A quick internet check by LBREPORT.com indicates:

• College Health Enterprise's website describes the firm as a "privately held healthcare management company [founded in 1986] that specializes in the operation and management of psychiatric and medical/surgical hospitals as well as partial hospitalization programs ("PHP")."

• "AMHC Healthcare" has a website that describes the firm as "Serving the Greater Los Angeles Metro Area, the AHMC Healthcare Inc. affiliated hospitals provide comprehensive health services" with further information at this link.

• A number of entities share names similar to "Fountain" and "Health" leaving us currently uncertain to what entity it pertains

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The item is agendized as a closed Council session, citing CA Government Code Section 54956.8 which allows the Council to meet outside of public view "prior to the purchase, sale, exchange, or lease of real property by or for the local agency to grant authority to its negotiator regarding the price and terms of payment for the purchase, sale, exchange, or lease." (Before entering the closed session, the Council will hold an open (usually brief) public session in which it "identifies its negotiators, the real property or real properties which the negotiations may concern, and the person or persons with whom its negotiators may negotiate" and allows public comment, if any.)

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However, Councilman Daryl Supernaw appeared to suggest in his May 11 weekly e-mailed "newsletter" that he and the Council can hear and discuss more behind closed doors:

[Supernaw May 11 newsletter text] The May 15th City Council update [on Community Hospital] we announced last week [Supernaw's May 4 newsletter indicated a May 15 study session] will actually be a closed session. Other than public comment, the proceedings will be held outside the council chamber due to the 'real estate negotiations' aspect of the item. We are anticipating a full report from City staff on potential hospital operators, our recently-hired architectural firm and State legislation.

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[LBREPORT.com perspective: LBREPORT.com doesn't believe the Council can receive a "full report" outside of public view under the Brown Act's real estate-negotiation exception to open meetings. On December 27, 2011, the office of the state Attorney General -- then-under Kamala Harris (now US Senator)] -- issued Opinion No. 10-206 stressing the limited scope of what can be discussed under the Brown Act's real estate-negotiation exception to open meetings. In the public interest, LBREPORT.com cites salient portions of state Attorney General's opinion below [footnotes omitted].

...[We] reject the argument that closed-session discussions may extend to issues that might affect the economic value of the transaction, or what might be called "the price that the local agency is willing to pay or accept." It is undoubtedly true that any number of issues might fall into this broad category -- for example, the availability of easements on the subject property, or credit worthiness of the buyer or seller, or the financial condition of the local agency itself. But we cannot agree that collateral matters of this sort fall within the meaning of the statutory exception such that they may be discussed out of public hearing. We believe that such an expansive reading of what is meant by "price" would render virtually meaningless the phrase "terms of payment," because payment terms themselves commonly affect the price that a party may be willing to pay or accept. We are not free to construe a statute in a manner that would render any words or phrases redundant.

...[F]or the reasons stated, we can not accept the view that the real-estate-negotiations exception permits the closed-session discussion of any and all aspects of a proposed transaction that might have some effect on price and payment terms. The purpose of the exception is to protect a local agency’s bargaining position, not to keep confidential its deliberations as to the wisdom of a proposed transaction.

For the reasons stated, we conclude that the real-estate-negotiations exception to the open meeting requirements of the Brown Act permits the closed-session discussion of: (1) the amount of consideration that the local agency is willing to pay or accept in exchange for the real property rights to be acquired or transferred in the particular transaction; (2) the form, manner, and timing of how that consideration will be paid; and (3) items that are essential to arriving at the authorized price and payment terms, such that their public disclosure would be tantamount to revealing the information that the exception permits to be kept confidential.]

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Councilman Supernaw's May 11 newsletter included a link to a May 8 city management status update memo on Community Hospital. The document linked in Supernaw's newsletter is four pages, but the entire document with attachments totals 25 pages. The full 25 page document can be viewed here.

Developing.

Related LBREPORT.com coverage: For Now, Community Hospital Has No Sac'to Safety Net As Assembly Health Committee Chair Declines To Vote On O'Donnell Seismic Safety Delay Bill Without Seismic Plan, Gives City Some Add'l Time But Says Ball Is In City's Court

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