Proposal for Camarillo Campus Sparks Debate

A proposal to share the sprawling grounds of the state mental hospital with a new Cal State University campus has sparked debate over the future of the underused facility targeted for closure.

Rather than shut down Camarillo State Hospital by July 1997, two Ventura County legislators have asked Gov. Pete Wilson to consider opening the county’s first public university on state hospital grounds.

Wilson, who in January proposed closing the Camarillo hospital for the mentally ill and disabled to save money, is scheduled to release a revised recommendation Tuesday when he presents his final 1996-97 budget to the Legislature.

He is expected to recommend that an economic advisory board be formed to study possible uses for the 750-acre site, and to discourage plans to put sexual predators and violent criminals there, one source said.

Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-Santa Barbara) and Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos) said in a letter to Wilson that their plan would save 1,500 hospital jobs and accelerate plans to open a Cal State campus in Ventura County.

The idea is to keep the hospital cost-effective by continuing to treat the 450 mentally retarded patients at the facility, while also hosting the 1,500 students now enrolled at a Cal State Northridge satellite campus in Ventura.

Under the plan, the 400 schizophrenics and other mentally ill patients now treated there would be sent to other state hospitals.

“The governor’s initial plan was for complete closure and to move every patient to other state facilities,” O’Connell said. “We are trying to have maximum utilization of this facility.”

The novel idea met mixed reaction among legislators, who will ultimately decide the fate of the 60-year-old hospital.

“I would never want to say no to opening up a new educational institution,” said Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), a longtime advocate for the mentally ill. “But I really feel that Camarillo State Hospital ought to be preserved to take care of the tremendous growing mental health needs.”

Assemblyman Tom J. Bordonaro Jr. (R-Paso Robles), who is a member of the subcommittee looking at mental health funding, welcomed the joint-use concept as an alternative to closing the institution.

“It may be a little bit late, but I don’t believe we should ever close the door on this type of deal,” he said. “We ought to slow down and take a look at all the options.”

But Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), whose district includes the hospital, said the proposal seems unworkable and criticized O’Connell and Firestone for crowding her turf.

“It’s not possible,” Wright said Thursday of the proposed collaboration. “I wonder how they would feel if there was a controversial issue in their district and I stepped in supporting one side or another.”

The joint-use proposal, which has never been tried in California, would locate Ventura County’s first public university on the grounds of Camarillo hospital.

Cal State administrators are intrigued. They said taking vacant buildings on the hospital grounds makes economic sense in the three-decade effort to build a four-year university in Ventura County.

Moving onto hospital grounds could shave years and millions of dollars from the time and expense of building a university from scratch on a nearby 260-acre lemon grove that Cal State recently acquired.

“I’ve seen the facilities and they do lend themselves easily to conversion in most cases,” said J. Handel Evans, an architect and acting president of the yet-to-be built Ventura County campus.

At the same time, Evans emphasized that no matter how inviting the proposal, Cal State officials do not want to be poaching territory from a sister state agency.

“We are in a rather interesting and delicate position,” he said.

What’s more, Cal State officials have reservations about placing university students near patients in mental wards.

“I have no idea how this sharing proposal would work,” said Jim Considine, chairman of the Cal State University’s Board of Trustees.

“The safety of our students is of primary importance,” he said. “It would definitely be an obstacle that we would have to overcome.”

Randy Ferguson, a deputy director with the Department of Developmental Services, said he was much more concerned about the severely retarded patients being victimized by the college students.

“I don’t think in general our residents would be a threat to others,” Ferguson said. “Individuals could be, but for the most part the vulnerability is on the other side.

“That’s awfully close proximity for such dissimilar enterprises,” he added.

Assemblyman Firestone, one of the authors of the plan, said the pairing of the hospital and university could be fortuitous, providing an educational opportunity for students interested in mental health professions and providing the hospital with volunteers.

“It could be a very good thing for the students and a very good thing for the disabled,” he said. “I’m assuming there would be no safety issue because it would be carefully and sensitively planned.”

Hospital union leaders ridiculed the university-developmental center concept, saying that keeping such severely disabled patients near college students was not feasible.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Brian Bowley, who represents 600 or so hospital technicians.

“It’s going to take several years and hundreds of millions of dollars to convert Camarillo State,” he said. “What happens in the meantime. How do you just move out half a population?”

Times staff writer Daryl Kelley contributed to this story.