For Immediate Release July 9, 2013 For More Information Contact: Tim Nichols ALBANY COUNTY LEGISLATOR URGES

COMPROMISE ON NURSING HOME Albany County Legislator Tim Nichols (D-Latham) is urging County Executive Dan McCoy to approve legislation passed by the legislation last night that could lay the groundwork for hiring a management consulting firm for the countys nursing home. We have a great opportunity to forge a compromise regarding the nursing home, Nichols said. This commonsense, middle-of-the-road proposal will bring in a management firm that can help us immediately start saving taxpayer dollars and help us put the nursing back on a path to sustainability. The plan, based on a response by the firm, Lowell Feldman, Martin Liebman and Larry Slatky, to an RFP issued last year, would allow the firm to come into the county, offer guidance and advice on ways to raise revenue for the nursing home and bring down costs. Eventually, under a Local Development Corporation (LDC) one member of the firm, Larry Slatky, would be the day-to-day operator of the nursing home. This firm has decades of experience running high quality nursing homes and these guys are leaders in their industry, Nichols said. Mr. Slatky was recently named Nursing Home Administrator of the Year nationally because of the success he has had running Nassau Countys nursing home. We have a great opportunity to start making progress immediately with our nursing home if only County Executive Dan McCoy would see the wisdom of compromising. Nichols said that McCoys original proposal goes too far because it would completely privatize the nursing home by giving it to a forprofit conglomerate called Upstate Services Group (USG) while at the same time providing USG with a corporate welfare check of $10 million. The idea that we not only give away an invaluable county asset, our nursing home, but then underwrite the risk for the buyers by handing them a $10 million corporate welfare check is outrageously extreme and a non-starter with most Democratic lawmakers, Nichols said Should the proposal somehow make it through the Legislature, labor unions will file lawsuits that will delay the implementation of entire plan. That is what is happening right now in Suffolk County. Nichols said the departure of the current nursing home director, Gene Larabee, and the fact that labor union contracts expire at the end of this year means now is the best time to act. We can bring this team aboard now with Mr. Larabees departure, working with our labor unions on their contracts and start making real progress, Nichols said. Or McCoy can dig in, continue fighting,

continue complaining about the costs of running the nursing home, and get us nowhere fast. Its his move.