Tallahassee has been ablaze with reports, social media posts and public statements regarding behind-the-scenes negotiations on the Florida State University/Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare partnership.
Outlets like the Tallahassee Democrat have reported on Grow Tallahassee’s Bugra Demirel of conducting polls some say are being used to influence public opinion. Emerging political blogs have published articles criticizing other political blog’s coverage of prominent officials. Rumors that a special tax district to fund part of it arose that had political figures including State Rep. Allison Tant criticizing online, accusing Grow Tallahassee of doing behind-the-scenes tactics including the push-poll. The conversation about that potential tax district was quickly snuffed out in a joint statement from Florida State University and TMH.
WFSU’s Tristan Wood spoke to both Rep. Tant and Demirel to get their perspectives on what has been going on, as well as what direction they think the TMH/FSU partnership should go.
This is the interview with Tant.
It has been edited for brevity.
Wood: I saw your social media posts about these behind-the-scenes conversations about the idea of this special tax district. Can you walk me through what happened?
Tant: There's not a real big mystery here. I mean, so Bugra and I are acquaintances, and we were having a conversation, and like, he was calling to tell me that I had gotten Commissioner Williams-Cox's suggestion for a fix on all of this incorrectly, and that's fine, you know? I mean, I know he works very closely with several of our commissioners.
Both of us are frustrated because both of us want a resolution to this issue, both of us, I think all of Tallahassee wants a resolution to this issue. I think we all want a partnership that works. We all want FSU and TMH to work together to expand healthcare access here and bring in specialty practices and enhance the quality of healthcare in our community. I think all of us want the same thing.
This community that has basically carried this hospital for going on 75, 80 years, somewhere in that timeline, to be at the heart of this conversation. I don't want this conversation going on without them.
So, at any rate. We got to talking. And he said, Well, you know, I'm gonna go after the hospital grades, and I'm gonna go after the hospital finances. And then I just kind of wrote it off. There’s two people talking and just getting you know, just frustrated. And then a few hours later, he posted on his Facebook page. The Grow Tallahassee thing about the hospital grades. So I was like, holy cow, you know, she said he was going to do it, and he did.
Then at some point, the Tallahassee Reports article comes out, you know, hitting the CEO on his retirement payout. And then the third thing was that push poll that came out. I got to give the guy credit. He said he's going to do something. And he did it.
Wood: What are your thoughts on that special hospital taxing district idea as a state bill? I know TMH and FSU came out with a statement opposing it.
The good news is, is that citizens were able to know that this was something that may or may not have been on the table. I'm glad to know that we, that everybody's on the record saying we don't want this. We never wanted it. That is a very important thing, especially knowing that going into this legislature in January, that you know we, we have very clear, clear statements on joining me, by the way, in my opposition to a special hospital taxing district.
I was very clear about where I stood on that, like I would if it and my goal was like, Can this be done outside of a local bill? Because as the local bill comes to a state legislative, you know, comes to the delegation, and I mean, in no way, in no scenario would I ever support a local bill that did that.
It could come up from someone else in the legislature, you know, a special act that would come from somebody in leadership. And so I found that one hard to cross that line, since we're talking about, you know, getting rid of property taxes, why we would then authorize a new tax district?
Wood: Why do you think this taxing district idea came up?
Tant: I'm not really sure. I think there's a lot of frustration, and people are all getting tired. I think that everybody's tired on the city side, I imagine everybody's really tired on the we're all the community is. There's a lot of questions that nobody's answered. But in terms of, I'm sure that Tallahassee Memorial board must be just like tired of this whole conversation, because it's been going on since last what, February or March? When, you know, there was a newspaper article we all read that said that the city was selling it, selling the hospital to SSU. That’s how the CEO found out that we were at this juncture.
There’s so many smart people and I think cooler heads need to prevail. I think that we need, there's a lot of cooks in this kitchen, and that I think if we got the right people in the room that can work this out.
I'd like for that to happen for this community that front and center for me is making sure that the community that has basically been at the helm of this for 80 years isn't discarded. That's all I care about, is I want my community heard, and I want them having a role on this
Wood: Why do you think there are so many cooks in the kitchen?
Tant: Well, a Grow Tallahassee in the kitchen, they're telling people that, you know, FSU doesn't like this, or FSU doesn't want that. And then you've got, you know, the city doing their negotiations with FSU. I don't know if whatever this is in negotiations are include the hospital or not. I don't know, because I'm not on the hospital board and I'm not in routine engagement with them, but I really think this ought to be something that's worked out between FSU and TMH, and it ought to be done not through a newspaper article like the way it was announced. And I think it ought to be done with everybody in the room, but I will tell you that it was very comforting to me to get the call from FSU the other night to say, we do not want a hospital taxing district. We don't want it, and we will be vocal about it.
Wood: What does this partnership mean for the community. Like myself, I'm a 26-year-old, lived in Tallahassee for three, four years now. What does partnership mean for people, including young people that live here and want to grow their lives here.
Tant: I think that in the midst of all of this, while all these discussions are going on at one level, everyday Tallahassee citizens are asking the question, well, what's it going to look like?
You know, we people will say one thing about my care was great in the hospital, everything fine. The other ones will say, and I hated it. But meanwhile, we're all assuming there's going to be great change and improvements, or more specialties, or all the things we've all conjectured about, but I don't think we all know nobody, and I don't think I think that's missing from this conversation.
I think that would do a lot for the community if we understood what changes were on the horizon for us under this partnership, what we're going to tackle, what will be like, some of our first steps forward to address health care, you know, either whether it's, you know, more health care options or specialty care, or, you know, new practices, whatever it will be.
I think that it would be, I think people need to know what their health care is going to look like, and all of the things that I have read, and I haven't read everything, okay, so I'll be preface it with that, but I haven't really seen anybody. I haven't seen a description of that anywhere.