LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska Board of Regents will not meet Friday to decide whether to proceed with an $800 million deal with Clarkson Regional Health Services for a controlling stake in the future of Nebraska Medicine.

The regents were set to meet at 3 p.m. Friday. They will now meet at 9 a.m. next Thursday. Thirty-one state lawmakers also sent a letter Thursday urging the regents to “tap the brakes” and delay the vote.

“We have an obligation to understand that at a higher level out of just good stewardship for taxpayers,” said State Sen. Brad von Gillern of the Elkhorn area, who led the letter.

The Thursday letter says the public and the Legislature have had “very limited visibility” to understand the full implications of the deal, which was made public less than a week ago. 

Von Gillern said NU is a creation of the state with a large portion of state funding. Yet, many senators don’t yet “clearly understand” the deal.

“Even some of us who have dug into it deeply don’t yet have a clear understanding of the potential impact to taxpayers,” said von Gillern, chair of the Legislature’s Revenue Committee.

 

Specifics of the deal

The deal would authorize NU President Jeffrey Gold to proceed with a plan to buy out Clarkson’s $500 million share of the NU-Clarkson Nebraska Medicine partnership.

Another $300 million would be used to purchase Clarkson properties near the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in midtown Omaha. Gold has described the deal as an “amicable separation and divorce,” and said it’s now up to deciding custody.

Nebraska Medicine is the hospital and clinical and medical services partner of UNMC. The Nebraska Medicine board opposes the transaction.

Related, Clarkson has pledged to give NU $200 million after the sale for the “Project Health” innovation project, and NU would also commit to operating Clarkson College for five years.

In a Thursday news release, NU said the meeting was rescheduled “to optimize meeting participation and to provide more time for members of the community, patients, state leaders and other stakeholders to better understand the proposal.”

Joining von Gillern in the letter were State Sens. Bob Andersen, Beau Ballard, Eliot Bostar, Machaela Cavanaugh, John Cavanaugh, Stan Clouse, Wendy DeBoer, Barry DeKay, George Dungan, John Fredrickson, Dunixi Guereca, Bob Hallstrom, Rick Holdcroft, Megan Hunt, Teresa Ibach, Mike Jacobson, Margo Juarez, Kathleen Kauth, Loren Lippincott, Dan Lonowski, Terrell McKinney, Mike Moser, Dan Quick, Jane Raybould, Victor Rountree, Tony Sorrentino, Ashlei Spivey, Tanya Storer, Paul Strommen and Dave Wordekemper.

The vote is expected to occur now without Regent Elizabeth O’Connor, who faces a formal article of impeachment in the Legislature. The Omaha regent announced Dec. 30 she would resign after Friday. 

Gov. Jim Pillen would appoint her temporary replacement. His office confirmed it was not yet in possession of a resignation letter by 1:45 p.m. Thursday. Pillen supports the Clarkson transaction and could make an appointment to cinch another vote.

Von Gillern said he’s not taking a long-term positive or negative position on the vote but said more time might be more prudent to flesh out the issue.

The State of Nebraska currently faces a projected $471 million shortfall this budget cycle. Lawmakers control the state’s purse strings.

 

Negotiation complications

Gold, speaking at a faculty, staff and student forum Tuesday at UNMC, said the deal has been in the works since a few days after he became president in July 2024. However, because of “extremely rigid” nondisclosure agreements, the discussion couldn’t be public until last week.

“There will not be a single dollar of state appropriation, tuition, et cetera, or research funding or indirect cost recovery that goes into doing this,” Gold said Tuesday.

Gold said there is “not contemplation” by regents to financially micromanage the new system, noting certain powers already exist today. Regents also don’t plan to micromanage clinical care.

Regents are barreling ahead partly because if they don’t, Gold said the “exclusivity of negotiations” with the regents would lapse, and Clarkson would likely begin negotiating with out-of-state entities to pursue the deal. 

Gold and Pillen, a former regent of 10 years, have said that’s a bad deal for Nebraska. Gold said Clarkson is “hellbent” on moving forward.

“They did not present this as a multiple-choice question,” Gold said. “It wasn’t a discussion about what could we do to stabilize this and retain the dual membership organizational structure, but that it was an inevitability.”

Gold said “we need to put this to rest as quickly as we possibly can and move on,” in part for the health of relationships among NU, Clarkson and Nebraska Medicine.

Von Gillern said he understands the nondisclosure agreements but estimated the negotiations could be a “low risk.” He said he’s not taking a position on the vote, which he said could end up being the “best” or “worst” deal NU makes, “but we don’t know yet.”

The Thursday letter ends: “We would urge you to postpone action on the $800 million proposed transaction to ensure all viable alternatives have been considered and until all stakeholders understand the impact of the proposal for the state and these two great institutions.”