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Katzenberg Says He Gets "Failing Grade" on MPTF
Jeffrey Katzenberg, who chairs the MPTF Foundation board, said Wednesday, “We give ourselves a failing grade" in handling the hospital closure.
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The Motion Picture & Television Fund acknowledged today that it had done a poor job of explaining the reasons why it is closing the long-term care facility and hospital at its Woodland Hills retirement home, but insisted it had no choice in a difficult economic climate.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Dreamworks Animation chief who chairs the MPTF Foundation board, said of the organization’s public communications over the past three weeks: “We give ourselves a failing grade. This has not been communicated well.”
Update:
Several hours after the audio conference, about 50 family members and union activists held a candle-light vigil outside the MPTF’s front gate urging the board to reverse its decision and keep the long-term care facility and hospital open.
“This is not a done deal,” Hans Johnson, an organizer with the Service Employees International Union told the crowd. “When we show up, when we let our lights shine, we can reverse what they say is an irreversible decision.” (At left, Hans Johnson. Photos by Andrew Gumbel.)
Relatives of the residents facing eviction have retained the fearsome Los Angeles litigation firm Girardi & Keese, which has previously won settlements from Merck over problems with its best-selling anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx, and was also instrumental in the suit against Pacific Gas & Electric depicted in the film Erin Brockovich.
Protesters reported that a rumor went round the MPTF campus last weekend that Brockovich herself was about to show up. Security guards closed all but one gate and brandished 8 x 10 photographs of the legal activist so they could prevent her from gaining access to the threatened home. She never showed.
Speakers at the vigil expressed anger, not relief, at the explanations MPTF officials gave at the audio conference. “They’re just trying to confuse you,” retirement home worker and activist Myra Torres said in an impassioned speech. She said the executives were treating their charges like pets more than humans. “Why did they continue to accept residents if they knew the closures were coming?” she asked. “These are people who sold their homes, or who spent their lives paying contributions, so they could live here.” (At left Paul Kissner.)
Earlier:
The MPTF assembled a group of industry heavy-hitters including Katzenberg, MPTF chief executive David Tillman and MPTF corporate board chairman Frank Mancuso, for an audio news conference.
The news conference came a day after TheWrap ran a two-part investigative series on the closures, and apparent inconsistencies between the Fund’s public statements and its official financial documents.
Katzenberg said the home faced a “triple storm”: a decline in Medi-Cal payments triggered by California’s budget crisis, a decline in the Fund’s investment portfolio in the wake of the collapse on Wall Street and an anticipated drop-off in charitable giving to the home.
But the MPTF officials gave only superficial answers when asked why they had announced the closures without warning.
They did not explain why a document prepared by the Camden Group analyzing the MPTF’s financial situation and laying out the case for closure had been kept confidential, and why they had not even waited to see if the Hollywood community could raise funds to make up an anticipated multi-million dollar shortfall for 2008 and 2009.
David Tillman, the fund’s chief executive, said the home had been facing $20 million deficits since 2004 – around $10 million from operating the hospital and long-term care facility and another $10 million from the rest of the MPTF’s activities.
Comments
Gag134 Says
The board is in a unique position. Their cover is blown, the fumbling, embarrassingly disjointed statements of their COO Seth Ellis last night in a KNBC news story, and the momentum that the families are gaining in swaying the opinions of the industry are going to force their hand - to do the right thing.games
Carter Says
please check out YOTUBE, a video that's titled 'SAVING the HOME' and also Keith Oblermann's Worse People-one of which is Tillman
Whatyoutalkin' Bout Willis Says
Gee, if only they had access to billionaires that own mega-studios that probably wipe their asses with the amount it would take to fix this.
That would be a Dream(Works SGK).
Maybe they could call it the MPTF SGK?
Jeffrey K Says
Perhaps a movie maker out there would like to take an Option on this story:
130 entertainment Industry seniors as old as 101,104 and 108 who believed they were part of something and matter to the world are uprooted by their "Industry Family" and given 60 days to start to get out of their homes. Wild guess what happens to them - you think maybe death and fear and further mistreatment? There are next to no medi cal beds available in the city. Any place that may have a few at this stage are disgusting. Can you imagine the care at these "for profit" nursing homes in this economic climate.
Shame on the big stars for their silence in the face of evil. Not even willing to keep them around to live out their lives in peace, with the illusion that they count.
