Panels Balk at Plan to Close State Hospital

Two key panels examining spending for Camarillo State Hospital refused Wednesday to embrace Gov. Pete Wilson’s call to shutter the facility, most likely throwing the debate to a special committee that will convene over coming weeks to further investigate the issue.

Although the decisions made in Sacramento by the California Senate and Assembly budget subcommittees are good news for hospital workers and relatives of Camarillo State patients, the closure threat still looms.

“I just want to make sure we’re going down the right path,” said Assemblyman Tom J. Bordonaro Jr. (R-Paso Robles), who voted to reject Wilson’s closure recommendation.

“That way we leave all the flexibility that we can,” he said.

Not all subcommittee members agreed that Camarillo State should be exempt from closing. Assemblywoman Barbara Alby (R-Fair Oaks), who chairs the Assembly budget subcommittee, said she agreed with Wilson.

“There’s a compelling case to shifting these patients,” Alby said. “You can’t fight the numbers in the budget. I prefer just to close it.”

Next, the issue will be sent to the full budget committees, which would forward spending recommendations to each of the two houses, next month.

But the closure plan most likely is headed to the conference committee, a select panel of lawmakers from the Senate and Assembly charged with ironing out budget differences between the two houses.

The conference committee, which will likely include Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), could vote to include money for Camarillo State in its budget or agree with Wilson that the hospital should be closed.

If the conference committee concludes that Camarillo State is worth maintaining as a mental health facility and Wilson decided on a showdown, he would be forced to cut that money from the Legislature’s proposed budget.

The closure plan could also be hashed out in a series of discussions between the so-called Big 5--Wilson and the majority and minority leaders of both houses.

“This might be big enough of an issue to one member of the Big 5 that it gets in the room and gets discussed,” said one Capitol insider who did not want to be named. “Those are very high-level, private discussions.”

Each subcommittee spent less than an hour debating the merits of Wilson’s plan to close the 60-year-old mental hospital. Very little public testimony was offered.

Assembly budget subcommittee members essentially took no action, a move that reaffirms the panel’s May 6 rejection of Wilson’s closure plan.

The Senate subcommittee voted to take whatever action is needed to move the item to conference committee, a move that Chairman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) said would ensure that the closure plans get plenty of consideration.

“We’ve all been there,” Thompson said at the conclusion of the Senate hearing. “When something like this happens in our district, I don’t care if it’s a base closure or a hospital, it ripples across the community.”

Wright, whose district includes the 750-acre hospital grounds, was one of only two people to testify at either hearing. Similar hearings earlier this month drew dozens of interested Ventura County residents.

Wright urged her Senate colleagues on the subcommittee to resist the governor.

“We’re all under pressure as far as the budget is concerned,” said Wright, who questioned the millions of dollars in savings that the governor projects from closing the hospital.

“But I don’t believe this hospital should close,” she said. “The way [the closure plan] is worded, it sounds like we’re moving cans on a shelf. These are people we’re talking about.”

If Camarillo State does close, the 840 or so patients would be moved by next spring, and the 1,500 workers would be laid off or transferred to other state institutions.

The economic impact to Ventura County has not been calculated, but the hospital supports an $80-million annual payroll.

Union officials cheered the subcommittees’ actions Wednesday, saying that the delays allow for more time to change Wilson’s mind.

“It’s exactly what we were hoping would happen,” said Brian Bowley, who represents about 600 hospital technicians.

“It opens that door again and gives us a window of opportunity,” he said. “Now we need to buy enough time for the task force to look at the issue and come up with a way to save the place.”

On Friday, Wilson called for the formation of a task force to review potential uses for the Camarillo State property.

Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), who sits on the Senate subcommittee that examines mental health expenditures, said closing Camarillo State would be a mistake.

New uses can be found for the hospital that would make it more cost effective and increase the number of patients, she said.

“There are other kinds of populations that can be served by that facility,” said Watson, who singled out drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation programs as potential uses for Camarillo State.

“Once you close a facility, you never have the budget ability to open it up again,” Watson said.

Cindie French, chief steward of another Camarillo State workers union, said hospital employees already have begun looking at incorporating such programs into their treatment.

“It’s definitely a viable option,” she said. “We have a lot of talent here and we have excellent facilities here. It would be a shame to lose it.”

John Chase, a patient advocate and member of the Green Line Parent Group, said that due to the subcommittee action, the mood among patients at the hospital Wednesday was dramatically different from earlier this week.

“For any hope of maintaining the facility, this is certainly good news,” he said. “I’m seeing a lot more smiles on people’s faces today.”