VENTURA : Hearing on Hospital Petition Suit Delayed

With a key court document missing, a judge postponed a hearing Friday morning on a Ventura County lawsuit that seeks to block a ballot measure on a new wing at the county hospital.

After Ventura County judges recused themselves from hearing the case, clerks shipped the paperwork to Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Ronald Stevens earlier this week. But the county’s opening memorandum on the case was not among the documents he received.

“We don’t have a real good system to track these papers between the two courts,” said Stevens, adding that he would review all case documents before the rescheduled hearing on Dec. 7. After a judge threw out Community Memorial Hospital’s lawsuit that was intended to block construction of a $51-million outpatient wing at Ventura County Medical Center earlier this year, the private hospital collected enough signatures to put a countywide referendum on the project on the March ballot.

The county in turn filed a suit in November saying that the referendum petition is not valid.

“The referendum petition was too late and it challenges acts of the Board of Supervisors, which are not legally subject to referendum,” said Noel Klebaum, assistant county counsel in a recent interview.

In particular, Klebaum said, county supervisors on Nov. 15, 1994, authorized the sale of $51 million in bond-like certificates to pay for the project. But Klebaum said that the referendum challenges a board administrative action last Dec. 13, to approve an array of contract forms involving the certificates. Klebaum said an administrative decision cannot be subject to a referendum.

Klebaum also said that under state elections law, Community Memorial had 30 days to present the referendum, which the private hospital filed with the county in November. According to Klebaum, Community Memorial was a year too late.

But Community Memorial attorneys have argued that the referendum is valid because, they said, the board gave only tentative approval to the project last year. John McDermott, an attorney representing the hospital, said the board actually took final action on Oct. 10, when the supervisors agreed to switch underwriters for the $51-million financing plan.

Stevens is expected to make a ruling on the issues Thursday.