By Karen Danca
Douglas Melzer to replace Nester as head of Medical Center
Just as the heated union negotiations between the Long Beach Medical Center and members of the Civil Service Employees Association were about to hit the one-year mark, the Medical Center announced the resignation of their controversial Chief Executing Officer, Martin F. Nester, Jr.
After 34 years as the CEO of the Long Beach Medical Center, Mr. Nester, 65, resigned on Friday, August 25.
Mr. Nester gained notoriety in 1992 when he pleaded guilty to grand larceny for failing to report over $27,000 worth of improvements on his home in Lido Beach. Two years later, state officials halted a $26 million expansion on the Medical Center's nursing home in order to investigate whether Mr. Nester was capable of running such a facility.
Through it all, the Medical Center board supported Mr. Nester and voted to keep him on as CEO of the hospital.
Three days after Mr. Nester revealed his plans to resign, the Medical Center's Board of Trustees announced Douglas L. Melzer as the new CEO, effective September 1. At that time, Mr. Nester will become the Executive Director of the Medical Center's "Campaign for Excellence."
"The timing worked out perfectly," said Cindy Smith Casson, director of planning and program development for the Medical Center.
According to Ms. Casson, the Campaign for Excellence was in need of someone to spearhead the operation. So, rather than retiring from the Medical Center altogether, "the board talked [Mr. Nester] into sticking around for a while," said Ms. Casson.
"Marty's been an institution at the hospital," said City Manager Bruce Nyman. "Most of us in Long Beach haven't known any other director. He's always had a good relationship with City Hall and certainly will be missed."
When Mr. Nester became CEO of the Medical Center in 1966, the then-40 year-old hospital building was a small, 97-bed institution in need of expansion and development. Throughout his 34 years as head of the hospital, the building has grown significantly. It now stands as a 403-bed community, including the Komanoff Center for Geriatric and Rehabilitative Medicine. The Medical Center has also added a Family Practice Training Program under the leadership of Mr. Nester.
The Campaign for Excellence was started last year. According to Mr. Nester, the purpose of this project has been to "gain access to millions of dollars of contributions, or to otherwise finance projects in the planning stages."
Members of the Campaign for Excellence have been working towards a $25 million fund-raising goal. Mr. Nester role in the project will be to direct the campaign and to keep it on track.
The new CEO, Mr. Melzer, began working for the Medical Center in 1976 and has held the position of Chief Operating Officer since 1980. Mr. Melzer is also a Diplomat of the American College of Healthcare Executives and has served as chairman of the Continuing Health Services Committee of the Healthcare Association of New York.
"It's good that the next person is someone familiar with the issues and problems of the hospital," said Mr. Nyman. "It's like the vice-president taking over for the president."
One such issue/problem has to do with the highly publicized, ongoing contract negotiations between the CSEA and the Long Beach Medical Center management. For almost a year, the CSEA, representing 450 LBMC service and maintenance workers, has been without a contract.
In an attempt to win a contract, members of the CSEA have been battling the LBMC management in the form of marches, rallies, vigils, and protests.
The LBMC management has accused the CSEA of not focusing on the task at hand during contract negotiations, declaring that misstatements were made to the press, filing false charges, and using the negotiations as a springboard for labor recruitment efforts on Long Island.
Mr. Nester, who disapproved of the union's formation from the start, has been at the head of these accusations against the CSEA. Mark Murphy, spokesperson at the CSEA national office, said he hopes a new CEO at the Medical Center will bring a fresh start to contract negotiations.
"A new person [as CEO] means change and we'd like to see some indication of that," said Mr. Murphy.
In a prepared statement, Ron King, the Long Island Regional Director for the CSEA, said, "The CSEA and the Long Beach Medical Center Employees have long been disappointed in the bad faith the hospital administration had taken towards contract negotiations and towards workers' everyday problems at work.
"On behalf of all the employees we represent, we hope that the new CEO will bring a fresh perspective on these problems. We welcome the opportunity to start fresh with the new CEO and we look forward to bargaining with him and working constructively for the success of the hospital."
