Suffolk votes to sell nursing home

After hours of backroom wrangling, the Suffolk County Legislature early Thursday morning ended its three-year battle over the fate of the county’s nursing home by voting to sell the 264-bed complex for $36 million.

“This is the hardest vote for me personally and for many of my colleagues,” said presiding officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook). “We have tried to stave off the inevitable for many, many years.”

Shortly after midnight, the legislature voted 12-6 in favor of the sale of the John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility in Yaphank to private operator Kenneth Rozenberg only hours before he was demanding that his $1.8 million deposit on the deal be returned.

The deal also will allow a new four-year agreement with the county’s largest union, Association of Municipal Employees — contingent upon the sale — to proceed. That contract gives workers a 2-percent raise this year and next, plus longevity pay and other benefits.

However, lawmakers who unhappily backed the final agreement said they won concessions including $2.3 million in a transition fund for workers who might be displaced or take wage cuts and stronger language and $1 million to protect hard-to-place patients. It will also allow workers already laid off or moved elsewhere in the county to return to work at the nursing home before the transfer takes place by year’s end.

However, the legislative resolution is contingent upon getting a ruling from the Appellate Division, which blocked the closing earlier this week, that the sale does not violate the court order.

Paul Sabatino, an attorney for three nursing home patients and one employee, said he will have to consult with clients on whether to appeal, but said the sale resolution violates the court order and county law.

After the vote, County Executive Steve Levy praised the legislature’s action saying, “Difficult economic times call for strong decision making by elected officials as well as compromise that is necessary to get things done.”

The decision brought tears to nursing home champion Legis. Kate Browning (WFP-Shirley) when she first learned the deal had enough votes to pass.

One former nursing home worker, Peter Mastando, who retired after suffering a heart attack at a legislative meeting last summer, said, “I’m sick. This is going to send a lot of people into tragic situations.”

Legis. DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville) the last vote to join the needed 12 votes for passage, said, “there’s no good solution. We have no money. This is the best of the worst situations.”