Keating, O’Gara attorney Gary Young has continued to battle for the citizens of Lancaster County in a lawsuit alleging that the county failed to follow the law that required a public hearing before selling Lancaster Manor.
From the Journal Star:
Judge to decide if county board followed rules on Lancaster Manor sale
By ALGIS J. LAUKAITIS
Lincoln Journal Star
February 8, 2010After a one-day trial on Monday, a taxpayer’s fight to stop the sale of Lancaster Manor is now in the hands of District Judge Karen Flowers.
Kim Kaspar sued the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners in late December, alleging it failed to comply with state laws that require the county to sell the manor for fair market value and to the highest bidder, and to give proper notice of a sale and hold a public hearing.
Kaspar alleges the board sold the 293-bed nursing home for less than its appraised value of $10.2 million and gave the buyer, Hunter Management of Evanston, Ill., “a sweetheart deal.”
The Lancaster County Board used an appraised value of $9.5 million and deducted $1.45 million for operational concerns at the manor. The final selling price was $8.05 million. The board also put $1 million into a reserve fund for future capital improvements.
“The citizens were substantially harmed by the sale,” Kaspar’s attorney, Gary Young of Lincoln, said in his opening remarks.
Kaspar has opposed the sale of the manor as a taxpayer and as president of the local labor union that once represented more than 300 manor employees. She hopes to stop the sale of the manor before it is finalized March 1. The manor was turned over to Hunter Management on Jan. 1.
“We would like the sale to be done right,” Kaspar said in an interview during a court break.
Young is asking the judge for a”writ of mandamus” to undo the sale and lease agreement between the county board and Hunter Management, and to order the board to follow state laws that require the county to declare the manor as surplus property, give proper notice to the public and hold a public hearing.
None of those things were done by the board, which authorized the sale with a 4-0 vote on Dec. 8 . . . .
One of the key points brought out during the trial was that the board sold $2 million in accounts receivable (or bills that are owed) to Hunter Management for $800,000.
In an interview, Workman explained they did so because the $2 million in bills were more than 245 days overdue. He said the Rothner family, which owns Hunter Management, had not bought accounts receivables in the past.
“I felt they were doing us a favor,” Workman said, adding that there was no good way to collect the bills after the sale. “It wasn’t something they were terribly interested in.”
Young, however, contended that the bills mostly were from state and federal programs that handled Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, and therefore collectable by the county . . . .
Mr. Young was interviewed yesterday by Coby Mach on Drivetime Lincoln.
