instead these were general obligation bonds that are being paid for through property taxes. In other words the county sold the bonds and we are paying for them through our property taxes.
Why?
The new Children’s Hospital CEO is now asking why he has to pay the county hospital approximately $11.6 million each year to lease the building.
His point is that the county hospital is already getting paid for the bonds by the taxpayers. Is the current agreement actually a subsidy to the county hospital at the cost of the Children’s Hospital?
Maybe the lease includes operating expenses like utilities.
Secrecy
Unfortunately it will be difficult for the citizens to figure out what is really going on. It seems that as part of the dispute resolution procedures agreed to by both parties neither one can discuss the issues publicly for the next 60 days.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
If the Childrens Hospital was paying their bills there would NOT be a problem….
I Pray for a speedy and reasonable solution.
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Let’s see how this works
The El Paso County taxpayer paid for/owns the County Hospital
The El Paso County taxpayer paid for/owns the Children’s Hospital
Therefore the Children’s Hospital should pay rent to the County
Hospital. OR
The County Hospital should pay rent to the Children’s Hospital.
Take your pick.
Should the Children’s Hospital pay for services provided by the County Hospital such as CAT, MRI services etc agreed to by contract?
Do we need a Children’s Hospital? Do we put all services in place, even minimally used, before we can pay for them? Can we afford everything we want?
Yes, Haiduc. When its someone else’s money
Same type of logic I think.
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One question is whether we (UMC) are overcharging ourselves (Children’s Hospital) for services provided. Lots of healthcare providers have found ways to overcharge for services, regardless of the terms in the contracts. We need look no further than all the cases of medicare fraud.
Even among public organizations, if one fiefdom can feather its own bed at the expense of another, it will do so if it does not have a strong ethical and moral compass …… and if it’s leaders can benefit from doing so.
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It certainly is strange that this question is now being raised. I, too, have been wondering why the Childrens’ Hospital should pay rent when both are owned by the taxpayers, and paid for by the taxpayers. They want to collect rent? Then, maybe they should be paying rent – to the taxpayers, in the form of rebates for all property owners. I suspect the Childrens’ Hospital would not be in trouble if this rent question was taken out of the equation.
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Mr Dungan,
You are correct that the rent/services money not paid by Children’s for the past year is owed to the tax payers of the Hospital District. The Taxpayers voted for a Children’s hospital. And the Bill is rising!
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This is another classic case of highly paid government employees playing power games and building personal empires at the expense of taxpayers and those they should be serving.
This is looking more and more like a corporate and financial power grab by UMC. It smells like an orchestrated hostile takeover by UMC, which has been charging us twice for resources it has been given by taxpayers.
Is UMC possibly over-charging Children’s Hospital for services as alleged in an effort to cover up its own poor financial performance? I wonder what UMC’s income statements for the past few years would look like if we backed out the revenue and direct costs associated with UMC providing services to Children’s Hospital. The financials of both UMC and Children’s Hospital should be scrutinized.
Several key questions and points have been overlooked.
— How is it that UMC, which is trying to portray itself as a financially responsible victim, and its auditors allowed a “customer” to run up such a high tab before waving a red flag?
— The UMC CEO knowingly allowed this “bad debt” to build up over an extended period of time. Why all the sudden hand-wringing? This seems a bit odd for an organization that puts “Make a Payment” in flashing yellow lights on its website.
— Is the UMC CEO inept as a financial manager or did he consciously allow the Children’s Hospital debt to build up as a means to an end?
— Why did the UMC board turn a blind eye for so long?
— Were UMC board members asleep at the wheel or did they help construct or buy into a strategy to take over Children’s Hospital?
This is a sick little game being played by executives and board members who have become too enamored with their own sense of self-importance and who are not good stewards of public funds or trust.
The fact that UMC took steps to shield discussions between two publicly funded entities from the public eye proves that UMC’s motives are not pure and that and that it is not to be trusted.
Yes, we deserve better. So do the children, who are being made pawns in corporate politics and gamesmanship.
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Yes, I am becoming increasingly wary of Valenti. I heard him speak when he first came to El Paso and my impression was that we were going to have to keep a close watch on our pocketbooks as his grand ideas were going to be responsible for many tax increases.
First Valenti is the biggest proponent of the Children’s Hospital; now he won’t take any responsibility for the fact it is not financially sustainable. He alienates the private doctors of the city by wanting clinics in all parts of town. He takes important anesthesia contracts away for the medical school. He publicly berates Children’s Hospital administrators. This guy is becoming more dangerous by the day. He needs to go.
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And don’t forget his fight with Texas Tech!
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CH just might be financially feasible if UMC were not trying to profit off of it. Take all the UMC gross profits — profits, not revenues — that UMC has recorded at the expense of CH since its inception. Net those profits against CH’s cumulative losses, then you’ll have a better sense of the viability of CH.
Oh, and follow the money that flows out of UMC. There is no good reason for UMC to be PROFITING from CH, so who is benefitting? Certainly not the taxpayers or the children. And we wonder why healthcare costs and healthcare insurance premiums are out of control? We need look no farther than our own local, highly paid bureaucrats.
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your first loss is your best lost. get rid of the children’s hospital and put one big clinic there and save the 150 mill for clinics all over town. might want to house the border patrol there too and charge rent to them. that way when we give free healthcare to illegals and then the border patrol can deport them right after.
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Occam’s Razor would advise, “Follow the money.” If the bond issue built CH, then I do not understand why it has to pay rent to UMC. I can understand CH outsourcing some support services to UMC and/or Texas Tech, but to pay rent is like a city library branch paying rent to the city when it is already owned by the city.
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want to see something even more outrageous than private legal fights? How about Joyce Wilson’s friend and assistant city manager being paid handsome 6-figures ++ to stay at home. Use Google translate… then be outraged. (and of course, silence from the El Paso Times, KVIA, KFOX, etc, etc. etc). Where’s investigative reporter Marty Schladen to defend his employers’ silence.
http://diario.mx/El_Paso/2014-06-23_c44ef472/aunque-esta-suspendida-cobra-$7200-quincenales/
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One would have to assume Shang and Wilson are no longer friends. My opinion? Shang was the most able person over there at city hall.
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And we thought working for the city was a nice gig… apparently being suspended is even better!
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Shang may be the smoking gun or “deep throat” on the ball park if she isnt possibly being paid off.
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This story is disgusting on multiple levels. It’s stunning that the El Paso news organizations have ignored this story. Taxpayers are being deprived of services that they are paying for. It also looks like the parties involved might be gaming the pension system to insure that Shang receives pension benefits that she might not otherwise qualify for.
If Shang is highly competent as Lydia suggested, Shang should be working and not sitting at home drawing a paycheck at our expense.
This has the stench of corruption and government waste designed to benefit individuals. This looks like something someone would have orchestrated to help a friend or keep a person quiet.
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jesus, has anyone seen this ? http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_26027154
ted, do you have any common sense ? why dont you finish the second phase of the transmountain project by doing the bypass to anthony gap. that would get nearly all the tractor trailers just passing through off 1-10. you havent even mentioned it. i guess the right people dont own the land around that project , huh ? of course we have the stadium owners and the downtown property owners to please with this trolley crap first. forget common sense and safety. brutus, you could do a writeup on this.
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You just have to chuckle when the chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission says that low-capacity trollies are part of “a deliberate strategy to keep up with the state’s explosive growth.”
Veronica Escobar said “The trolley system will help foster economic development.” I think she meant to say help Foster’s economic development.
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very insightful of you Reality Checker
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