Panama City - The lease agreement for Bay Medical Center has cleared another hurdle. Bay Medicals Board of Trustees unanimously approve a resolution Friday backing the lease to a Joint Venture.

The board's vote is the last step, before Bay County Commissioners actually vote on the lease. Bay Medical Center Board of Trustees approved a resolution to lease the hospital for the next 40 years. Board members called it one of the biggest days in the hospital’s history.

"What I feel best about is that the major tenants that we tried to accomplish when we started this process as far as looking out for our employees, the charity care, the pension plan all those things that we've been able to do. I will rest comfortably at night knowing we were able to do that," said Steve Johnson, Bay Medical Center CEO.

Lease opponents still have concerns, including employees' job security. The joint venture partners say that won't be an issue.

"He joint venture has no obligation to management that doesn't exist for every employee here. We have committed that the joint venture will hire every employee of the medical center at the current salary, the current position," said Jim Shannon, LHP Group.

Friday’s vote was a big step, but not the last one in the process.
"The journey is not over we're going to continue to work with the county commissioners with their staff, with their advisers. I'm sure the conversation will begin immediately and we're very optimistic that we could have a positive outcome," said Henry Stovall, Sacred Heart Vice President.

County commissioners want to hold two public hearings before they make any decisions. If they reject the lease, the issue would then go to a public referendum.