Mayor Bach Statement Regarding Proposed Memorial Health System Lease Agreememt
Monday, June 11, 2012
“The proposed lease of Memorial Health System to the University of Colorado Health System, as summarized by our City Attorney’s Office today, is a grand slam opportunity for our community. The agreement offers a combination of benefits including receiving a higher level of quality care and fair compensation for our investment and tenure with the hospital. Also, current Memorial Health System employee jobs will be maintained and our obligations to patients in need will be fulfilled.
The additional opportunity of having a branch of the University of Colorado Medical Center at the UCCS campus, as well as having local control with seven of the eleven seats of the new board being residents of El Paso County, are pluses.
The one remaining key element will be finalization of a plan to segregate and carefully manage the lease proceeds from this transaction. It will be important that there is joint City Council/Mayor oversight of this plan. There are discussions ongoing between the City Council Task Force and me on how to best do that. I look forward to these discussions resulting, in the very near future, in a formal agreement between City Council and myself that we will then present to the public.”
