Employees Battle Closure Plans for Camarillo Hospital

Camarillo State Hospital workers plan to meet Thursday to strategize about how to persuade local and state officials not to close the aging facility.

Groups of employees for weeks have been making phone calls and writing letters to state and local representatives, requesting that the hospital remain open.

Others have crowded public meetings in an effort to lobby on the institution’s behalf.

Brian Bowley, president of the Camarillo chapter of the California Assn. of Psychiatric Technicians, which represents more than 600 therapists and other workers, said workers will meet at 2 p.m. in the employee lounge.

“Basically, we want to update people on what’s been happening and form some committees to get people involved,” he said.

In his proposed budget released last month, Gov. Pete Wilson recommended that 60-year-old Camarillo State Hospital and Developmental Center be shut down.

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While plans already are underway to relocate the facility’s population of developmentally disabled patients, some state mental-health administrators are considering a plan to keep the hospital open by bringing in mentally ill criminals.

“We’re closing it as to its current use,” said Dennis Amundson, director of the state Department of Developmental Services, which oversees Camarillo State.

“We clearly hope that we can find another option, which may mean one of the same departments will take over,” he said.

Camarillo State employs more than 1,500 workers, most of whom live in Ventura County. The annual payroll tops $80 million--money that local officials want to keep in the area.

But some officials, including Camarillo City Council members Mike Morgan and Charlotte Craven, oppose bringing in mentally ill criminals to keep the multimillion-dollar payroll in Ventura County.

Dance therapist Maxine Bachich said most people don’t understand that mentally ill criminals have been treated at Camarillo State for decades.

“We’re getting together to make up a position statement,” she said. “People think this is going to be a prison, and it’s not. It’s going to be a forensic hospital--which is not unsafe.”

Forensic patients are suspects and criminals who have been ordered admitted to a state hospital by a judge.

“These people are not about to commit crimes,” Bachich said. “They’re too confused.”

The organizational meeting of employees comes at an important time in the ongoing discussions about the future of the hospital.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors next Tuesday plans to consider a resolution aimed at keeping the hospital open. Workers plan to crowd that meeting, as well as a Camarillo council meeting the next day.

Camarillo Mayor David M. Smith said Monday that he welcomes the employees’ views.

“Right now, I don’t believe the general public understands what the patient mix is at the hospital,” Smith said. “Any efforts to explain the hospital’s current operation and its patients would be very valuable.”