Valley View to stay in county hands
By Nathan Mayberg
GOSHEN — The court decision that blocked the Orange County Legislature from transferring ownership of the Valley View Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility was upheld by a state appellate court panel on Wednesday.
"The County's remaining contentions are without merit," the judges said in a statement.
That means Valley View will stay in county hands and cannot be transferred to a local development corporation as the legislature did last year.
"This five year shameful saga to get rid of a service for our elderly — so that others could profit off our seniors — is now finally over," said Orange County Legislator Mike Anagnostakis (R-Newburgh), a leading opponent of the privatization push, on Wednesday. "The people have won; corruption has lost!"
Justin Rodriguez, spokesman to Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus, issued a statement on Wednesday that Orange County followed the same model as was successfully leveraged in Ulster County.
“Seeking to privatize a major financial burden on the County made sense," Rodriguez said. "However, we look forward to finding cost-saving efficiencies and working with the Legislature to find innovative ways to become a more fiscally sound government.”
An effort to privatizeOrange County State Supreme Court Judge Elaine Slobod invalidated the transfer last year after attorney Michael Sussman sued the county on the basis that a supermajority vote of the legislature was needed.
The Orange Valley View Development Corporation was requesting bids for a private takeover of the facility when the court ruled the corporation was invalid, stopping the privatization in its tracks.
A privatization of the facility would have meant that hundreds of workers at the nursing facility would have lost their county jobs, which would have affected their pension earnings and government-backed health insurance.
The privatization was backed by Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus. Orange County attorney Langdon Chapman, as well as the law firm of Harris Beach represented the county in the lawsuits.
The hiring of Harris Beach was somewhat of a mystery since the county never paid them or had a contract with them for the lawsuit, according to responses from the county through Freedom of Information Law requests.
They were appointed through the local development corporation to represent the corporation, but not to represent the county.
In their decision on Wednesday, the three-judge panel of Austin Hall, JJ Lasalle and Austin Rivera, all concurred that a two-thirds supermajority of legislators was needed to transfer ownership of Valley View out of the county's hands.
Another attempt by the Orange County Legislature to transfer the ownership of Valley View to private hands by a supermajority vote failed in November.