Lancaster County Commissioner Bob Workman said Wednesday that his positive assessment of Hunter Management, the potential buyer of Lancaster Manor, was very preliminary.

On Monday, his colleague Larry Hudkins told an audience at a town hall meeting that Workman did a Google search and told Hudkins "they (Hunter Management) were an A-1 nursing home."

That assessment differs drastically from another given Monday night. A group opposed to the sale of the manor said 20 of Hunter Management's 45 nursing homes had the lowest possible Medicare ratings and more than half of the 45 had below-average ratings.

"The conversation I had with Mr. Hudkins about Hunter Management was very preliminary and occurred in executive session," Workman said. "It is inappropriate for either Mr. Hudkins or myself to comment publicly about that discussion at this time. All investigations of prospective buyers are ongoing as part of our due diligence."

Workman said that when he looked at Hunter Management on the Internet, he compared the Medicare ratings of nursing homes in which Hunter had a corporate interest to Lancaster Manor. On Medicare's five-star rating system, Lancaster Manor has a two-star rating.

"The real data will come out as more information comes forward," Workman said Wednesday. "My look was strictly preliminary ... I didn't go very far into it. I was just looking at the surveys and making comparisons with Lancaster Manor."

Workman is on vacation and was not at Monday's town hall meeting, sponsored by the Save the Manor Coalition and AFSCME local 2468, the union that represents manor employees.

On June 25, the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1, with Hudkins dissenting, to begin negotiations to sell Lancaster Manor. The vote came two days after nearly 175 manor employees, family of manor residents and others urged the board not to sell the county-owned nursing home.

A committee of board members and county officials is negotiating with Hunter Management of Evanston, Ill., the only company to formally express interest in buying the home when the county solicited requests for qualifications, or RFQs. Hunter Management said it was interested in either buying or leasing the nursing home.

Save the Manor Coalition, through its attorney Gary Young, conducted its own Internet search of Hunter Management and said it revealed a litany of violations, low Medicare ratings and fines totalling $780,000 over a nine-year period. Hunter Management is owned by the Rothner family of Evanston.

Hunter Management spokesman Avi Rothner declined Wednesday to comment on the coalition's findings.

On Monday night and again Tuesday at a board meeting, the coalition, the union and others criticized the board for not doing its own investigation before starting to negotiate with Hunter Management.

An advisory committee appointed by the board began looking into the background of Hunter Management about a week ago - before the coalition issued its report. That investigation is continuing.

Workman is a member of that committee, along with Kerry Eagan, the county's chief administrative officer; Budget Director Dennis Meyer; Purchasing Agent Vince Mejer; and Chief Deputy County Attorney Mike Thew.

Some people also have questioned why a citizen panel that evaluated RFQ responses earlier this year didn't do a more thorough job.

Workman said the RFQ process was designed to bring to the surface prospective ideas - not just buyers.

"That's why it was so broad," he added. "It was not designed to look at backgrounds at that time. We could have had many ideas that we could not have imagined. We wanted those ideas brought forth through the RFQ."

The board plans to discuss the potential sale of Lancaster Manor on Thursday at its staff meeting. The discussion is expected to be held in executive session, which the public - including the press - cannot attend.

State law allows government bodies to discuss negotiations involving the sale of property behind closed doors.

Reach Algis J. Laukaitis at 473-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com.