The Senate easily passed three pieces of legislation aimed at governing Grady Memorial Hospital Thursday, the first bills of the session to deal with restructuring the cash-strapped hospital system.

Senators voted to create a legislative oversight committee that will periodically review operations at Grady. They also voted to prohibit people with financial ties to the Atlanta hospital from serving in a governing capacity and to encourage Grady employees to seek medical treatment at Grady.

The Grady board has agreed to a plan to transfer daily management of the hospital to a non-profit corporation in expectation of millions of dollars in private donations and additional state funding.

The Fulton County Board of Commissioners signed off on that plan on Wednesday. The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners will vote on the plan Tuesday. That approval would clear the way for the Grady board and the nonprofit to sign the lease agreement finalizing the management restructuring. Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) has taken the lead on Grady legislation in the Senate.

"These are all common sense proposals and good first steps," Shafer said.

Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) said the oversight committee is unnecessary. Fort, who has been working with the Grady Coalition, said the "technical approaches" of the legislation are "irrelevant unless Grady and other hospitals that serve the poor have the money to treat those that need it."