Group offers TGH help getting funds

By DAVID KARP and WAYNE WASHINGTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 18, 2000

TAMPA -- One day after Bruce Siegel stepped down as president of Tampa General Hospital, a bipartisan group of business leaders said they would support a plan to give the hospital $10-million a year in public money.

But the plan came with a catch:

To get the public funds, the hospital should open some of its financial records and rearrange its private governing board to let more community leaders join.

"It's a quid pro quo," said Ike Tribble, a co-chair of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce group offering to help the hospital.

If the hospital won't give ground on that issue, the group will disband and leave the hospital on its own. "It's a deal breaker," Tribble said.

The group also wants the hospital to allow a financial expert chosen by the chamber to examine the hospital's books.

In return, a powerful array of business leaders, including former Gov. Bob Martinez, a Republican, and lawyer Bill McBride, a Democrat who is managing partner of the Holland & Knight law firm, will campaign to get the hospital the tax support it says it desperately needs.

Tampa General has lost about $29-million since Siegel took the 877-bed hospital on Davis Islands private in 1997. Siegel stepped down Wednesday.

With Siegel gone, the chamber's campaign will try to convince lawmakers that Tampa General deserves the same tax funds other teaching hospitals in Florida receive.

Members of the private hospital board said they would look hard at the proposal.

Elected officials, who have resisted tax support while Siegel remained Tampa General's president, called Thursday's proposal progress.

"I think it's a good sign," County Commissioner Jan Platt said.

State legislators said the hospital will need to accept some public accountability if it wants public support. Just replacing the hospital's president won't be enough.

"I'm not really sure what has been accomplished here," state Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said about Siegel's departure. "I have not really heard anything about plans except there is a new guy who was part of the old regime."

State Rep. Sandra Murman, R-Tampa, had similar concerns.

"You hate to see things like that happen," she said of Siegel's departure, "but it's probably the best move given the communication and public relations problems they were having. The next thing I would say is, has the management really changed? Or, are we playing a chess game with one pawn moved?"

Commissioner Pat Frank urged the chamber to conduct its campaign in the open, rather than try to cut a deal with hospital board members in private.

"Let's get all the cards out on the table so everyone understands what we are dealing with," Frank said. "I don't want any of this stuff in the dark."

McBride, the chamber chairman, pledged that the chamber would operate as openly as possible, but he did not let reporters into a chamber board meeting Thursday. Opening the meeting would have been messy since chamber leaders were still editing their proposal.

The chamber's proposal does not urge the hospital to disclose as much information as a circuit judge required in a public records lawsuit between Tampa General, the St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune.

The newspapers won the lawsuit, but the hospital has appealed.

McBride's law firm is representing the Tribune in the case, but McBride said he will wear "different hats" as the firm's managing partner and chamber chairman.

Under the chamber's proposal, the hospital could voluntarily release records "for a reasonable period of time" without giving up any legal rights in the lawsuit, McBride said.

But the proposal did not say what was "reasonable," who could ask for records, or whether financial records including such things as Siegel's severance package with the hospital.

- Times staff writer Steve Huettel contributed to this report.

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