Hospital Wing Foes Present Signatures

Opponents of Ventura County Medical Center’s proposed $51-million outpatient wing presented county supervisors Tuesday with 6,000 signatures against the project.

Supervisors sharply criticized the move by Taxpayers for Quality Health Care, a group partly backed by the private Community Memorial Hospital, which opposes the project.

“This is clearly a campaign stunt,” Supervisor Judy Mikels said. “This is clearly a media attention-getter--and it has worked.”

The countywide referendum that will decide the new wing’s fate will appear on the March 26 ballot.

Laura Dahlgren, spokeswoman for the group, said the signatures illustrate the depth of opposition to using taxpayer money to finance the new wing for the county hospital. The thousands of signatures are in addition to the 39,000 collected to get the issue on the ballot, she said.

Dahlgren reiterated that a study should be conducted to examine the county’s health care needs before the development moves forward.

County supervisors took the opportunity to outline their positions too, labeling the group’s characterization of the clinic as an expansion as “misleading.” The project would replace condemned buildings that several clinics have vacated in favor of rented quarters near the medical center.

“I’m really insulted you continue to mislead the voters of this county,” Supervisor Maggie Kildee said.

Supervisor John Flynn noted that the bond-like certificates that will be used to finance the clinic would not cause taxes to rise.

The county has used the same mechanism to finance such public buildings as the jail without the opposition this issue has generated, he said.