Stop pretending this newly formed committee will help Valley View

Editor's note: Nursing home advocate Mary Ann McDonough of Citizens for Valley View gave the following statement during the county legislature's open comment session on June 6 regarding the legislature's newly created Valley View Advisory Committee. Please see related story, "James O'Donnell leads new Valley View committee," at chroniclenewspaper.com.
That certainly sounds innocuous enough. It tells the public nothing about the committee and what its intentions are.
A May 26, 2019, Times Herald Record Chris McKenna article however states it is a seven-member panel to look to build senior housing and other ways to use the property to add services at the home.
Per legislative chair Brescia, the group will look more broadly at “Enhancing Valley View services and using county owned property around it and may recommend a county master plan” to outline future projects.
I call the above a ruse in plain and simple terms. A ruse: an act meant to confuse and mislead. In the vernacular, it's a crock.
If the county executive and this legislature really wanted to improve life at valley View, they could start with better staffing, improving the menu, bringing the laundry back in house and have a myriad of other simple building improvements like painting, repairing and generally sprucing up. They would stop operating on a shoe string budget.
These things to enhance Valley View have not been permitted because Valley View is constantly operating on a shoe string budget so that they cost the county ZERO county taxation dollars. No other county department costs the county zero!
Stop using Valley View to support the rest of the county operations, which have included Orange County partnership staff hired at over $100,000 a year. Stop charging Valley View 3.2 million for 2018 and 2019 that others receive at no cost.
Let the rest of the county pull their own weight and not rely on the sick, elderly and disabled as your meal ticket. Do not try to trick Valley View and the general public with the notion that this panel is looking to enhance Valley View. That is very disingenuous.
If Orange County is looking to sell county land, I think this newly formed committee should set their sites on Camp LaGuardia. After all, the county tax payer is out almost 10 million dollars on that boondoggle investment. $85 million to purchase it and $1.2 million to break the contract. This is 12 years languishing. Don’t let another day go by without getting the money back to the taxpayers.
Stop pretending this newly formed committee will help Valley View. This will only help the real estate moguls and the county coffers. This committee may in fact not only not help Valley View, but may lead to the demise of Valley View, something many members of this committee have been pushing since 2010.
Leave the Valley View land alone. You have many other land issues that need to be addressed. Start with Camp LaGuardia? Vote No on item #4 because it is a sham! and another scam.
Once again you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You tried to rid the county of Valley View by the front door, the backdoor, the side door. You have shown you will do anything it takes. Please don't use this guise to get rid of Valley View.
Do your job. Rename the committee the Camp LaGuardia committee and get to work pronto! You have already waited 12 years!