The Tallahassee City Commission voted 3-2 to move forward with transferring Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare’s assets to Florida State University.
The agreement will have FSU pay Tallahassee $109 million across 30 years for the hospital's property and assets. The school will also commit $100 million to facility upgrades and $150 million to improvements for clinical and academic purposes. It would create an academic health center in town and slowly rebrand TMH to FSU Health.
During the city commission’s public comment period, over two dozen people spoke against the deal. One of them was Jonathan Meyer.
“Once you give the asset up, you lose all leverage no matter how many community members you put on the board,” he said.
Another was Joe Kalicki, who recently filed to run against Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox in August’s primary elections. He thinks the sale price was nowhere near enough.
“TMH currently spends about $1.5 million a year on advertising alone, and I bet that Florida state spends at least that much, if not much more, for their national ads we all see on ESPN during Florida State games,” he said.
Several of people showed up in support of the sale from FSU. Several rows were taken up by FSU Health students, and several university employees and students spoke during public comment. One of them was Danny Alex.
“This agreement creates opportunities for students to learn and train locally, for physicians to practice and teach here, and for Tallahassee to attract medical talent that strengthens care for everyone,” he said.
As for the vote itself, Mayor John Dailey and Commissioners Curtis Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox backed the sale. They cited wanting to transform healthcare offerings in Tallahassee and the Panhandle over time.
Commissioner Jeremy Matlow opposed it, saying significant growth in healthcare offerings isn’t guaranteed with the sale. He also thinks the price tag is too low.
“Open it up to competitors. What are nonprofits willing to pay? What is the private industry willing to pay? And while I don't necessarily support going down those paths, but that is the way to determine if we're having similar negotiations with others, and not negotiating with just one predetermined buyer,” he said.
Matlow kept pushing for a full appraisal for the property and that effort died in a 2-3 vote.
TMH CEO Mark O’Bryant said the academic health center will create more healthcare offerings, even if expansion under the new model takes time.
“We can do a heck of a lot more than what we're doing now, if we can create the right type of platform that's where education and research comes into play,” he said. “We can start pinpointing these areas that make sense now and then, as we grow those populations, as we strengthen our relationship with these outlying communities, then we can start targeting more specialized service services.”
The commission will hold a final hearing on the issue in March on whether they will finalize the transfer.