Citizens’ Group Forms to Support County Hospital Outpatient Project : Health: Organizers claim a private facility has misled the public in efforts to stop the new wing.

A Ventura County citizens’ group has formed to combat a campaign to block construction of a new outpatient wing at the county hospital.

The primary goal of the group, which says it has 40 members from across the county, is to counter what it calls misleading statements by administrators of Community Memorial Hospital about the proposed $51-million project at the Ventura County Medical Center, organizers said. The group maintains the private health facility sees the county project as a threat to its business.

“They’ve been telling the big lie about everything,” said Patricia Weinberger, head of a group called SMART, which stands for Saving Money as Responsible Taxpayers.

Community Memorial Hospital officials maintain the public hospital project will plunge the county deeper into debt and ultimately be used to lure private patients away from other hospitals.

The private hospital has successfully qualified a countywide referendum on the medical center project for the March 26 ballot. The referendum seeks to block the sale of bond-like certificates that would be used to finance the new outpatient wing.

Michael Bakst, executive director of Community Memorial, said he is not aware of Weinberger’s group but respects its right to run its own campaign.

“We think we’ve educated the public enough to get the referendum on the ballot and to get it approved,” he said.

But Weinberger said that Community Memorial used misleading information to gather nearly 52,000 signatures that qualified the issue for the ballot.

Among her objections, Weinberger said the private hospital has wrongly referred to the planned outpatient wing as an expansion. In fact, she said, the project is a consolidation of clinics now housed in rented and, in some cases, dilapidated buildings.

“This is a consolidation,” she said. “There is not one bed being added.”

Weinberger also took issue with Community Memorial’s contention that taxpayers could end up footing the entire bill should the state or federal government cut health care spending.

She said the county has been promised 50% to 70% reimbursement of the project’s costs and that if it does not take advantage of the funding, another county will.

“This opportunity is not going to leap out from behind a bush ever again,” she said.

Weinberger said she believes the public hospital must be supported because it is the medical facility in the county that serves as a safety net for the indigent and uninsured.

“There are a great many people in our community who cannot get medical care anywhere else,” Weinberger said. “And if medicine is about anything, it is about care for everyone.”

Weinberger, whose group filed organizational papers with the county registrar’s office last week, declined to reveal any campaign strategy. She said the newly formed group is still in the process of mapping out its plans.

Meanwhile, Ventura County Superior Court judges recused themselves earlier this week from hearing a lawsuit brought by the county against Community Memorial to disqualify its referendum. The county maintains that the private hospital waited too long to begin its petition drive.

Presiding Superior Court Judge Melinda Johnson recommended to the Judicial Council of California that the case be referred to Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge James Slater.

But Community Memorial Hospital on Wednesday exercised its right to use one peremptory challenge before a judge is selected in a court case and asked that Slater be removed from hearing the issue.

John McDermott, an attorney representing Community Memorial, said his client believes the Judicial Council should select the judge and that any recommendations from the county should be disregarded.

He said if all goes well, a new judge will be selected Monday and the case can be heard as planned on Dec. 4.

Noel Klebaum, an attorney with the county counsel’s office, accused Community Memorial of “judge shopping.”

“They want to find the right judge in the hope that somebody will take pity on them,” he said.