Strickland studies options to help Forum

By David Skolnick | December 11, 2009 at 12:01a.m.

The governor said he doesn’t know whether federal stimulus money can be used.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER

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Strickland Talks About Forum Health

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Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland talks about Forum Health during a Dec. 10, 2009 visit to Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — Gov. Ted Strickland called financially troubled Forum Health “a critically urgent situation” while three federal legislators appealed to the president for financial assistance for the bankrupt health-care agency.

In a letter to the president, the legislators revealed for the first time that Forum Health received interest from four bidders should it decide to sell some or all of its assets.

Forum has “three viable bidders for the entire system plus one bidder interested only in the Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital facility” in Howland, they wrote. Forum also owns Northside Medical Center in Youngstown and Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren.

U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, and Charlie Wilson of St. Clairsville, D-6th, and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Avon, sent a letter to Obama, congressional leaders and the Treasury Department, seeking federal financial help.

“Without the intervention of the federal government with a loan-guarantee program or some other form of assistance, we believe that the system is in jeopardy of closing, resulting in a devastating loss of jobs and health-care services,” they wrote.

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams wants to use federal funds — as a grant, a loan and/or loan guarantee — to help Forum Health get out of bankruptcy and to save the health-care system and its 3,500 to 4,000 employees.

Strickland said he doesn’t know if using federal funds, including the $787 billion federal stimulus package, to help Forum is possible.

“Whether there are stimulus resources that could be identified for this particular purpose I think is something that has to be evaluated by folks who understand the intricacy of the stimulus resources,” he said. “I know that’s being [requested]. I don’t know what the answer may be.”

During a visit Thursday to the Youngstown YWCA, Strickland said, “I don’t know that the governor can solve the problem, but the governor certainly can be and should be, and I intend to be a partner in those efforts to find a correct solution.”

The Forum Health board of directors and its creditors are to decide by Monday if it will work to emerge from bankruptcy or sell some or all of its parts.

That decision has already been postponed from Nov. 30.

Williams doesn’t see a resolution happening by Monday, adding that he hopes the decision is delayed again as city, state and federal officials work together seeking last-minute solutions.

Even if Forum Health’s board of directors make a decision Monday to sell, Williams said there is time to change their minds.

Williams, in Chicago where he spoke Thursday at a Federal Reserve meeting about banking policies for federal housing, said he’s had preliminary contact with the White House’s Intergovernmental Affairs about federal funds to help Forum Health and is following up with officials there.

He’s also seeking help from Strickland.

“The governor has the ability to make a call to those higher in the president’s administration,” Williams said.

When asked by The Vindicator if a call from him to the White House would be effective, Strickland said: “I don’t know that a call to the White House would be the most appropriate approach. I think there are ways to work through and with the administration that may not rise to the level of calling the White House.”

The governor says he sees his role in the Forum Health issue as working “with those at every level of government to communicate with decision-makers to try to see that everything that can be done to protect the community will be done.”

Strickland visited the Youngstown YWCA on Rayen Avenue on Thursday to announce a $1,118,286 state historic-preservation tax credit for the facility.

The YWCA is undergoing more than $9 million in renovations as part of a project that began three years ago. When finished in 2010, the five-story building will include 30 one-bedroom and efficiency apartments for homeless women and families.

skolnick@vindy.com