Group to Pursue Range of Options for State Hospital

A group of elected officials and business leaders is pushing ahead with plans to pursue virtually any option for the future of Camarillo State Hospital other than bringing in mentally ill criminals.

Recommendations made Thursday by a self-appointed task force, which includes two members of the Camarillo City Council, include using the grounds for a state university campus, a veterans hospital, a Conservation Corps headquarters or a mental health treatment center for adolescents or seniors.

“We’re not against the mental facility as it is right now,” businessman Randy Churchill said. But “one of the things we do not want to see is a secured, guarded institution.”

The task force’s objectives clash sharply with those of dozens of hospital workers who crowded City Hall late Wednesday, demanding that the council get behind a plan to fight Gov. Pete Wilson’s recommendation to eliminate the mental health center and its 1,500 jobs and $80-million payroll.

More than 50 state hospital technicians, therapists and other workers pleaded with council members to rally around a proposal to keep the hospital open by bringing in mentally ill criminals.

Brian Bowley of the California Assn. of Psychiatric Technicians recommended that council members talk to officials from Patton and Atascadero state hospitals. City officials in Atascadero say that community safety is not a problem with their facility.

“Ask them how they feel,” Bowley said. “They support those facilities very much. We need you to support us.”

Camarillo homeowner Kim Selke warned that if the hospital closes, not only would she lose her job, local businesses would suffer as well.

“We buy our lunches in this town,” the longtime hospital worker said. “What do you think will happen to those small restaurants if we lose our jobs?

“I can’t believe you would sit there and turn your backs on your constituents,” Selke said.

After fielding dozens of complaints, the Camarillo council promised to soften its opposition to the proposal to house and treat mentally ill criminals.

But a hastily drafted motion, hand-written late Wednesday by Mayor David M. Smith, still calls for establishing a state university on the sprawling hospital campus south of town. The motion says nothing about efforts to keep the facility open by admitting mentally ill criminals.

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The motion will not be sent to any state officials.

The limited gesture of support did not convince hospital workers that the council is doing all it can to help save their jobs.

State mental health officials say they need a community consensus to pursue plans to keep Camarillo State open by bringing in clients that are tougher to treat, such as suspects unable to assist in their own defense and patients unfit to stand trial.

“A stronger endorsement would have been nicer,” said Timothy Keuhnel, who directs the research unit at Camarillo State.

“A lot of people in town that I’ve talked to feel that certain members of the council really are not doing their duty in terms of representing their constituents,” he said.

Two weeks ago, the council agreed to send letters to Wilson and other state officials urging that no changes take place in the population of patients treated at Camarillo State.

Short of that, the council urged lawmakers not to allow maximum-security patients to be moved to the facility. But after learning more about the potential impact of the hospital’s closing on the Ventura County economy, Mayor Smith said he reconsidered.

“This issue is far more complex than I believed it was,” he said. “This is going to be an issue of extreme concern to the entire community for a number of months.”

Specifically, the motion approved late Wednesday states that the Camarillo City Council will:

* Support the hospital workers and patients.

* Pledge to investigate alternatives for the hospital’s continued operation before revising its formal position.

* Sponsor public meetings to gather information and public input regarding the recommended closure.

* Pursue converting the hospital to a university, but not suggest that the city abandon efforts to find and support an acceptable hospital use for the complex.

Camarillo officials “can sit around and look at alternatives all day long, but it won’t matter because this train is already running,” said Maureen Lynch, a California State Employees Assn. representative.

“They’ve got to act and they’ve got to act now,” she said. “They don’t have the luxury of waiting to check out other alternatives.”

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Despite the ambiguous language in the motion unanimously adopted Wednesday, Councilman Mike Morgan said the panel has pledged to support maintaining the hospital as a hospital.

“Our first goal is to save the facility,” he said at the task force meeting Thursday.

But he told the City Council audience Wednesday that much of the community would not approve of bringing in mentally ill criminals. He said business leaders rejected that option after a meeting with state officials last Friday.

“The Chamber of Commerce . . . a lot of names you know . . . [say] they don’t want it,” he said.

Councilwoman Charlotte Craven said Camarillo council members are reluctant to welcome potentially violent patients because they fear for the community’s safety.

She pointed to an incident last fall in San Joaquin County where a patient at the Stockton Developmental Center walked away from the facility and allegedly raped a schoolgirl.

Camarillo State Hospital workers wanted the council to say it supports bringing in that type of patient, Craven said.

“But they didn’t hear that,” she said. “What we said is that we’re going to look at all the issues and options before we make a decision.”