When Alan Levine
was tapped as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and
Hospitals earlier this year, Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal described him
as a “superstar.” But in a report dubbed “Bleeding Dollars,” the New Times of Broward-Palm Beach, an alternative newsweekly in south Florida, offers another take on Levine.
Before heading to the Pelican State, Levine was the top administrator
at the North Broward Hospital District (prior to that he worked for
another GOP heavyweight — former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush). But when he
left the Florida hospital gig to head further west, Levine left more
than an empty desk behind, according to the New Times. Here’s a sampling from the story :
Levine never moved to Broward, though he got moving
expenses. Not only did Levine, a rising star in national GOP circles,
negotiate a deal that would pay him a hefty $670,000 in salary and
bonuses but he also received a car allowance and a secret $35,000
payment to relocate to Broward County.
It’s the relocation payment — along with a few personal travel expenses
Levine charged to the district — that has caused some controversy at
the district. The hospital agency, which now goes by the name Broward
Health, is supported with taxpayer dollars.
The controversy arises because Levine, who left the district at the
beginning of this year to take a job as Louisiana’s top public health
official, never actually relocated.
The questionable payments to Levine were discovered in a recent review
by the auditing department, and the revelations do more than sully
Levine’s squeaky-clean image. They also provide more evidence of the
district’s dubious spending on high-ranking employees.
The public health system, which runs five hospitals, including flagship
Broward General, often behaves like a big-spending corporation, and
taxpayers, who have pumped $200 million into it, are left holding the
bill.
Levine’s relocation agreement primarily covered the “reasonable cost of
moving the newly recruited employee’s household goods from Tallahassee,
FL to the Fort Lauderdale area,” according to a copy of the document
that he signed on July 19, 2006.
Those household goods, however, stayed in Tallahassee with his wife and
teenaged daughter. Instead of relocating, he rented an apartment and
traveled every weekend to the family home while serving as CEO for the
district.
Further, Levine produced no receipts, though the agreement specifies
that he is to be reimbursed. Despite the lack of documentation, Levine
was paid the $35,000 in a lump sum.
Jeremy, I've done my homework on Levine. Looks like he walked into a cesspool in Broward. THere are a whole bunch of stories from this Bob Norman guy on the corruption that went on there before levine started. You should read all the stuff...its pretty entertaining. Looks like, in the big picture, the guy did a pretty good job cleaning it up.
Are We Really in Good Hands? The outlook for the North Broward Hospital District without Alan Levine is cloudy By Bob Norman Published: January 17, 2008
Alan Levine remembers the morning in 2004 when Jeb Bush got serious about turning around the North Broward Hospital District.
At the time, Levine was Bush's deputy chief of staff in the governor's office. He was at his desk about 7 a.m. when the governor came into his office with a faxed article in hand.
What the heck is going on in Broward? Levine remembers Bush asking him.
The governor tossed the fax to him: It was a New Times story about waste and mismanagement in the public hospital system. And Bush, he says, was steamed. "I'd never really seen Jeb Bush mad."
Levine's life changed dramatically from that morning on. Bush made it Levine's job to turn the district around, working from Tallahassee. Then, at the end of 2006, Levine took control directly, becoming NBHD's CEO.
The ambitious Levine, whose own political aspirations were slowed when he lost a bid for the state House 11 years ago, was never expected to make a career at the district. But when he announced last week that he was leaving Broward to become Louisiana's secretary of health and hospitals, it was still a jolt ââ?¬â? and not a good one.
The 40-year-old executive led the transformation of the tax-assisted district from what was little more than an incestuous mix of corrupt insiders, led by former NBHD General Counsel William Scherer, into what now seems a respectable organization.
Of course, Levine had Bush behind him. The governor replaced all but one member of the district board. Several top executives were fired, including Scherer.
Levine oversaw the restructuring of wasteful contracts, saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. Those cuts were cited by Moody's and by Standard and Poor's when they recently raised the district's bond rating, which has allowed for more tax cuts at the district. It received $160 million from homeowners this year, a steep decline from recent years.
Levine was exactly what the district needed, a well-meaning outsider with a no-nonsense mandate from on high. The question now is whether he leaves the district in a position to build on its gains.
source it, s'il vous plait written by R. Reese Fuller , May 13, 2008 - 02:04 pm
Hey Steven, thanks for joining the conversation. In the future, please provide a source for any articles you reproduce, like the one above from the New Times of Broward-Palm Beach.
Is it a crime for citizens to photograph, video, or take notes of a police officer in the line of duty, or a right protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? Locally, such activity, as witnessed recently, will at the very least result in a night spent behind bars.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
Episcopal School of Acadiana’s Dr. Joshua Caffery, chair of the school’s English Department, is headed to Washington, D.C., and the Library of Congress as the latest winner of the Alan Lomax Fellowship in Folklife Studies.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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Are We Really in Good Hands?
The outlook for the North Broward Hospital District without Alan Levine is cloudy
By Bob Norman
Published: January 17, 2008
Alan Levine remembers the morning in 2004 when Jeb Bush got serious about turning around the North Broward Hospital District.
At the time, Levine was Bush's deputy chief of staff in the governor's office. He was at his desk about 7 a.m. when the governor came into his office with a faxed article in hand.
What the heck is going on in Broward? Levine remembers Bush asking him.
The governor tossed the fax to him: It was a New Times story about waste and mismanagement in the public hospital system. And Bush, he says, was steamed. "I'd never really seen Jeb Bush mad."
Levine's life changed dramatically from that morning on. Bush made it Levine's job to turn the district around, working from Tallahassee. Then, at the end of 2006, Levine took control directly, becoming NBHD's CEO.
The ambitious Levine, whose own political aspirations were slowed when he lost a bid for the state House 11 years ago, was never expected to make a career at the district. But when he announced last week that he was leaving Broward to become Louisiana's secretary of health and hospitals, it was still a jolt ââ?¬â? and not a good one.
The 40-year-old executive led the transformation of the tax-assisted district from what was little more than an incestuous mix of corrupt insiders, led by former NBHD General Counsel William Scherer, into what now seems a respectable organization.
Of course, Levine had Bush behind him. The governor replaced all but one member of the district board. Several top executives were fired, including Scherer.
Levine oversaw the restructuring of wasteful contracts, saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. Those cuts were cited by Moody's and by Standard and Poor's when they recently raised the district's bond rating, which has allowed for more tax cuts at the district. It received $160 million from homeowners this year, a steep decline from recent years.
Levine was exactly what the district needed, a well-meaning outsider with a no-nonsense mandate from on high. The question now is whether he leaves the district in a position to build on its gains.