Friday, September 23, 2011

Vote Christine Quinn Out of Office

The Day Democracy Died : On Oct. 23, 2008, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn strong-armed an extension of term limits through the City Council. Join us for a protest to mark the third anniversary of this egregious act -- help us to register new voters.2011-10-23 Third Anniversary Term Limits Extension Protest - City Hall Park

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Peninsula Hospital Files For Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy filing for Peninsula

Christine Quinn to City : Drop Dead

From Crain's :

Peninsula Hospital and its affiliate, Peninsula General Nursing Home Corp. — which does business as Peninsula Center for Extended Care & Rehabilitation — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. They listed total assets of $34.6 million and liabilities of $70.8 million, as of May 31.

Peninsula recently struck a deal to be managed by an affiliate of Revival Home Health Care, which provided an $8 million line of credit. The bankruptcy was a condition of the transaction. The filing indicates that during the bankruptcy, the hospital and nursing home will not change their current nonprofit status.

Todd Miller, Peninsula's chief restructuring officer as of Sept. 1, said in his affidavit that Peninsula would break even or become profitable “through a change in culture, marketing strategies and by feeding off synergies with Revival's related businesses.” He added that “with a new management team and fresh capital,” Peninsula can boost revenue by attracting patients who now only use the hospital for emergency care.

Mr. Miller said new management would try to tempt residents with new offerings of cardiac services, more surgery capabilities and improved oncology services. He said Revival management believes “neither the hospital nor the nursing home were aggressively managed in recent years and that implementation of new procedures will result in significant savings as well as increased revenues.”

To boost revenue, the hospital is recruiting a new case manager who will tackle the institution's higher-than-average length of stay. Mr. Miller also said the hospital was building new relationships with home care agencies and nursing homes to more quickly obtain placement for its patients.

The Revival team also is targeting purchasing and maintenance procedures, which it labeled “inefficient.” Added Mr. Miller: “Properly managing these procedures and vendor relationships will generate significant savings.”

Peninsula signed an engagement letter with Alvarez & Marsal on Aug. 29 for the firm to provide the hospital with consulting, restructuring and financial advisory services at an initial cost of $160,000.

Peninsula's payroll obligations, excluding benefits, for the 30 days following the filing are $3.6 million, with $2.77 million in payroll for the hospital and the rest for the nursing home. The hospital employs 134 doctors, four administrators and 551 other workers. The nursing home employs two doctors, two administrators, 36 registered nurses and 207 other workers.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Ed Koch LGBT Traitor

David Mixner : "Ed Koch is a traitor to the LGBT Community." Like, duh, we already know that. What about you, Mr. Mixner ?


David Mixner, an LGBT equality activist who sometimes sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for staying on Christine Quinn's good side, took issue with ex-NYC Mayor Ed Koch for helping to elect Republican Bob Turner :

In the special election to fill former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner's seat, a strong anti-marriage Republican Bob Turner is leading. In good part he has gained credibility by the endorsement of former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch who wants to send a message to Israel. Really? Let's elect an anti-LGBT Republican on the back of our community for Israel? Wouldn't it be easier for Mayor Koch just to call the President instead of sacrificing our rights for another issue?

This is not the first time that Mayor Koch has betrayed the LGBT community. During his mayoral administrations, Mayor Koch refused to pull out all the stops to help AIDS patients during the 1980's. Many activists see the source of the betrayal in the fact that Mayor Koch is a gay man, himself.

On Facebook, several activists were outraged by the former mayor's latest example of treachery, but these activists were not surprised.

"Former Mayor Ed Koch, a closeted gay man and a paid consultant of Mayor Bloomberg, endorsed Tea Party candidate Bob Turner, George W. Bush and Christine Quinn," said Donny Moss. "Strange that Koch is a registered Democrat who supports very conservative candidates."

Meanwhile, for Mr. Mixner to attack Mayor Koch for endorsing Mr. Turner is kind of like the pot calling the kettle black, for Mr. Mixner has yet to take any steps to hold neither Mayor Michael Bloomberg nor City Council Speaker Christine Quinn accountable for failing to investigate the NYPD for its pattern of sexual orientation profiling against gay men.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Campaign Slush Fund Reminder

The New York Times Editorial to Christine Quinn : Shut Down Your Slush Fund !



Last week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was hand-picking Christine Quinn to be his heir to the mayoralty of New York City, because Quinn's use of a taxpayer slush fund for political corruption reminded him so much of Bloomberg's three-tiered campaign finance scheme.

Quinn, who is the Speaker of the City Council, is the openly-lesbian politician, around whom many LGBT New Yorkers are rallying around, even though Quinn has had one of her friends diagnose LGBT civil rights activists with ''confusion,'' and this on top of the fact that Quinn has done nothing to investigate the illegal NYPD raid on the Eagle Bar, just some of the many examples of how Quinn has thrown valid LGBT issues under the bus.

Is Christine Quinn going to hold the NYPD accountable for raiding the Eagle on the very night when marriage equality became law ? What kind of an LGBT leader is she, if she does not fight for our LGBT civil rights ? Join our Facebook page : Gays Against Christine Quinn.