Public Crowds Hearing to Give Its Views on Fate of State Hospital

Parents concerned about a safe home for their disabled children, workers who want to hold onto their jobs and homeowners worried about their neighborhoods crowded into a hearing Friday night to tell state lawmakers what to do about Camarillo State Hospital.

Three legislators from Ventura County listened intently to an earful of alternatives to closing the aging and costly institution, while some Camarillo area residents urged officials to go ahead and close the hospital, rather than bring in mentally ill criminals.

“It would be ideal if we could turn it into a university,” said Anne Williams, a 35-year-old Camarillo mother. “But the odds of that are so slim that I would strongly advocate closure.”

Nothing was decided at Friday night’s hearing, where hundreds of interested people spilled outside the Camarillo City Council chambers into the City Hall courtyard.

The hearing was designed to gauge the extent of community support for what is probably the only way to keep the hospital and its 1,500 jobs: bringing in sexual predators and other mentally ill criminals.

State and county officials listened to dozens of speakers during the emotion-filled hearing, a public forum required as state officials polish a report due April 1 on how to proceed with plans for the hospital.

Union officials and workers, who made up the majority attending the public hearing, were forced to wait until the end of the meeting to speak.

They told the panel--including state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and Jack O’Connell (D-Santa Barbara) and state Assemblymen Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos) and Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard)--that sexual predators and other criminals respond well to treatment and do not threaten nearby residents.

“You’re dealing with a population that’s not psychotic,” said Brian Bowley, president of the local union representing psychiatric technicians, before the hearing.

“These people can reason, they think,” he said. “They are not going to be any kind of escape risk to the community.”

Another faction, the Green Line Parent Group, supports a plan to convert the hospital to a locked facility. But they want some space reserved for the developmentally disabled, or mentally retarded, patients whose families live nearby.

“The facility lends itself to this sharing principle because of its size,” said John Chase of the nonprofit parents group. “With 650 acres, you can divide it up almost any way you want.”

State Developmental Services officials, however, already are planning to move more than 500 patients to community homes or other facilities.

That would lead to unneeded disruption for the disabled patients, family members argued.

“We’re very concerned about Danny’s future,” said Molly Dillon, a UCLA law student whose autistic brother is receiving treatment at Camarillo State Hospital. “He’s finally found a stable world at Camarillo State. It’s very traumatic for him to be moved.”

Lawmakers pledged to carefully consider each of the arguments they heard Friday.

“We want to hear what you have to say and use that [information] to go back and make a decision,” Wright explained.

Wilson recommended in January closing Camarillo State because its patient load continues to drop. Since then, hospital workers and others have organized to keep the institution open and save its $80-million annual payroll. The state Mental Health Department has said it could use the facility to house its rising population of mentally ill criminals and sex offenders.

The final decision rests with members of the state Legislature, who will consider the recommendation as part of the 1996-97 state budget.