The local Hospital District finally had its first substantive, probing discussion about its planned women’s sober home last week, opening the door to the reality that the project might not be viable due to zoning restrictions, financial constraints and the district’s lack of expertise in substance abuse recovery services.
District officials admitted the agency spent nearly $4 million on the sober home property based largely upon verbal assurances obtained during telephone calls with Patrick Murphy, a county senior planner, that residential zoning restrictions which ban provision of any type of medical or healthcare-related services would not be a problem.
But no one apparently thought to submit a $75 application for a “Zoning Confirmation Letter & Code Compliance Determination” from the county.
The Hospital District had designated trustee Karen Deigl to be the sole board member involved in negotiations for purchase of the property – to comply with the restrictions of Florida’s Sunshine Laws – and Deigl defended the due diligence efforts.
“I was part of it and I have to say, the conversation we had, and I’m not an expert and I’m not a planning zoning person but we really talked about what exactly, to the point where, and I can’t remember his name, Patrick was really annoyed with me because I called several times to verify, so it was really vetted,” she said.
“But there’s a difference between a conversation and the kinds of written inquiry that Planning and Zoning operates by, and that’s my concern,” Trustee Paul Westcott replied to Deigl as the board looked over a one-page skeleton plan for the sober home that Executive Director Frank Isele had drafted.
“What I don’t want to do is have us invest in the property, get it running and have a code enforcement complaint that we can’t defend. That would be horrendous,” Westcott said.
“I agree,” said Deigl, who is not a lawyer, noting that the robust discussion the trustees are having now is an important one to undertake.
“We should have very clear and in writing the zoning requirements,” Trustee Chuck Mackett added.
The trustees directed staff to pay the $75 and get the written opinion from the county after a yet-to-be-drafted RFP for a sober home operator is complete, detailing what activities will happen there.
Meanwhile, as the Hospital District belatedly addressed this and other issues involved in establishing a sober home on the property it purchased in December, an actual expert in the substance abuse field, Dr. Wayne Creelman, longtime director of Vero’s now-shuttered UF Health psychiatric facility, addressed the trustees as a member of the public at the March 19 meeting.
Creelman cautioned the trustees about all the yet-to-be-contemplated aspects of owning a 30-bed sober home – even if the Hospital District hires an operator, as is the current plan.
“At any given time, let’s just say, hypothetically, you have 30 women in this facility, and it’s up and running. One, how are they going to pay for their being there? Because as soon as you get into that issue, you get into reimbursement, and as soon as you get into reimbursement, you get into insurance, and then when you get into insurance, you get into certification,” Creelman said.
“That creates another gray zone, because what are these 30 women going to be doing all day?
Now, some will be out in the marketplace working, and, you know, coming home and paying their own bills. Others are going to be struggling, because everyone’s at a different place on the spectrum of sobriety,” Creelman said.
“Groups happen. Gray-zone counseling is going to occur. People are just not going to sit there and watch Fox News all day. So, I mean, I think you have to think through what’s going to be happening with these women at that time,” Creelman said.
“What’s the criteria for them to leave? What’s the criteria for them to enter? All those kind of things that go into sort of outpatient treatment.”
Following Creelman’s comments, Westcott asked, “Is 30 beds sufficient for somebody to come in and do that and have a margin that’s desirable?”
“I don’t know the answer to that question, but in my mind and in the staff’s mind, this was never intended to be a liability,” said Hospital District Executive Director Frank Isele. “This is break even at worst.”
Westcott said he appreciated all the hard work done on the project, but suggested the trustees entertain a potential “off ramp” on the whole sober home project if it turns out to be not a financially sustainable endeavor.
Deigl said that should a sober home not prove viable in that residential location, “we’ve invested in a piece of property that still has the, you know, value.”
But is a forced flip sale of the just-bought property – which is encumbered by an orphanage land use deed restriction through July 2026 – really the worst-case scenario?
Who was supposed to give the district sage legal advice as it navigated this major purchase?
Jennifer Peshke serves as the Hospital District’s legal counsel and her office handled the closing.
Was information material to the real estate transaction kept from some trustees? On Feb. 24, Vero Beach 32963 sent a batch of public records this newspaper had obtained via the County Attorney to all seven Hospital District trustees. Apparently, six had not previously been made aware of correspondence between district staff and county planners stating that “no medical or healthcare related services will be provided to the residents” of the sober home due to the residential zoning.
Was the Hospital District careless or even negligent in not fully examining the zoning restrictions in public as a board before investing taxpayer funds in purchase of the property?
Might a regulatory body such as Florida’s Joint Legislative Auditing Committee – the elected leaders tasked with clamping down on special districts with power to levy property taxes – view the sober home purchase as a dereliction of duty to Indian River County taxpayers? Might this be grounds to review the district’s charter?
These are all questions that remain to be addressed.
