Laserfiche WebLink
David Gregg, 2116 South Porpoise Point Lane, county resident <br />for 26 years, admired both Boards for getting together today and <br />listening to public input. He understood that the elected Board of <br />Trustees represents approximately 130,000 people in Indian River <br />County, but from what he has heard today, he feels the Board of <br />Trustees is not doing that effectively. The people are upset with <br />the bonuses that were paid because when they go into Emergency at <br />IRMH, the average person comes out with a bill of $1200. He urged <br />the Board of Trustees to use their influence and authority to get <br />some things done and done very quickly, say 6 to 8 months from now. <br />Mr. Gregg did not understand why the Hospital District paid for the <br />1974-75 bonds, and pointed to Mrs. Ingram, saying that she may have <br />been a trustee for 12 years, but these problems have been brewing <br />for a long time. <br />Mr. Montuoro explained that the bonds issued in 1974-75 were <br />switched back from IRMH, Inc. to the Hospital Taxing District with <br />the philosophy that those bonds were issued to build the new <br />hospital and the taxpayers had voted for it. Mr. Montuoro <br />emphasized that those bonds are the only bonds the hospital has and <br />they will be paid off in the next two years. All the rest are <br />industrial revenue bonds. <br />Mr. Gregg asked why the Hospital Taxing District should pay ` <br />for the bonds when the hospital is leased to IRMH, Inc. <br />Dr. Sowell noted that is one of the things that concerned him <br />and one of the reasons he is sitting on this board. In the <br />contract between the District and the hospital, the hospital was to <br />assume servicing of those bonds from 1990 on, but before a single <br />payment was made, Amendment #4 brought that back to the Hospital <br />Taxing District trustees (taxpayers) to continue paying for that. <br />When that debt is paid off, it will be $2 million to the taxpayers. <br />Part of the rationale is listed in the amendment, and it had to do <br />with the improvements that the hospital would make on its <br />facilities being diverted to the District at the end of the lease <br />in 2010. Dr. Sowell happened to believe that it is unfair and will <br />be unfair until it is over. That is type of thing that has been <br />going on in these negotiations over the past 10 years and sometimes <br />with little notice to the public. <br />Lou Buck, chairman of the steering committee called COAC, an <br />alliance of the local chapter of AARP, the Civic Association and <br />the Taxpayers Association, stated that as such he represents <br />several hundred people who feel that the taxpayers should have more <br />representation through the Board of Trustees. They feel that the <br />Board of Trustees sometimes loses sight of what they should be <br />10 <br />MARCH 21, 1996 <br />