Centinela Hospital Files Suit to Block Facility for Mentally Ill

Centinela Hospital Medical Center filed a lawsuit Thursday aimed at preventing construction of a center for severely mentally ill patients across the street from the hospital.

The hospital had threatened to file the suit after the Inglewood City Council last week approved construction of the 14-bed facility, to be operated by the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center.

The lawsuit names the city, City Council members and Hirsch officials and seeks to overturn the council vote as “arbitrary and capricious,” hospital Vice President Eric Tuckman said.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, says city officials disregarded the danger the facility could pose for the neighborhood. It also asserts that city lawyers erroneously interpreted a state law that bars discriminatory treatment of mental institutions to mean that council members could not consider the type of patients to be treated at the facility, Tuckman said.

Hospital officials say the severely mentally ill patients, who will live at the center for up to two weeks and can come and go as they please, will endanger Centinela’s employees and patients. City and Hirsch officials disagree and accuse the hospital of fomenting discrimination against the mentally ill. They also say state and city law require approval of the proposed facility.

Hirsch officials deny that the patients will pose any danger because they will be screened for admission.

Commenting on the filing of the lawsuit, City Manager Paul Eckles said: “That’s their privilege. That’s why we have courts. But I would be very surprised if they could prevail.”

The hospital also alleges in the suit that City Council members held at least one illegal private meeting to discuss the issue before the Feb. 28 vote. Tuckman said hospital officials have information that such a meeting or meetings took place. Eckles said that he knows of no such meeting and that the council adheres scrupulously to state public meeting laws.

The legal action is only part of Centinela’s all-out campaign against the psychiatric center. Hospital officials said Thursday that they will try to bring the Hirsch proposal to the voters by collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that would prohibit the center--planned for the 1000 block of Myrtle Avenue--through a zoning change. One possibility would be a proposal to rezone the area from its current mixed residential-medical use to an exclusively residential zoning, Tuckman said.

Eckles said that would be ironic because the city changed the zoning from residential to medical several years ago partly to accommodate expansion by the hospital.

Although Centinela and Hirsch representatives met Tuesday with Councilman Anthony Scardenzan in an attempt to resolve the matter, a compromise does not appear imminent.

In fact, Scardenzan said his wife, Franca, a member of the Centinela women’s auxiliary, was told after the council vote that she could no longer work as a volunteer at the hospital. The Scardenzans say it was in retaliation for the council vote.

But hospital President Russell Stromberg said Councilman Scardenzan’s wife has not been dismissed. Rather, he said she was told it would be in her best interest not to work at the hospital while the controversy continues, because some employees are upset about the city’s action. Stromberg said Franca Scardenzan may still work as a volunteer at an Inglewood thrift shop owned by Centinela Hospital.