Hospital bailout vote, and deadline, is Tuesday

The Clayton County Commission will vote again Tuesday on a $40 million bailout for the Southern Regional Health System.

This is the Riverdale’s hospital last chance to receive financial assistance or risk massive cuts — or possibly closing. SunTrust gave the 331-bed hospital until Tuesday to find $40 million or risk defaulting on a loan.

Last month, the commission voted against backing the hospital, saying it had too many questions and the county’s finances were unstable.

Since then, hospital chief executive officer and president Edward Bonn has resigned and the hospital has agreed to put more money in a reserve account to assure the county doesn’t end up paying the hospital’s debt.

The hospital has also agreed to pay the county back any money it puts up — something that was not in the initial proposal, said Edmund Wall, the county’s financial adviser.

Wall said he was pleased with the changes in the proposal, but said he is still uncomfortable with SunTrust’s 12 percent interest rate.

Although the hospital has promised those changes, County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell said he has not received anything in writing.

“We’re voting on the same resolution we denied before that represented an insufficient number of protections for the county,” Bell said Monday. “My job is to protect the county’s resources while providing it with hospital services. But I still have some serious concerns about the hospital’s management.”

Hospital spokesman Charlie Hayslett said a written proposal has been given to the county.

SunTrust ordered Southern Regional to pay off its loan after the hospital violated several bond requirements, according to a hospital audit. The violations included failure to keep enough cash to operate the hospital for 90 days and not keeping enough money for debt service, Hayslett said.

“All of our debt payments were made on time,” Hayslett said.

The hospital violated the bond requirements because of losing money on investments in the troubling economy, Hayslett said.

The commission will vote Tuesday on a proposal to fire Wall.

The commission hired Wall, the former MARTA board chairman, in October to handle the county’s investments. Wall previously spent about 20 years as a financial consultant for Clayton.

Wall said he has not heard any negative feedback from commissioners and was surprised some want him fired.

“I’m saddened that the new three-person majority of the commissioners don’t want my advice after 20 years of institutional knowledge,” Wall said Monday.

At the time of his hire, some commissioners expressed concern about Wall’s pending public indecency charges. Wall was arrested in March 2007 for allegedly having sex in a Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport bathroom. Wall is scheduled to appear in Clayton County Superior Court Feb. 23.