By:Nick Buglione
The audit found that the full board failed to authorize or ratify a number of decisions made by former president and CEO Richard Turan. It also found that the full board never ratified Turan's January 2003 raise, which saw his salary jump from $200,000 to $325,000, and that the $660,000 in salary increases Turan granted to 27 senior officials in 2002 and 2003 were unauthorized.
"By its systematic inaction, the board illustrated a remarkable failure to provide the basic oversight required to govern the Nassau Health Care Corporation," Hevesi said, "and ran this multi-billion-dollar health care corporation as if it were on automatic pilot."
The NHCC, which runs the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, the A. Holly Patterson nursing home and seven community clinics, has lost millions of dollars each year since its creation in 1999. Turan stepped down as head of the financially strapped public-benefit corporation in June, amid the controversy generated by his receiving a large raise in the face of hundreds of staff layoffs.
Following his resignation, Turan and board President Lawrence Gottlieb began meeting to hammer out a severance package, though Hevesi's report maintains there is no justification for providing Turan with such a deal. "To pay Turan a severance, the board would have to determine he was not fired for cause ... and that he did not voluntarily resign," Hevesi said. "Then the board would have to vote to ratify his being fired."
Gottlieb said he and Turan failed to successfully negotiate a severance package, and that the matter would likely have to be settled in court. "We had discussions, and they didn't go anywhere," Gottlieb said, though he would not reveal details of the negotiations. "He was certainly asking for more than I would give him."
Hevesi's report also revealed that NHCC board members were frequently absent from the 59 monthly meetings they held from 1999 to July 2004. There were only five meetings that were attended by all 15 members, the report found. Six members of the board, including five of the 13 current members, have missed 11 or more meetings, and three of those six, including two current members, have missed 19 or more meetings, Hevesi said.
"It is clear that the board did not exercise the authority granted to it under the law or appropriately delegate that authority to others, and did not exhibit the commitment needed to run an important public entity that provides vital services to the community," Hevesi said.
Gottlieb admitted that consistent absences have crippled the board's decision-making abilities. "Someone has to do something about it," Gottlieb said. "I can't get a quorum."
The problem stems from the fact that every member of the board is appointed politically, Gottlieb explained. "There are two vacancies that still need to be filled, and more than one member that never comes to the meetings," he said.
Shortly after Turan's resignation, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi appointed two new members to the board: Eric Krasnoff, chairman and CEO of the Pall Corporation, and Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee, dean of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.
In making those appointments, Suozzi underscored the need for more active board members and the county's desire to increase its influence on the future of the NHCC.
If the NHCC were to go under, the county would be responsible for the debt service payments on the $256 million in bonds issued to finance its creation.
"The state comptroller's audit underscores the extent to which governance at the hospital corporation is not working," said Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman. "The board of directors needs to get its house in order. I call on them to review his report and either affirm the increases given to employees or reject them."
Weitzman has been pushing Albany to give him the authority to audit the NHCC so the county can keep a closer eye on its operations. Although a bill giving him that authority was introduced in the Assembly, it lacks a sponsor in the Senate.
"The county has a great deal to lose if this hospital system fails," Weitzman said. "Nassau taxpayers have a right to this level of fiscal oversight and reassurance."
