Health Dept. Gets Healthy Budget Boost, Possibly

It loomed like a behemoth on the supervisors’ agenda: How much money should go to the Department of Health Services when its hospitals and administrators are under siege?

It was so big, in fact, it shouldered everything else off Monday morning’s schedule. Supervisors asked questions, administrators answered. From time to time, the supervisors voted.

But in the end, few people seemed sure what had happened.

Top health department officials thought they had gotten what they wanted--$3 million in new funds for the troubled Edgemoor Hospital, in addition to the $8.6 million for the hospital in the budget proposals.

Top financial-services officials had a different impression. If the additional $3 million had slipped through, they said they didn’t think the county could afford it.

Leon Williams, the supervisors’ chairman, said he wasn’t sure what was approved and would have to check. “We went through a lot,” he explained wearily after the daylong deliberations.

The issue is expected to resurface later this week when the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the entire budget.

The office of the chief administrative officer intends to bring up Edgemoor again, to find out what happened.

Either way, Health Services seems in line for a big increase.

Under the budget recommendations from CAO Clifford Graves, the department would receive $127,113,863--a 13.2% increase over its 1984-85 budget.

Under the recommendations from the Health Services Department itself, the department would receive an additional $3 million for 124 positions. Those resources would go to improve Edgemoor.

“My understanding is they approved everything, including the 100-plus additional staff,” said James Forde, director of the department. He said the department got almost everything it wanted.

But officials in the CAO’s office said they were going to have to talk to the supervisors. The supervisors said they intentionally left the department’s supplemental request out of their recommendation.

“We simply couldn’t incorporate that,” one supervisor said. “There just wasn’t enough money available.”