UMC Board crawfishes yet again - delays Sept. meeting

Seriously. This comes after cancelling the August meeting set for today.

Things are getting curioser and curioser:

"Hospital Board Cancels Meeting"

That's the headline from a piece in today's Times-Picayune.

I have yet to see the story appear anywhere online.

Here's the gist of it:

"The University Medical Center governing board has canceled its Thursday meeting as a pair of consulting firms collaborate on modifying a business plan for the new teaching hospital slated for Mid-City.  The board's next scheduled meeting is Sept. 1, though it's no guarantee that the Verite Healthcare Consulting and Kaufman Hall & Associates will have finished their work by then."

The rest of the article gives an undeniable impression that it looks like the stage is being set for even more delays on having a business plan in place for the proposed UMC hospital.

Meanwhile, inexplicably, the state's contractors continue with site preparation in the LSU Footprint.

Jerry Jones suddenly backtracks on UMC delay

So...now construction ostensibly won't be delayed due to the action by the Ways and Means Committee of the Louisiana House of Representatives earlier today:

The governor's top construction adviser, Jerry Jones, initially told the committee the change would push back the hospital construction. He reversed his position later in the day, saying he was incorrect in his first interpretation.


Through a spokesman, Jones, head of the state Office of Facility Planning and Control, said the borrowing doesn't need to be approved though the construction budget and instead only needs approval from the State Bond Commission and the joint House and Senate budget committee.

Earlier in the day, he was saying this, repeating several times that the committee's action would cause delay:

"You'll delay the project substantially, and it's already been delayed," said Jones, head of the state Office of Facility Planning and Control.

"Hospital opening pushed to 2015"

Well, there you have it.

The state will be lucky if it can complete the project by the time Katrina's 10 year anniversary rolls around, if it completes it at all:

The new move-in date, according to a monthly report from Jacobs Engineering, the state's project manager, is Feb. 28, 2015, two months later than the Dec. 31, 2014, date set in the previous report and eight months later than the target at the start of last year.

Significant financing hurdles continue to loom, and the article once again lays out the notion that I've been harping on here at Inside the Footprint for the past week:

Joe Spiak, one of UMC's financial advisers representing AMS Healthcare Mortgage Corp., told the board Jan. 19 that as long as the state is pursuing bond insurance from the U.S. government, the state cannot proceed with site preparation and construction without permission from federal authorities.

As I've shown here at the blog, the state did in fact proceed with site preparation in the LSU Footprint last week despite that warning: Exhibit A, Exhibit B.

"I look out every day to see a house torn down"

FOX8 put out a great piece on Friday about the uncertainties facing the UMC hospital proposed for the dwindling neighborhood in the LSU Footprint.

The ground breaking was supposed to take place before 2011, but now the state doesn't even have a date, according to spokesperson Michael DiResto. And more than half the land needed still isn't in the state's possession.

The financing uncertainties are also addressed...to some extent.  One might come away from reading the linked piece thinking that there's simply a delay because of a desire to get the best financing.  In reality, the stakes are a bit higher - it's about whether the hospital gets the necessary financing at all.

UMC Hospital Groundbreaking Delayed

Per Fox8's report:

Fifty days after the real estate database crash in New Orleans, it appears the ground breaking for the new LSU teaching hospital, set for this month, will have to be delayed since a database fix isn't expected until January 2.


According to the state, more than half the land needed for the project, can't be acquired until the database is restored. The delay in building the new Mid-City hospital is far from the only casualty resulting from the database crash.

"it seems to me a one-year period is time people cannot afford to waste"

In this piece, Congressman Joseph Cao spoke about the existing FEMA appeals process, which takes a year on average:

"If children are waiting for a school to reopen, or ill people are waiting for a hospital to reopen, it seems to me a one-year period is time people cannot afford to waste," he said.

That's interesting...coming from a Congressman who has failed to show any empathy for the people of Lower Mid-City who are being displaced by the proposed hospitals, and who has not supported the RMJM Hillier plan for re-opening Charity Hospital - which could have restored medical care to New Orleans more rapidly and for less cost than the current plan to build hospitals in Lower Mid-City.

UPDATE: Full Landrieu Letter - A 45-day Halt to LSU Footprint Street Closure

This is indeed good news.

Here is the letter from Mayor Landrieu in full:

June 17, 2010
Timmy Teepell
Chief of Staff
Office of the Governor
Louisiana State Capitol
Baton Rouge, LA 70802


Dear Mr. Teepell:
As you know, as Mayor of the City of New Orleans, I have an obligation and a deep commitment to ensure that as we rebuild from Hurricane Katrina, we create the most livable and economically vibrant City possible. That is why I am appreciative of your support for my administration’s effort to undertake a short 45-day architectural peer review to improve the design of the LSU University Medical Center and to suggest improvements that will increase its functionality as a medical center, improve its integration into the urban landscape, and ensure its success as an economic engine for the City of New Orleans and State of Louisiana.


I have instructed the New Orleans City Planning Commission to ask their contractor, Goody Clancy along with a small group of highly regarded architects and planners, including those with experience designing medical and research centers, to review the current design plans for the LSU University Medical Center and make suggestions for how they can be improved in ways that are consistent with the New Orleans Master Plan and the development of our Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance.


I look forward to working with Jerry Jones and his architects and would ask that you direct them to cooperate fully with my design review team so the process can be done as quickly and efficiently as possible.


Thank you for your commitment and service to our State.


Sincerely,


Mitchell J. Landrieu
Mayor, City of New Orleans

Now...hopefully the design review team considers what would be the best option if the old Charity building is not in play...consolidation of the yet unbuilt VA medical center and the LSU center on the LSU site.  That option would keep many historic homes in the dense VA site from being demolished and it would keep development below S. Galvez Street, which just makes sense.

ADDED: Several hours later, the Times-Picayune catches up with a story on the news.