Katzenberg says decision to close nursing home clouded by bad PR

DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg made a mea culpa on Wednesday, saying that the Motion Picture & Television Fund had done a poor job of communicating the reasons for its decision to close the hospital and nursing home.

"We give ourselves a failing grade,"  said Katzenberg, who chairs the charity's fundraising board. "This has not been communicated well."

But Katzenberg and other board members stood by their decision, describing it as a necessary move to preserve the viability of the organization and its various other programs, which includes six healthcare centers, child care services and a retirement community in Woodland Hills with 215 residents.

"We have made a decision that allows this incredibly important enterprise to live on and have a great future," he said during a conference call with reporters, aimed at quelling fury among the residents' family members who are angry over the facility's closure.

David Tillman, the fund's CEO, said there was a $20-million gap between program revenues and the cost of services that was projected to widen because of rising medical costs and declining reimbursements from the government. In the past, he said, the fund could rely on investment income and philanthropy to make up the shortfall, but that option is no longer possible because of the deep recession.

Frank Mancuso, chairman of the fund's corporate board, said that the board had already taken various steps to stem losses, including closing the hospital's costly intensive care unit, but had run out of options. "We left no stone unturned," he said.

-- Richard Verrier

Comments

[Mimi]

Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly lost tens of millions of dollars of his philanthropy funds by foolishly investing with Bernie Madoff.

Doesn't anyone else find the closing of the nursing home in the wake of the Madoff collapse to be more than a coincidence?

If Katzenberg was such a hot shot, knowledgeable investor and fundraiser, why didn't he recognize the impossibility of the consistant, unsubstantiated investment returns Madoff reported to his clients, which didn't cause so much as a ripple in the the investment waters? There are many innocent victims of the Madoff crimes, but there were also a number of otherwise savvy investors who should have known better and paid attention, but ignored the obvious, neglecting to see the forest for the trees.

Indigent actors would seem to be paying a terrible price for inattention.