Inglewood OKs Plans for Psychiatric Center

In a defeat for one of Inglewood’s largest employers and most powerful institutions, the City Council unanimously approved a 14-bed psychiatric treatment facility opposed by Centinela Hospital Medical Center.

Hospital officials, who said they fear residents of the facility would endanger their patients and employees, said they will challenge the decision in court unless their dispute with the operators of the facility can be resolved.

Meet With Councilmen

Representatives of the hospital and the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, which wants to build the facility across the street from the hospital, said they will meet with Inglewood Councilmen Anthony Scardenzan and Daniel Tabor next week.

The vote came after several months of angry words and energetic lobbying by both sides.

The debate evoked the larger mental health crisis in Los Angeles County, and included references to last week’s fatal stabbing by a mental patient of a Santa Monica mental health worker.

Rekindled Tensions

The debate has also rekindled tensions between Centinela and city officials, some of whom privately accuse the medical center of throwing its considerable weight around in an effort to run the city.

They and Hirsch supporters said the hospital was fomenting unreasonable fear of the mentally ill. They charge the hospital wants to acquire the site, which the hospital disputes.

Centinela officials say the hospital has taken justifiable interest in important issues over the years. And they said the City Council’s vote in favor of the Didi Hirsch organization Tuesday was a serious mistake.

“The decision made by the City Council shows ineffectiveness on the part of representatives elected to protect their constituents . . . ,” said Centinela Vice President Eric Tuckman in a prepared statement. “We would be abrogating our responsibility if we allowed an unlocked crisis treatment center for the most severely and critically mentally ill to be located directly across the street from our emergency room and child care center.”

Dr. Ellen Brand, executive director of the Didi Hirsch center, was full of praise for the council members, some of whom acknowledge that their vote might push the hospital to oppose them at the ballot box. In the past, political action committees affiliated with the hospital have contributed heavily to political candidates and to campaigns on local ballot measures.

“Here is a small municipal body that took a courageous stand in the face of incredible odds,” Brand said. “Hopefully it sends a signal to those who would ignore the need for these services.”

Council members said they agonized over their votes. But they said state law and city zoning made it clear that Didi Hirsch had the right to build the center on the site. The facility is intended to provide treatment for selected mental patients released from hospital care.

The city’s Planning Commission granted the clinic a special-use permit in December, which Centinela appealed to the council.

‘Voted My Conscience’

“I feel good that I voted my conscience,” Councilman Tabor said Wednesday. Like other council members, he cited state law that prohibits discrimination against the mentally ill in the approval of health-care facilities.

Councilman Scardenzan said he hopes Centinela and Hirsch can reach an agreement, and expressed resentment at being caught “between a rock and a hard place” in the controversy.

Centinela officials will bring suggestions for alternative sites to next week’s meeting with Scardenzan and Tabor, hospital spokesman Julius Mason said.

Dr. Brand said the Hirsch organization would consider the possibility of another location, but said it would be difficult to find another properly zoned, reasonably priced site. She said the mental health center must proceed quickly with the planned facility or risk losing $500,000 in county mental health funds.

As for possible political fallout from the decision, Centinela government relations director Leona Eglund said before Tuesday’s vote that the hospital had withheld all endorsements in the city’s April elections.

Tabor and Scardenzan are up for reelection, and a vacant council seat will also be contested April 4.

Eglund made no threats, saying merely that the hospital had decided to withhold support of any candidates until the mental health center issue was resolved.