From the campaign of Bruce Paterson
Candidate for Union County Freeholder

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Runnells Hospital - Opposition's False Accusations

Let me first say that us four Republican candidates are in total agreement that we were maliciously slandered on the Runnels Hospital issue at the Freeholder debate, held last Wednesday at Cranford council chambers. Our Democrat opposition in the closing minutes of the debate twice stated a claim that was completely false. If you watched you could only agree that they fabricated a lie. Wait for the reruns on channel 35.

Two members of the opposition, one a long-term sitting Freeholder, which makes their lie even more egregious, closed by saying that we Republican challengers are going to sell off the county owned Runnels Hospital in Berkeley Heights. They read this from prepared closing speeches which, I can only assume they thought we were going to say, but the question never came up in the debate. They should have edited their statement, but left it in only to cause malicious slander against us.

For the record, we have internally discussed Runnells hospital and, once we four are Freeholders, will address this issue. We recognize Runnels Hospital as a premier cornerstone of valued medical service for Union County residents. It has been that way since it's founding many years ago. This hospital is unrivaled in latest state of the art medicine, psychiatric services and medical technology and serves as a low cost provider of medical services to the county residents. Even our Democrat opponents agree to that.

However, under the present Democrat Freeholder regime this hospital has been a money loser every year. The interesting thing is that for the past two years, the all-Democrat Freeholder board kept saying that it has been losing money. Last year it was $6 million in the red. This lost money of course is offset by the tax increases that they burden on the Union County residents. But this year the opposition claims in their campaigning the hospital is working in the black. No change of direction was created, no additional fees, or beds that were filled. It is miraculously profitable, but many numbers from this all-Democrat freeholder board appear miraculous.

We have discussed 2 concepts regarding Runnels, which we would propose. One- Once on the board, we have access to internal records and data. We would review the administration and operation as to uncover any waste based on industry metrics. To us their normal way of operating the county government is very wasteful. Two- Create a public/ private enterprise. Possibly have a Health organization with focused medical expertise run the hospital. We would own the building; they would run the daily business operations. During negotiations for this transaction, we would demand input as to patient allocation, keeping county residents as a priority and at the present rate. (Or if we decide to forgo any profitable revenues, we could use this to even decrease the present bed and medical costs.) This second concept could create the following: Automatically receive set revenues from the Health organization making the hospital profitable to the county residents and finally offset the taxes. This the democrat freeholder board couldn't achieve. Also the organization running the business would achieve a more efficient structure of operation, which the freeholder board couldn't achieve either. The transition would hopefully be easy, keeping the present personnel on board, since they know the workings of the hospital.

The team of Joe Renna, Patricia Quattrocchi, Frank Arena and Bruce Paterson for Union County Freeholders "think outside the box" to mitigate tax impacts while serving our Union County residents. Vote for all 4 of us in November. To learn about the issues or to contact us please visit our website at unioncountygop.org or call at 908-789-0200.