Florida HB 4087: Gulfport Linear Breakwater Park Project

Bill Text

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An act relating to the Highlands County Hospital 2
District; amending chapter 2004-458, Laws of Florida; 3
providing requirements and duties of the Board of 4
Commissioners of the Highlands County Hospital 5
District before a lease or management agreement with 6
not-for-profit or for-profit corporations; providing 7
requirements for the agreement; providing 8
applicability; authorizing the board to sell the 9
entirety of the assets of the hospital to a not-for-10
profit or for-profit entity under certain 11
circumstances; providing requirements and duties of 12
the board before the sale; providing requirements for 13
the sale agreement; requiring the hospital to file a 14
copy of the sale agreement with the Department of 15
Commerce; requiring the board to notify the department 16
of the sale; providing for judicial reviews; providing 17
for court costs; providing construction; providing an 18
effective date. 19
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Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 21
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Section 1. Section 35 of section 3 of chapter 2004-458, 23
Laws of Florida, is amended, and sections 37 and 38 are added to 24
that section, to read: 25

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Section 3. The charter for the Highlands County Hospital 26
District is re-created and reenacted to read: 27
Section 35. In order that citizens and residents of the 28
district may receive quality health care, the board of 29
commissioners may enter into contract with corporations, either 30
for-profit for profit or not-for-profit not for profit, duly 31
authorized to do business in the state for the purpose of 32
operating and managing such hospital and any or all of its 33
facilities of whatsoever kind and nature and enter into leases 34
with such corporations for the operating of such facilities. The 35
term of any such lease, contract, or agreement and the 36
conditions, covenants, and agreements to be contained therein 37
shall be determined by the board of commissioners. 38
(1) Prior to entering into a lease or management 39
agreement, the Board of Commissioners of the Highlands County 40
Hospital District must elect, by a majority vote of the members 41
present and voting, to commence an evaluation of the benefits to 42
the public of the district, as described in Section 1, of 43
leasing the entirety of the assets of the Highlands County 44
Hospital District to a not-for-profit or for-profit entity to 45
continue to provide health care services to the community if the 46
board executes an agreement that meets the requirements of 47
subsection (6) of this section. In evaluating the benefits of 48
leasing the district assets, the board must find that the lease 49
is in the best interests of the public of the district and must 50

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state the basis of that finding. To make that determination, the 51
board shall: 52
(a) Contract with an independent entity or entities that 53
have at least 5 years of experience conducting comparable 54
evaluations of hospital organizations similar in size and 55
function to the hospital to conduct an evaluation of the 56
benefits of leasing the district assets according to applicable 57
industry practices. A study completed less than 2 years prior to 58
the public notice under paragraph (b) of this subsection that 59
meets all other requirements may be used for the purposes of 60
this evaluation. The evaluation must also include the estimated 61
fair market value, as defined in section 155.40(4), Florida 62
Statutes, of the district assets and a statement signed by the 63
chief executive officer or designee of the independent entity or 64
entities conducting the evaluation that, based on his or her 65
reasonable knowledge and belief, the content and conclusions of 66
the evaluation are true and correct. 67
(b) Publish notice of and conduct a public meeting in 68
accordance with section 189.015(1), Florida Statutes, to provide 69
the public of the district with the opportunity to publicly 70
testify regarding the lease or management agreement. The public 71
notice must contain notice of where the public can find all 72
documents related to the potential lease of the hospital. 73
(2) The board must publish on the hospital district 74
website the evaluation, all documents considered by the board, 75

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