In order to keep the older healthier seniors in the Assisted Living facilities "in check", when "explaining the closure of Long Term Care, "David Tillman CEO [can't put MD after his name, it would be a sin] told a large group of them, "When the Long Term Care Facility is Closed, we [the Motion Picture & Television Fund"] are going to build you a Smoothie and Coffee Shop [couldn't make this up].
Any offers for the movie rights?
Carter Says
Names of the people responsible for what will happen, "an irreversible decision"...
Dr. David Tillman, President, Chief Executive Officer
MPTF Corp @ Saban Center Office
23388 Mulholland Drive, Mailstop 200
Woodland Hills, 91364
David.Tillman@mptvfund.org
(818) 876-1767-office
(818) 876-1371-fax
Seth Ellis, Vice President, Chief Operating Officer
address-same as above, specify Mailstop 63 for Seth Ellis
Seth.Ellis@mptvfund.org
(818) 876-1043-office
(818) 876-1079-fax
Jan Zlotowicz, Vice President, Human Resources
address-same as above, specify Mailstop 24 for Jan Zlotowicz
Jan.Zlotowicz@mptvfund.org
(818) 876-1549-office
(818) 876-1399-fax
A special thanks to THEWRAP.COM for joining us in the fight to save the home and get some answers for those who deserve to know the truth...
mikeslade Says
Only in LA ...
Carter Says
I am directly affected by the closure of the Long-term care units and of the hospital itself... I am a nurse in charge of approx. 20 residents who are sick, fragile, and in need of 24/7 nursing care. Since the announcement, nothing has been the same. I constantly worry for them in hopes that someone can save them (our voices and requests to somehow help with donations and fund-raising have continously gone unheard, Tillman says It's not necessary!)-most residents don't have families, they depend on us to help them just get through the day-at that age, they want to know that everything will be out of routine, they want to feel safe and secure... we hear them cry and withdraw from what they stand to lose... a HOME!!! What the hell is on this man's mind to think he can initiate this with what was started by the people for the people of THE INDUSTRY! He hasn't told the media/board members/big-time contributors what they really need to know-the STAFF and those families know what has happened here-THE BOTTOM IS LINE IS PROFIT!!! They said that On Jan.14 when the announcement was made that there wouldn't be any changes for approx. 60 days-residents and staff have til March 14th- YEAH RIGHT- Changes are being made, slowly but surely, he is turning the HOME into his very own Profit.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
If you ever donated into the fund, your check should have been made out directly to DR. DAVID TILLMAN and ADMINSTRATORS!!! We see where all of JODIE FOSTER's millions went to - The new Saban Swimming Center. By the way JODIE, when they cashed your check, did they tell you that it might actually benefit the residentsby replacing beds that actually work or equipement that wasn't made in the freaking 70's, or maybe by getting Tillman out of the office and bringing in someone with a beating heart and warm red blood running through him/her- at least some sign that would indicate that they are HUMAN!!! The next time around with all the new and improve ideas that Dr. Tillman has for the FUTURE OF MOTION PICTURE he should have included to walk right along with us (140+ residents who are expected to be rolled out while still in their beds and 290+ employees who may be pushing them [by Doctor's Orders-BY DR. TILLMAN'S ORDERS that is] to other facilities to ensure a safe and worry-free transition... With the involvement of resident's families and their LAWYERS-I hope that if the worst does happen, we will walk and see David Tillman following us with SHAME knowing he could have done more and taken less!!! SHAME ON YOU!!!
We Toss Out Our Own Says
The board is in a unique position. Their cover is blown, the fumbling, embarrassingly disjointed statements of their COO Seth Ellis last night in a KNBC news story, and the momentum that the families are gaining in swaying the opinions of the industry are going to force their hand - to do the right thing.
It's not too late Jeff and Co. to reassess the situation. You can come out smelling like roses. Your projections that the fund will be in trouble in '5 to 10 years' is going to outlive probably 90% of those in Long Term Care, so why throw them out?
Come to your senses. Meet with some of the family members and hammer out an agreement in kind to keep the facility open while other options are considered.
Yesterday, in an online teleconference, one member of the board stated that 'no stone had been unturned' in their consideration of options.
Wrong. The stone that is the families had not been unturned, approached, or even considered. You'll find us an imaginative and proactive group that would be willing to work with you to find a solution.