The Times reports that New York Supreme Court Justice Johnny Baynes, who earlier extended a temporary restraining order against SUNY’s shutdown of Long Island College Hospital, has ruled that the SUNY board acted in violation of New York State’s open meetings law, and vacated the board’s decision to close LICH. According to the Times:

The trustees’ use of a vague notice, a “skeletal statement of purpose in the written agenda,” and the timing of a two-hour closed executive session on Feb. 7, the day before the public vote, “seems intentionally designed to shield the purpose of the meetings from the general public and obstruct the transparency required by the Open Meetings Law,” the decision said, noting that the trustees “are not unsophisticated.”

The story also quotes a SUNY spokesman as saying that “the ruling hinges on a procedural technicality” and that “the board Would move swiftly to fix the problem.” If, as expected, the board again votes to close LICH, the plan must then be submitted to the State Department of Health, which could refuse to approve the closure, as it did a plan by LICH’s former owner, Continuum Health Partners, to close LICH’s obstetrics and pediatrics departments just over four years ago.

Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/8216