Residents and employees of The Care Center at Sunset Lake in Liberty allege in a lawsuit filed to block the center's closure that county legislators made the decision during a closed-door meeting in March.
On Monday, Ulster County Judge Kevin Bryant issued a temporary injunction and ruled to extend the temporary restraining order that says that Sullivan County must keep the Senior Care Center at Sunset Lake open temporarily.
“Right now, we have an invalid vote. We have a closure that's predicated on an invalid vote. We have a lot of human misery that's being caused by a closure predicated upon an invalid vote,” said Michael Sussman, attorney for the petitioners suing the county.
Sussman argued that the vote to close the care center violated the Open Meetings Law because it was conducted in a closed-door Executive Session on March 26. There is no public record of this meeting, and there is also a question if all the members of the legislature were even present at the vote.
The petitioners, who sued Sullivan County and New York State Department of Health earlier in September over the closure, include a former Care Center resident, her family member, and former care center employees.
The county presented a very different interpretation of the closure on Monday.
According to legal documents, the county voted on March 26 on “nothing more than [to] direct the County Manager to submit a closure plan to the Department of Health for approval.” And said the “public, unanimous roll-call vote” was taken on Aug. 20.
WAMC was present at the Aug. 20 meeting, the day after the County and DOH made the closure announcement.
Residents like Josie Omar, were furious that day and called out the County Legislature for the sudden, heartbreaking announcement.
“So, all of you have a secret meeting or I don't even know what happened, without community input, decide to make this decision to close this nursing home and hide — hide behind a gag order. You cowards, you cowards,” Omar said on Aug. 20.
Meeting minutes for that day do not refer to a vote to close the care center, but do show a resolution to “Authorize a Retention Incentive Program for employees at the Adult Care Center,” which passed unanimously.
The County responded “The ‘public, unanimous roll-call vote’ in August was to give the County Manager the authority to lay off Care Center workers as the closure process warranted. It was not a vote regarding the closure itself.”
The Sullivan County Attorney and Legislature Chairwoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The county, represented by Khalid Bashjawish, Deputy County Attorney for Sullivan County, said according to documents, “the ‘concealment’ petitioners decry was not the County’s choice at all: the Department of Health’s own closure guidelines forbade any public announcement.”
On Monday, Bashjawish said in Ulster County Court, “We don’t pick and choose which guidelines we follow.”
There are 17 residents left at the care center the County said in court on Monday, down from 93 residents a month ago.
Judge Bryant said that all documents and replies for both sides must be submitted by Oct. 19.
