logo

Stew Lilker’s

Columbia County Observer

Real news from Florida for working families since 2007

Lake Shore Hosp Authority

LSHA - $5,000 for a badge ID program, $1,500 for the camera • Procurement: What's That?


On the unpublished Authority mostly useless docket tonight. It is not clear what the Berry/Chancy team are up to.


        Jack Berry

COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Floating on a sea of cash, Lake Shore Hospital Authority Manager, Jackson P. "Jack" Berry, has inserted on tonight's unpublished Authority agenda an item called: "New Business, Computer Software." An invoice obtained by the Observer shows the Board members received quote for what appears to be a new ID badge system at a total cost of $8,084 before discounts. The Authority now has approximately 200 indigent care clients, down from a total of approximately 1200 in 2009-10.

The Manager Berry/Board Chair Chancy team continues to keep the public in the dark about the goings-on at Authority Board meetings. The Board, appointed by the Governor, encourages this mode of secretive operation.


At 9:53 am this morning tonight's agenda was not published on the Authority website, although the meeting rules are prominent. There are no instructions provided explaining any method of obtaining an agenda prior to a meeting.


    Fred Koberlein

While obtaining information about the meetings was difficult in the past, with the appointment in January of Attorney Fred Koberlein, things got worse and the summary agendas, which had been posted before the meetings to the Authority web site, stopped being published until after the meetings. See: Keeping the Public in the Dark

Draining the Pond

In 2009, before Jack Berry was hired as the Authority's part-time manager, Sue Fraze ran the indigent care program virtually single-handed. At that time, there were approximately 1200 indigent care clients on the Authority's ledger.

ID cards were produced without a problem.

After Mr. Berry was hired, various changes in the Authority's Indigent Care policies, along with the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) saw the indigent care population drop to 125.

On May 11, 2015, the now full time Mr. Berry explained the indigent care population of the Authority this way:

"Well, we were at 200 one time; and then we reduced it to 175; and then we dropped from 175 to 125 and kinda drained the pond. And I think we're we need to be is 150."

In an email your reporter asked Manager Berry what "kinda drained the pond" meant.

Mr. Berry and the Governor's Board ignored the question.

The secretive Berry's, "we need to be at 150," now hovers around 200.

The Lake Shore Hospital Authority office, based on its October 2015 figures, saw 1.6 clients a day.

Procurement

For any purchase over $5,000, the Lake Shore Hospital Authority Procurement Policy requires: "three (3) competitive written or online quotes obtained by Authority staff and approved by Authority Chairperson prior to ordering."

The information received by the Observer shows only one quote and no other explanation.

Epilogue:

Why the Authority needs a new $8,000 ID card system is anybody's guess.

Jack Berry's Lake Shore Hospital: It's business as usual.

Comments (to add a comment go here)

This work by the Columbia County Observer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Calendar
 
 

Make a comment • click here •
All comments are displayed at the end of the article and are moderated.

 

More LSHA stories are here.