Hospital District passes $15 million budget, switches portfolio managers

Dawn Rivera, a peer recovery specialist, talks with Jelecia Reid, a substance abuse counselor, in the area where Rivera works with her substance abuse recovery clients at LifeStream Beacon Point on Southwest Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette]

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Posted September 29, 2021 | By Carlos Medina, carlos@ocalagazette.com

The Marion County Hospital District will spend nearly $15 million on various community healthcare projects in the next year.

The amount is a more than 75% increase over what the district spent last fiscal year.

On Monday, the district’s board of trustees approved the fiscal year budget of $14.98 million, an increase of nearly $6.5 million over the prior year. The new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1.

The most significant single expenditure is $2.3 million toward the construction of the Mary Sue Rich Community Center.

The estimated $10.3 million community center is named after Mary Sue Rich, the first Black woman elected to the Ocala City Council. She served for 24 years before retiring in 2019.

The hospital district committed the money in 2020 and will cover about 20% of the cost. The city of Ocala is paying for the rest. The center will feature indoor basketball courts, a banquet center, a kitchen, a café and a multi-level indoor playground on the first floor. Additionally, the second floor will have an open-concept design with an indoor walking track, fitness center, public library, senior activities and multi-purpose rooms for children. Other amenities include an outdoor playground and lawns.

More than $6 million is allocated to the services provided at Beacon Point. Ocala’s comprehensive substance abuse treatment campus was established in 2019 and has grown to offer various services to those struggling with addiction. The facility recently announced a new 30-day rehabilitation treatment facility.

The hospital district offers space and grants to third-party providers which provide the services. Currently, SMA Healthcare, Lifestream Behavioral and Park Place Behavioral Health Care offer services at Beacon Point.

Heart of Florida Health Center plans to open a behavioral management pharmacy on the campus.

Heart of Florida will also receive another nearly $1.2 million for a diabetes and primary care mobile unit, a pediatric dental specialist and money for a federal match program to receive additional funding.

Another $1.33 million will go to other community organizations, including FreeDOM Clinic, Interfaith Emergency Services and others.

Nearly $1.2 million is earmarked for the district in-house Active Marion Program (AMP) and Fitness & Nutrition in Schools (FANS).

In addition to nearly $900,000 to pay for hospital district operations, the budget also sets aside $1.3 million for trustee-approved program spending.

The hospital district funds the budget using investment earnings from $212 million in cash received in 2014 after leasing the former Munroe Regional Medical Center to an outside operator.

Through August, the portfolio had a value of more than $313 million.

But the hospital district, unhappy with the performance of Simon Quick, one of their three portfolio managers, decided to switch managers.

The trustees chose Graystone Consulting, a Morgan Stanley company.

Simon Quick was responsible for $89.3 million of the district’s portfolio at the beginning of the fiscal year in 2020. The ending value of their portion grew to $101.1 million through the end of July. But the company delivered the lowest earnings of the fiscal year, including during three of the past four months. They also had a poor showing in July, where they earned just over half of what the district’s two other portfolio management companies did.

By comparison, Berman Capital Advisors was responsible for $88.5 million at the beginning of the fiscal year and increased their portion to $101.5 million. Truist (formerly SunTrust) started with $92.2 million and improved its share to $105 million.

The district last changed its portfolio management companies after the 2016 fiscal year when Berman Capital took over for Goldman Sachs.