State legislator challenges city's new Children's Hospital
Birmingham Business Journal - by Jimmy DeButts Staff
A state legislator wants assurances Children’s Hospital will include black-owned businesses during and after constructing a new $470 million facility.
Alabama Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, sent letters dated Aug. 18 to the State Health Planning and Development Agency and Children’s Hospital listing her concerns over the proposed facility. She has requested a meeting with Children’s Chief Financial Officer Mike Burgess to discuss how the hospital will better improve pediatric care and if the project will include Historically Underutilized Business Enterprises.
Moore is worried minority-owned businesses will be left out and pledged to stall the state approval process if her concerns are not addressed. Children’s Hospital announced in June it planned to build a 332-bed replacement hospital. It needs a Certificate of Need from the state before it can begin building.
The city of Birmingham has committed $20 million in occupational tax rebates for the new hospital, which will stem from the new jobs created by Children’s expansion. Moore said the city’s majority black population should be included in the hiring and contract process.
“With the amount of money the black community pays in taxes, we have to look at what is the return on that investment,” Moore said. “With that kind of expansion, I want to know if we will be the ones getting the jobs. I want to know what their plans are.”
Children’s said it welcomes public input on its project.
“Children’s representatives will be pleased to meet with Rep. Moore or anyone else who has concerns about this project,” Children’s spokesman Garland Stansell said in a prepared statement. “We have received outstanding community support and look forward to the opening of a new facility that will serve the needs of all children of the state of Alabama for generations to come.”
A Certificate of Need is required when health care providers seek to add new services, beds or build new facilities. Children’s request has not encountered opposition and it could make its plea before Certificate of Need Review Board in October if none of its competitors object. Moore said she wanted to raise her concerns before the Aug. 29 public comment deadline passed.
Virginia-based KLMK Group LLC has been hired to coordinate design and construction operations for the new facility. Hoar Construction LLC and BE&K Inc. will serve as construction managers of the hospital’s proposed expansion.
Birmingham City Councilman Steven Hoyt successfully pushed an ordinance that requires minority inclusion for city contracts. Hoyt said Children’s CEO Mike Warren assured the council he was committed to minority participation in all aspects of the hospital’s expansion.
“We went over that,” Hoyt said. “It was held up until there was an agreement of inclusion. We realize there is a lot of job creation in that. We fully expect him to keep his word. I don’t have any reason to believe he won’t.”
Moore also is looking for guarantees black-owned businesses will be engaged to service the hospital once construction is completed so those business people can serve as role models for the children in the Birmingham community.
“We might not be the lead (construction firm), but we could find a black law firm, a black consultant group or a black financial planner,” Moore said. “Children in my neighborhood don’t aspire to those professions because they don’t see anyone that looks like them doing those jobs.”
Moore said she also is concerned the new facility could be in a response to competitor expansion and not to community need. She originally intended to request a contested case hearing to voice her concerns publicly. SHPDA Director Alva Lambert said only a health care facility within the market of a proposed project can request a hearing before an administrative law judge.
Children’s wants to add more than 700,000 square feet to replace outdated space at its Seventh Avenue South campus. It seeks a replacement hospital to relieve crowding in the current building.
jdebutts@bizjournals.com | (205) 443-5628
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