Centinela Squares Off Against Mental Health Center

It is an unusual battle: two medical institutions--both armed with public relations consultants, lawyers and impassioned rhetoric--fighting about property rights and patient rights before the Inglewood City Council.

The battle pits Centinela Hospital Medical Center, one of Inglewood’s biggest employers and most politically powerful institutions, against Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, a nonprofit mental health organization that runs Excelsior House, a small residential center for the severely mentally ill in Inglewood.

Centinela wants to stop the Hirsch Center from opening a 14-bed treatment center at 1011 Myrtle Avenue, in a building the center bought across the street from the Centinela medical complex in an area zoned for medical use.

In December, the city’s Planning Commission granted the clinic a special-use permit to convert the building into a “crisis residential treatment facility,” to replace the six-bed Excelsior House. It would offer up to two weeks of treatment for selected mental patients.

A Discriminatory View?

But Centinela filed an appeal asking the City Council to revoke the permit, charging that patients at the treatment center could pose a danger to its clients, staff and neighbors. The clinic says the hospital is fomenting a medieval, discriminatory view of the mentally ill because it wants to acquire the property and control the area.

Even the Inglewood Chamber of Commerce entered the fray. It first submitted a resolution to the city opposing the special-use permit, but after a dispute among the chamber board of directors, it withdrew the resolution and is now officially neutral.

The council has received at least six letters favoring the proposed center, but opponents have mailed hundreds of post cards, sent form letters and authored a petition with more than 1,000 signatures, many of them Inglewood residents.

Angry debate at the crowded council meeting Tuesday was dominated by Hirsch center supporters, including mental health professionals, advocates for the mentally ill, former mental patients and city residents.

Council members voted to delay a decision until legal arguments from both sides have been reviewed.

“What I want is that we, as the council, do the right thing,” Mayor Edward Vincent said at the meeting. “There are some serious legal matters to be dealt with here.”

Potential Adverse Effects

Lawyers will submit arguments to City Atty. Howard Rosten by Feb. 17, and the council is to consider the matter Feb. 28.

The legal dispute involves the hospital’s contention that the Planning Commission did not consider potential adverse effects of the project on the health and safety of people in the area as required by the California Environmental Quality Act.

Lawyers for the Hirsch clinic argue that state law clearly permits establishment of such a facility in an area zoned for medical use and prohibits discrimination against the mentally ill.

Tuesday’s meeting illustrated society’s conflicting sentiments about mental patients. Hospital critics who spoke publicly, and city officials who spoke privately, said it also displayed the power of Centinela Hospital, which contributes to city political candidates through political action committees.

“Centinela is becoming an embarrassment to the city,” said Planning Commissioner Herman Fae, who accused hospital officials of promoting a “bogyman theory” about the mentally ill.

Hospital officials warned at the meeting that mental patients from the unlocked treatment facility could interrupt emergency room operations and pose physical danger to the medical center’s 1,500 employees, many of whom are women.

The hospital’s chief of staff, Dr. Ronald Woods, and the director of its drug and alcohol abuse center, Dr. Gerald Rozansky, spoke against the permit.

‘Patients Are Unpredictable’

“These are patients who are unpredictable, no matter what the evaluation,” Rozansky said.

A battery of other speakers spoke in favor of the planned clinic and said they are shocked at the attitude of hospital officials.

“I have often heard the phrase, ‘not on my street,’ before, but never from physicians,” said Hirsch supporter Dr. Milt Miller, chairman of the psychiatry department at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

“In my experience, this is a great program,” Miller said. “They have an extraordinary record, not only for safety but for what happens to the human beings who go into their program.”

Ellen Bruder, director of residential programs for Didi Hirsch, said the Excelsior House facility has not had any problems or complaints and is located directly across from a school.

“Please give us the opportunity to provide our services to one of the most disenfranchised, discriminated-against populations in our society,” she said.

Centinela President Russell Stromberg said the hospital does not oppose the concept of the treatment center but thinks the location is inappropriate.

“It’s like putting a match stick next to a can of gasoline,” he said. “Acute psychiatric patients have left board and care homes and committed mayhem.”

The Hirsch group presented real estate agent Henia Fishman of Hettig and Co. to bolster its contention that Centinela wants to buy the property, but at a lower price than the $280,000 the Hirsch center has agreed to pay. Fishman, who listed the property, said she had been contacted by a Realtor on behalf of Centinela officials who were interested in acquiring the property. However, a hospital official told Fishman that the price for the property was too high and asked that the hospital be informed if any other property became available in the area near the medical center.

Stromberg disagreed with Fishman. He said she initiated the contact with the hospital and was told that Centinela was not interested.

He dismissed widespread talk that council members are reluctant to oppose Centinela on the issue for fear they will face political repercussions. “The hospital does not get involved in politics,” he said. “Individual doctors can do what they want.”

The hospital has contributed to the political campaigns of several Inglewood candidates through political action committees such as the Centinela Medical Staff Political Action Fund, campaign records show.

Dr. Leon Artzner, head of emergency services at the hospital, said the council should also consider the 2,260 patients treated in the hospital’s emergency room each month.

“Can you imagine how disconcerting it would be if someone, even someone very harmless, wandered in and interfered with emergency care? For the sake of those who depend on us, I hope you will vote to house the facility at another address.”

THE COMBATANTS