A settlement has been reached in a protracted dispute between Erie County and Erie County Medical Center Corp., with a pact that provides for financing of the medical center and for construction of a new health facility in Buffalo.
The agreement, which must be approved by the Erie County Legislature, was announced Wednesday, ending a lawsuit filed by ECMCC in 2005.
The deal outlines what financing will be contributed by Erie County, and includes provisions dealing with building operations/maintenance and employment agreements.
“This settlement agreement is a win for this community in countless ways,” said County Executive Chris Collins. “For taxpayers, it assures a fixed subsidy and defined capital investment for ECMCC, taking a financial unknown off the table and allowing the county to accurately budget and plan for years to come. For ECMCC, it provides an appropriate subsidy in recognition of ECMCC’s growing obligation to care for our community’s most vulnerable citizens.”
Terms of the pact include:
• Erie County will allocate $16.2 million in annual operating funding to ECMCC as long as ECMC remains a public-benefit corporation.
• A replacement for the current Erie County Home in Alden will be built on ECMC’s Grider Street campus, at a cost of approximately $105 million, replacing outdated buildings. In addition to shifting jobs to Buffalo, the new facility will bring development to the city’s East Side.
• ECMCC agrees to reduce the county’s current capital obligation to ECMCC to $11.5 million from $23 million and earmark it toward construction of the new facility on Grider Street. ECMCC will continue to pay the bond debt incurred when the public-benefit corporation was established in 2004.
• The parties have agreed to trade ownership of certain buildings on the Grider Street campus and on plans to demolish eight currently unused structures to make way for future development. After construction of the new Erie County Home, the county will retake ownership of the Alden building.
• Agreement on retirement liability for employees at ECMCC.
The deal paves the way for ECMCC to move forward in a partnership with Great Lakes Health, and on plans to build a Center of Excellence in Organ Transplants and expand orthopedic services.
“As ECMCC works to create a new pre-eminent health-care system with Kaleida and Great Lakes Health, this agreement brings financial certainty that will help us plan for better health care for our patients,” said ECMCC CEO Jody Lomeo.
The settlement was reached after nearly a year of negotiations. In late 2008, Collins appointed a panel to resolve county-ECMCC issues. ECMCC counsel Anthony Colucci III and Erie County Attorney Cheryl Green negotiated the agreement with direction from the county executive and ECMCC leadership.
 Toward the end of the process, Collins and Lomeo met to compromise on larger issues in the agreement. The ECMCC board approved the 17-page agreement Dec. 22.