Hospital Says Chamber Took County’s Side

A bare-knuckled campaign to stop the county from building a new health-care clinic surfaced for the second time this week, as Community Memorial Hospital accused the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce of choosing sides with county officials.

The private, nonprofit hospital questioned the chamber’s integrity for inviting Dr. Samuel Edwards, director of Ventura County Medical Center, to speak about a March ballot referendum on the project at a chamber meeting Thursday without a Community Memorial spokesman present.

“There is at least an appearance from these actions of the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce that it, in fact, may be actively participating in political activities . . . on behalf of Ventura County,” wrote attorney Barry D. Silbermann in the letter dated Feb. 7.

Silbermann also accused the business group of knowingly and willfully putting out a news release stating that a Community Memorial representative would be present, when the chamber had been given notice to the contrary.

Chamber President David Fowble said the chamber invited both parties and was told that a Community Memorial spokesman might not attend, but was never given a definitive answer. He acknowledged that a Jan. 29 news release said that both sides would be present, but said a second release last Friday corrected that mistake.

Fowble said the chamber had not purposely tried to mislead the public.

“Nobody did that that I know of,” he said emphatically. “We were just trying to get information out to the public. We’re not taking sides. We were trying to provide a benefit to both parties.”

Edwards’ presentation to the chamber Thursday came just days after Community Memorial threatened to hold county officials personally liable if they do or say anything on county time that can be construed as campaigning for Measure X, the countywide referendum on the county clinic project. The threat prompted county supervisors to cancel an informational forum Tuesday.

The nonprofit hospital, using more than $745,000 in cash and nonmonetary contributions, has launched an aggressive campaign to halt the project, the latest records show.

Even though a Community Memorial spokesman was not present at Thursday’s chamber meeting, hospital attorney Jim Prosser and hospital employee Mike Lurie attended. Both asked questions of Edwards, but did not make any statement for the hospital.

Laura Dahlgren, chief spokeswoman for a campaign organization sponsored by Community Memorial, said that she had a scheduling conflict and could not attend. Dahlgren said she informed the chamber in January that she would not be at the meeting.

“We’re not going to let the county run our agenda,” she said.

Edwards could not be reached for comment.

Community Memorial put the referendum on the ballot to derail the clinic project, which it maintains the neighboring medical center will use to lure away some of its privately insured patients.

County officials say this is not the case. They say the new facility will consolidate five specialty clinics now housed in outdated and unsafe buildings, and that the move will save the county $1 million a year on rent.

Prosser said he could not comment on whether Community Memorial would consider taking any legal action against Edwards for his presentation to the chamber. But he said the hospital is “very concerned about the county using resources and employees to persuade voters on the issue.”

Still, he said, Edwards was careful about his comments Thursday, speaking mostly in generalities and never once directly referring to Measure X.

“It was not a hard sell,” Prosser said.