A Freestanding Fight

The district never briefed Barnea -- or any other medical leader -- about the project or its impact on his hospital. He just happened to find out about it at the September 24 board meeting. So he took the podium. "We need to think this through," he told the board. "How is it going to look that we are transporting people with a fleet of ambulances up to Coral Springs -- and bypassing other emergency rooms that are much closer because we wanted to bring them to our sister hospital -- and along the way the patient deteriorates and dies in the ambulance?"

Instead of answering his questions, Commissioner Steven Berrard seemed personally stung by Barnea's complaints. He told the doctor that he should have brought his concerns to the administration first and that he found the criticism "revolting."

Barnea countered: "When I discover this just now and I find the board is going to have a final vote soon, I wish to state my thoughts so commissioners can think about this. If I didn't come forward, then I wonder if anyone else would."

"OK, now you are impugning the integrity of all of us and what we do," Berrard said caustically. "If you want to go down that path, that's fine."

"Not at all. I'm giving you my point of view as a physician... As a commissioner, I'd think you'd want to hear my opinions."

That was basically the end of discussion. The board unanimously approved entering into final negotiations with Strata.

Berrard, of course, knows what he's talking about when it comes to health care. He has sold videos and used cars, after all. For years, Berrard rode a wave of success as billionaire H. Wayne Huizenga's sidekick, running Blockbuster and AutoNation. In 1999, he went off on his own to create a conglomerate of flower shops, like Blockbuster with violets instead of videos. The venture was bankrupt and out of business by late 2002, with investors losing millions. Huizenga's number two went from boy wonder to boy blunder. But he's still sitting on the board, where he was appointed two years ago by Bush, to whom Berrard and his former boss have given thousands of dollars in campaign cash.

Berrard, who didn't return my phone call, and the rest of the board may not have been listening to Barnea at the September meeting, but somebody was. On October 17, the Coral Springs chief of staff received an anonymous package in the mail postmarked from Tampa. In it were documents showing that 52-year-old Russell E. McKinnon, listed as a "principal" of Strata, had been arrested in Pinellas County.

The January 31, 1992, edition of the St. Petersburg Times published this account of McKinnon's alleged crime: "A Treasure Island securities broker was arrested Thursday and charged with soliciting $20,000 from a client... [McKinnon] solicited the money from a Largo resident, saying he could invest the money in a business that promised high yield with few risks. Instead... McKinnon deposited the money in a personal account and used it to buy gifts, deputies said. He was charged with grand theft/investment fraud." McKinnon pleaded no contest and was sentenced in 1992 to five years' probation, which he successfully completed in 1997. The judge withheld adjudication, says his attorney, Jay Hurley. The National Association of Securities Dealers banned him from trading and forced him to pay restitution to the victim, according to the Regulation Intelligence Agency, an oversight group. (The NASD has no record of the banning or restitution.)

Doesn't really seem quite like the type of guy that the district should be doing business with, does it? And the fact that two other Strata principals -- Archie Blair and Gordon Myers -- are former NBHD officials gives the deal an aroma not unlike that of killing night at a sausage factory.

Barnea forwarded this information up the line to district CEO Wil Trower, who refused to comment for this column. McKinnon returned my call, though, and when I asked him about his criminal record, he paused before saying he wouldn't say anything. I asked him if district officials had questioned him about the matter, and he said they hadn't.

Then he referred me to Strata President Charles Rollinson, who serves as a director with Myers of a Plantation-based development company called Lear Associates. "Russ had a small incident happen [many] years ago, and it was expunged, and the records were sealed," Rollinson said, adding that his company was intent on finding the anonymous source of the information. "It's upsetting, because Russ is a phenomenal man and has a reputation as one of the best COOs in the country."

Rollinson refused to discuss the details of the project, though he did contend that Barnea is "misinformed -- and that's why he was shushed at that meeting."

So that's what Berrard was doing -- shushing the doctor. It may have worked in September, but Barnea says he'll keep trying to reform the district. He wants the legislature to look at the system and either have the commissioners elected rather than appointed or create a citizen-oversight committee to police the board.