Dayton City Commissioners are delaying a vote on a resident initiative to fund and build a public hospital in West Dayton.
Virginia Blackshear, the commission’s clerk, formally announced her recommendation during the body’s Wednesday morning meeting.
“I, the clerk of commission, hereby find the petition submitted by the community clergy coalition was invalid for failure to file a statement of receipts and disbursements. As indicated in Dayton RCGO section 11.06,” Blackshear said.
This is the third time the city has rejected a petition submitted by the Community Clergy Coalition. The group wants the city to put a 1 mill property tax on the November ballot to pay for a public hospital. Ohio law includes a mechanism for a city to levy and to collect a tax towards paying for a public hospital. The group wants the levy for ten years, generating $2 million per year.
“We know $20 million is not enough to build a hospital,” said coalition member Nancy Keihl. “Thus, we’re looking for other funding sources including the state and federal.”
Wednesday morning, the group’s attorney challenged Blackshear’s recommendation to the Dayton City Commissioners. Mark Brown said according to state and federal cases, the petition doesn’t have to be rejected.
“The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees freedom of association. And part of that freedom of association is anonymous association. The Supreme Court has interpreted that to invalidate some donor disclosure laws,” Brown said.
He contended since the First Amendment protects donor identity, they don’t have to be disclosed to the city of Dayton, and anything they use in their activities does not have to be disclosed to the city.
During the two previous petition submissions, the coalition did supply a financial document. According to city attorney Barb Doseck, her team and Brown are talking through these legal questions.
“I think both points are valid. Yes, we had this same group of individuals present this document last time, and now this is a new objection, but we've not used 11.06 recently. Or had to, or faced this type of challenge before,” Doseck said.
The city of Dayton is relying on a case study and cost analysis by Woolpert. It estimates the total cost for a 300-bed hospital is $536 million per year.
However coalition member Kathleen Galt complained this analysis is using a larger bed number than what they propose.
“The Woolpert narrative is a false narrative designed by some of the city officials,” she told commissioners. The coalition says they want something smaller but don’t have a bed count until they know how much money is available for the project.
The coalition secured 1,284 signatures the Montgomery County Board of Elections certified as being valid. The last two times they fell short of the required 1,250.
“We did it. We got enough signatures. But instead of working with us you are opting to shut the whole thing down,” Kiehl said.
Wednesday morning, she urged the commissioners to use their discretion and allow the petition to advance. “Read the legislation and enable people to have the choice to vote. Place this legislation on the ballot and give the power to the people who elected you.”
The Clergy Community Coalition's effort started after the closure of Good Samaritan Hospital on Salem Avenue. Premier Health had operated it, but in 2019 the health network closed the 86-year-old facility. A year later, it was demolished.
The Rev. Rockney Carter, Sr., pastor at Zion Baptist Church in west Dayton, invited city leaders to partner with the coalition for the sake of thousands of low income west Dayton residents needing quality, accessible health care.
“No matter what we do, we do for our people. You do for your constituents. That means you have to be filled with empathy. You ought to be filled with love for the least of these. I'm talking about people who don't have access to quality health care,” Carter said.
