Ex-Official Attacks Hospital’s Tax-Exempt Status

A former Ventura County supervisor has filed a complaint with several state agencies asking for Community Memorial Hospital’s tax-exempt status to be revoked because of its costly political campaign against the county hospital.

“CMH is using its exemption to finance activities consistent with the most rapacious of private, tax-paying businesses, while failing to fulfill the most basic of charitable goals of a nonprofit, tax-exempt hospital, the provision of a reasonable amount of charitable care to the needy,” Madge Schaefer wrote in a letter to the state agencies.

The letters were addressed to the state attorney general’s office, the Department of Corporations and the Department of Health Services.

Community Memorial Hospital officials could not be reached for comment Friday. Doug Dowie, a consultant for the hospital, said his client believes it is on firm legal ground and that Schaefer’s accusations are unjustly motivated.

“This is all part of a political campaign,” he said, referring to Schaefer’s membership in a campaign organization supporting the county hospital project. “There are no problems.”

The nonprofit, private hospital has been engaged in a costly war with the Ventura County Medical Center for two years over the public hospital’s plans to construct a $51-million outpatient clinic, which Community Memorial sees as a threat to its business.

Schaefer said the hospital receives about $2.5 million in tax breaks as a nonprofit organization but provides little in return in charity care as it is required to do. The hospital provided less than $300,000 in charity care in the 1994-95 fiscal year, according to state records.

Community Memorial has spent more than $516,000 to place a countywide referendum on the March 26 ballot aimed at derailing the county clinic project.

Officials with the Internal Revenue Service said they could not comment on Schaefer’s complaint without having more information. Officials at the attorney general’s office could not be reached for comment.

An official with the state Fair Political Practices Commission said that as long as Community Memorial has set up a separate, nonpartisan campaign organization it is probably not in violation of laws governing nonprofits.

Community Memorial is the chief sponsor of a citizens group backing the countywide referendum on the county project. The group is called Taxpayers for Quality Health Care.