Latest Skirmish in Battle of Hospitals Cancels Forum

Bowing to legal threats from project opponents, Ventura County supervisors decided Tuesday to cancel an informational forum on a new outpatient clinic planned at the county hospital.

A citizens’ group, sponsored by rival Community Memorial Hospital, had threatened to hold the supervisors personally liable if they went ahead with the forum on the $51-million outpatient clinic.

Taxpayers for Quality Health Care charged that holding the forum on county time in public facilities would have been an illegal use of taxpayer money to sway voter opinion on Measure X, a countywide referendum on the clinic project.

The supervisors said the purpose of the meeting was not to influence voters but to provide the public with objective information about the project.

Supervisor John Flynn, who proposed Tuesday’s forum, challenged representatives of the citizens’ group or from Community Memorial to debate the March 26 ballot measure at a series of public forums.

“Let the light shine on these issues,” Flynn said.

Laura Dahlgren, a spokeswoman for the Community Memorial group, said she wanted to hear directly from the county before commenting on Flynn’s proposal.

Dahlgren said she was disappointed that the county had not formally invited her group or Community Memorial officials to make their own presentation at the canceled forum on Tuesday.

“Obviously, what the county was trying to do was present one-sided information and not provide an opportunity where I could speak,” she said. “We cannot allow our government to do this. We need not subject ourselves to government propaganda.”

But Flynn and other county officials said that the forum was open to the public and that anyone could speak if they wished, including Dahlgren or Community Memorial officials.

“I had the intent when I presented this idea that perhaps Community Memorial Hospital representatives would come to the board and present their case here,” Flynn said. “But it appears to me they do not want to engage in a public debate.”

Despite the board’s decision to cancel the forum, County Counsel James McBride said it is his opinion that such a meeting would be legal as long as both sides were able to present their case.

“[Community Memorial] would have been given an opportunity to speak,” he said. “The presentation would have been balanced.”

Supervisor Frank Schillo chided Dahlgren’s group and Community Memorial officials for what he said was an attempt to stifle public discussion of the issues surrounding Measure X.

“I think this is an affront to the public and freedom of speech,” he said. “Not allowing the county to speak out on a proposal that’s on the ballot is just a heinous thing.”

Pierre Durand, director of the county’s Health Care Agency, said he also was disturbed by the objections raised over Tuesday’s forum.

“We’re disappointed that we can’t provide information to the voters,” he said. “In this great democracy, we need to make sure that voters are informed so they can make a proper assessment.”

Community Memorial officials argue that the county clinic project is extravagant and part of a broader campaign by the county to compete for privately insured patients.

County hospital officials say the project is needed to more efficiently deliver health care services to the poor and uninsured, as the county is mandated to do. They said the new facility will consolidate five specialty clinics and actually save the county more than $1 million a year on rent.

Dahlgren’s group, meanwhile, is stepping up its own campaign efforts. The group sent thousands of voters a campaign mailer this week decrying the county hospital project. Specifically, the mailer attacks county supervisors for approving the sale of $51 million in so-called certificates of participation that will be used to finance the outpatient clinic.

The two-page mailer characterizes the certificates as a “little-known” and “mysterious” financing method that is being used by the county to avoid having taxpayers vote on the plan, as they would in the case of a regular bond election.

Voters are not required to vote on the sale of certificates because, unlike bonds, no new taxes will be imposed to pay back investors, county officials said. Instead, federal grant money and hospital revenues will be used to reimburse investors.

The county has sold certificates of participation to pay for other capital projects in the past, including the Ventura County Government Center, the new Todd Road Jail and the East County Sheriff’s Station.

But the campaign mailer warns that with the state and federal government threatening to cut back on health care programs, county taxpayers could end up financing the entire clinic project. County officials have said that the money has already been authorized and there is little chance--if any--that the investment will be lost.

The mailer also characterizes the outpatient clinic “as an expansion of the county hospital.” County officials argue that the project is not an expansion, but a consolidation of clinics now housed in outdated and unsafe buildings.

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FYI

Although Community Memorial officials object to the county sponsoring any public meetings on Measure X, other community groups plan to hold their own forums on the ballot measure. The League of Women Voters of Ventura County has invited Laura Dahlgren, a spokeswoman for a group backed by Community Memorial Hospital, and a representative from the Ventura County Medical Center to participate in a public forum on Measure X on March 9. The 10 a.m. forum will be held at Poinsettia Elementary School in Ventura.