A Columbia County judge last week dismissed a citizens group’s lawsuit attempting to stop Sauk County from selling its nursing home.
The lawsuit proceedings were covered in a story that appeared July 12 in the Baraboo News Republic and July 13 in the Wisconsin State Journal. According to the story:
The decision by Judge Todd Hepler to reject all seven claims made by Sauk County Citizens for Senior Care against the Sauk County was filed in Sauk County Circuit Court on Wednesday. Hepler agreed with Sauk County that the citizens group failed to justify its argument that the sale of Sauk County Health Care Center to Aria Healthcare should be prevented.
“I am relieved at this decision as it supports what we have been saying all along,” Sauk County
Board Chair Tim McCumber said. “What is incredibly disturbing is that a select group of residents are weaponizing the court system to interfere with the business of local government.”
McCumber added that he could not comment further on the situation, saying that he has not met with legal representation to see how the decision affects the county and the nursing home sale going forward. Citizens for Senior Care’s suit against Sauk County was dis- missed with prejudice, meaning that it is dismissed permanently and the group cannot refile the same lawsuit.
Hepler, County Attorney Matthew Thome and Citizens attorney Joseph Cincotta were all unavailable for comment.
Aria’s purchase of the nursing home was approved by the county board in an 18-13 vote Sept. 10. After receiving deadline extensions by the county and state Department of Health Services, Aria submitted a change of ownership application at the end of February, which was approved by the state in late April, which, in turn, transferred the 82 beds from Sauk County to Aria.
Because of the lawsuit that was dismissed Wednesday, the county pivoted to a lease agreement, ap- proved by the County Board on June, to get the home in Aria’s hands.
However, the Department of Heath Services informed Aria two weeks later that the company needed to resubmit an application to transfer bed licenses because of the change from ownership to leasing. That, along with the legal action and public opposition to the sale, prompted Aria to pull out of negotiations.
In the dismissed lawsuit, Sauk County Citizens for Senior Care argued that the sale was “not for a public purpose,” that the county violated its own stipulations in its December 2023 request for proposals regarding potential buyers, that the sale should have been approved in a two-thirds vote by the board because it was a budget decision, and that the Sauk County Health Care Center Board of Trustees needed to approve the sale and transfer of bed licenses. The group has two open lawsuits related to the case.One is against the Wisconsin Department of Health Services over its April decision to transfer the Sauk County Health Care Center bed licenses to Aria.
It its other ongoing lawsuit, Citizens for Sauk County Senior Care alleges that the Sauk County Board violated open meetings laws by holding closed-session meetings to consider information that the group claims should be pub- lic, including the name of the buyer, which the county did not officially release until Sept. 10, when it approved the sale.
McCumber expressed confidence that the county would prevail in those lawsuits, which were filed in Columbia and Dane counties.
“I am looking forward to demonstrating to the court that the county did everything in its power to respect the Wisconsin open meeting laws,” he said.
