Suffolk could have to pay nursing home buyer $3M

County Executive Steve Levy's proposed $36-million sale of the county nursing home in Yaphank includes payback provisions that could net the buyer as much as $3 million.

The most costly element would allow nursing home operator Kenneth Rozenberg to recoup $2.2 million because the county, in seeking proposals, said it had 60 adult day care slots at the John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility, even though its state license lists only 24. The proposed contract, however, credits the buyer with $61,111 for each slot less than 60.

Levy aides say the potential payments have been factored in to the county's estimated $60 million in net savings over five years. They add the payments will not come from the sale money, but instead from an estimated $12 million in receivables owed to the county at sale time.

However, Cheryl Felice, president of the Association of Municipal Employees, which represents 6,500 county workers including those at the home, said it's just the latest evidence of a "fatally flawed" bidding process. "The whole thing is a shell game," she said.

Mark Smith, a Levy spokesman, countered the process was "transparent" and included county lawmakers. He warned sale opponents would hurt "many more county workers" if Levy "is forced to include hundreds of layoffs in his 2011 budget."

Levy aides say the problem was uncovered only last month, amid sale negotiations. Top aide Christopher Kent said the county has applied to get state authority to enlarge Foley's adult day care operation to 60. "We hope to rectify the situation," he said.

The county received a letter from the state in 1998 allowing 60 registrants in the day care program, but later learned only 24 were permitted to be getting services at any particular time. Aides added the payments would decrease if day care slots increase during the next five years.

The contract also requires the buyer be paid to process the $12 million in receivables. The buyer will get the first $750,000 of any receivables and 2.5 percent of all collection after that - about $300,000.