By MIA NAKAJI MONNIER and NAO NAKANISHI
Rafu Staff Writers
The CEO of Keiro Senior HealthCare, Shawn Miyake, has responded to a petition from the Ad Hoc Committee to Save Keiro.
The petition, delivered in hard copy on Wednesday morning, asked for the following: research materials that led to the decision to sell Keiro’s facilities, minutes from board meetings in which the sale was discussed, financial data, and information about which personnel will change or remain the same when ownership of the facilities changes.
Miyake’s response came in the form of a letter to Ad Hoc Committee Chair Charles Igawa and a CD containing the documents that Keiro submitted to the state attorney general for evaluation earlier this year. Those documents are already posted on the Ad Hoc Committee’s website, savekeiro.org, and Miyake acknowledges this in his letter.
The letter stresses that the attorney general’s approval was the result of thorough review. “If the attorney general did not feel our residents were protected, she would have rejected the sale,” he writes. “However, I am disappointed by your organization’s repeated attempts to claim that there has been no communication with our community about the pending sale.”
He concludes by inviting Igawa to apply to the Community Advisory Board, which will help oversee the transition of facilities from Keiro to Pacifica and advise Pacifica on any changes to policy.
Miyake’s full letter to Igawa is below:
Dear Dr. Igawa:
I am in receipt of your letter/petition delivered today.
As you are certainly aware, this transfer comes after years of discussions and public meetings. Keiro has always been transparent about the sale process. Our Board of Directors and staff members have met and held meetings for all of our residents, their families, staff and volunteers to discuss this sale. We have always made sure to provide honest answers to questions from our community members.
History shows that the attorney general does not approve sales like this easily. As she recently re-affirmed, her approval came only after a tough, thorough review process. If the attorney general did not feel our residents were protected, she would have rejected the sale.
However, I am disappointed by your organization’s repeated attempts to claim that there has been no communication with our community about the pending sale. As stated by the Attorney General’s Office in a letter to you dated Nov. 5, 2015:
[The attorney general’s review] included a thorough review of more than 2,000 pages of information, which featured a detailed history of approximately 60 community meetings over the course of two years regarding the sale. Keiro Services provided information related to the details of the proposed agreement and its necessity in meetings with its residents and their families, at community events and workshops, and with its staff and volunteers in the form of in-person meetings, written notices, internet publications, e-mail communications, press releases, and written announcements in both the English and Japanese languages. Community members were also made aware of the proposed transaction through frequent news coverage. Finally, Keiro Services also provided public notices at all of its facilities with instructions on how to obtain written materials related to the transaction.
As for your request for documents, I am providing you with a copy of all documents you have requested by CD with this letter. These documents have been readily available to the public, including you, for months. They were issued as a CD by the Attorney General’s Office. In fact, it appears that all of these documents are already available on your website for the public to view and download.
As a closing note, I invite you to please apply to be a member of Keiro’s Community Advisory Board and help participate in the future of the Keiro facilities. I believe that your passion for our residents can be used to help make sure that the Attorney General’s conditions relating to the residents are upheld after the sale.
Sincerely,
Shawn Miyake
President & CEO