County Seeks Funds for Ambitious Wish List

The agenda is ambitious: Convert the state mental hospital into a four-year university, renovate the aging public hospital, overhaul the library and welfare systems and beef up the parks and harbor with new money-making projects.

The key for the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in the new year will be finding the money. Money to strengthen the Library Services Agency, money to repair essential buildings at Ventura County Medical Center, money to launch the long-awaited university campus.

Supervisors will be looking to the governor, private sector and even the voters to turn many of their goals into reality.

“1997 is going to be a very exciting year,” Supervisor Frank Schillo said. “We are poised to leap into the future. We have so much going for us right now we can’t help but improve our county, to make it one of the best in California and still be the safest.”

The top priority will be to lobby for converting Camarillo State Hospital into the county’s first public university.

The fate of the 60-year-old mental hospital rests with Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature, who will decide in 1997 whether to close the hospital and use its grounds for the Cal State University system’s 23rd campus.

“We hope that the governor will not only say yes, but allocate some money as well,” Schillo said. A governor’s task force has placed construction at $25 million to $50 million to convert the hospital complex into a four-year university.

If state officials approve the conversion and provide the necessary financing, the university campus could be open for the fall semester in 1998, officials said.

At the local level, the board will greet the new year with new member Kathy Long, replacing her former boss, Maggie Kildee, and take on a host of issues that could see significant management changes in everything from health care to library services to welfare programs.

The board will also review plans for a proposed aquarium at Channel Island Harbor and is expected to move forward with construction of an amphitheater and golf course complex near Camarillo.

High on the board’s agenda will be a major revamping of the county’s ailing Library Services Agency. The agency has been limping along on less than half of its $10-million annual budget since 1992, when the state slashed its funding.

A private consultant recently recommended reorganizing the agency into special districts run by a joint-powers authority made up of seven member cities. The consultant also suggested the county put a 1/8-cent sales-tax measure on the ballot to raise $9 million for the 15-branch system.

County supervisors said a major restructuring of the library agency to improve its efficiency must occur before looking at ways to raise additional revenue.

Although they agree more money will be needed to improve services and expand library hours, a majority of supervisors said a tax is not the answer and that they will have to come up with other options.

“A library tax is never going to fly,” Supervisor John Flynn said. “I think the county is going to have to make a commitment of further financial support, and the cities are also going to have to ante up some money.”

One big question in 1997 will be whether Ventura County Medical Center will join a partnership with a private hospital chain as a way to secure its future in an increasingly competitive health-care market.

County officials recently acknowledged they are talking about a possible joint venture with several hospital firms, including Columbia/HCA, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain and owner of Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks.

Representatives of Catholic Healthcare West, the largest nonprofit hospital chain in the state and owner of the St. John’s hospitals in Ventura County, have also been talking with county officials about a possible partnership.

The county began discussions with the hospital chains after it was forced to abandon its plans for a $28.7-million improvement project at the county hospital.

Neighboring Community Memorial Hospital had threatened to lead a voter-referendum campaign that would kill financing for the project, which Community Memorial viewed as part of a larger plan by the public hospital to compete for privately insured patients. A similar measure earlier this year killed a more ambitious plan for a $56-million county outpatient center.

County supervisors, however, contend that the Medical Center could lose its state license if it does not replace its kitchen and medical laboratory, which are considered structurally unsound. As a result, supervisors say they have no choice but to find other ways to keep the hospital open.

“If we’re going to be able to protect the safety net, then I think we’re going to have to have a partner,” Flynn said.

Supervisor Judy Mikels expressed concerns about giving up too much control in a partnership. She said she would like to see if the county can resolve its problems without hooking up with a large hospital chain.

“A partnership is an option,” Mikels said, “but I won’t say it’s a possibility. Giving up control is very frightening.”

The county is seeking to gain more control in another critical area--welfare reform. Despite unanimous legislative support, Gov. Wilson in October rejected the county’s plans to restructure its welfare system.

The proposed legislation would have given the county more control over how it spends welfare dollars and manages assistance programs. But Wilson said there were too many conflicts between the county program and new federal welfare-reform laws.

State Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), who sponsored the county’s welfare-reform bill, said recently she plans to introduce new legislation that would include some provisions of the previous bill.

Meanwhile, Schillo said he plans to meet with state Health and Welfare Secretary Sandra R. Smoley next month to discuss the county’s continuing efforts to gain more control over its welfare programs.

“We are prejudiced about the fact that we have a really good plan,” Schillo said. “We would like to be a test bed for welfare reform.”

The new year will also bring forth new parks projects for supervisors to consider, including a proposal for a 16,000-seat amphitheater and an 18-hole public golf course in the rolling hills south of Camarillo.

The $12-million amphitheater and golf-course projects, which would be built and leased to private operating companies, are expected to bring in about $500,000 annually in additional revenue to the county, said Blake Boyle, manager of the county Parks Department.

Earlier this year, the board divided the parks and harbor departments into two agencies, in part because harbor officials complained that too much revenue from the Channel Islands Harbor was diverted to parks projects.

The idea now, Boyle said, is to make county parks pay for themselves. To this end, he said, another public golf course is planned next year at Toland Park near Santa Paula that is also expected to bring in $200,000 to $300,000 in additional county revenue.

With government dollars growing more scarce, Supervisor Judy Mikels said the county must find new ways to generate revenues and pay for services.

“We need to maximize the return on our assets,” she said. “We have not done that as aggressively as we could be. The golf course and amphitheater are good starts.”

Along the same lines, Supervisor Flynn said the board will also review plans in the coming year for a proposed aquarium at the county-owned Channel Islands Harbor. Flynn, whose district includes the harbor, said he is part of a committee that is exploring financing for the aquarium and educational center.

But the city of Ventura may beat the county in the race for an aquarium.

Ed Campbell, a local architect, is proposing to build a $50-million aquarium and astronomy center on a 3 1/2-acre parcel at Surfers Point, near Promenade Park. He said he has secured financial backing for the project and will bring plans for the aquarium to the city’s Planning Commission by May.

“I think we are farther along in the process than the county,” Campbell said. “I have a plan, I have a site and I have the financing.”

But Flynn expressed doubts about Campbell’s project and said the county will continue to forge ahead with its own plans until it is determined which is more viable.

“We will make a decision one way or the other in 1997 whether to pursue the aquarium,” Flynn said. “1997 is going to be a decision-making year.”