Council Backs Making Memorial Non-Profit

Colorado Springs city council approved a resolution Tuesday night supporting a task force recommendation to turn Memorial Health System into an independent non-profit.

Council passed the resolution in a 6 to 2 vote, with council members Sean Paige and Tom Gallagher voting no.

Local tax activist Douglas Bruce spoke out against the idea at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Voters will have the final say on Memorial’s future.

Tuesday night’s vote allows the Memorial Hospital Task Force to get to work on figuring out all of the legal technicalities of what the city must do before it can put the question to the voters.

Once that process is complete, council will work with it’s legal team on deciding how to word the measure, and when to put it on the ballot. That could happen in April or November of 2011.

The often cash strapped city is looking at unloading Memorial Health System to reduce the financial risk to tax payers.

The task force looked at several possibilities, including selling the system to a for profit company. It decided turning the hospital into a non-profit would be a better solution for the community.