Healthy Attitude Should Prevail at This Town Meeting

After watching President Clinton’s sessions on TV, you might think a town hall meeting is where the speaker does most of the talking and you do most of the listening.

But that won’t be the case at the town meeting Friday at the Costa Mesa Senior Center, vows Felix A. Schwarz, executive director of the Health Care Council of Orange County: “We not only want to hear what people have to say, we want them to volunteer for an ad hoc committee.”

The noontime meeting is the kick-off of a monthly series by the nonprofit Health Care Council. It’s gathering public input for an action plan to ensure that the county’s indigent and underinsured have proper health care. Though not binding on anyone, the plan could be a good tool for providing guidance on health issues for county supervisors.

Schwarz calls it “repairing the safety net” for health care services. What tore the safety net, of course, was the county’s bankruptcy two years ago. Before the bankruptcy, the county poured more than $40 million each year into local health care services. That number, Schwarz says, is down to about $28 million, though federal and state grants are filling in some of the gaps.

Even so, Schwarz says, that $40 million wasn’t very much to start with; he says Orange County ranks at the bottom of the state in providing health care dollars per capita.

“A lot of people in other parts of California think of us as living in a lotus land,” Schwarz says. “In some ways we are; there is a great deal of wealth in this county. But many of our people, especially children, have no health insurance.”

Schwarz finds it ironic that the private sector in this county “provides millions and millions for the arts, yet when it comes to health care, we don’t seem quite as concerned.”

What I’m wondering is whether the wrong people might be coming to this town meeting. The people who need to hear from the public are the county supervisors and our state legislators. Schwarz says all have been invited, but only a couple of legislators have said they will try to be there.

The next town meeting, on Oct. 21, will be on children’s issues. If you want to attend any of these monthly sessions, call the Health Care Council at (714) 667-8205.

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Pop Art? Did you ever wonder what goes through the mind of the person who litters? I thought about that as I walked up the trail at beautiful Crystal Cove beach this past weekend. Someone must have thought: What this trail-side cactus really needs to make it perfect would be this giant Burger King cup.

The last few weekends my family has been taking advantage of the unusually warm waters of the Pacific at various county beaches. I suppose most beach-goers do clean up after themselves. But a few numskulls can spoil a pristine beach in short order.

Eric Gross, lifeguard at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, is convinced that most offenders are people who don’t often use the beach. The regulars, he says, have an appreciation for what it takes to keep the beaches clean.

I asked him what he does if he sees somebody littering. “I eye them down pretty good, and that usually takes care of the problem,” he said.

But Gross and Lt. Mike Eaton of Crystal Cove State Park note that the worst culprits are not always beach-goers. Much of the litter, they say, is caused by squirrels and sea gulls raiding trash containers.

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Taking Care of Their Own: When I criticized former Garden Grove Rep. Robert K. Dornan in Saturday’s column, I was prepared for an avalanche of pro-Dornan criticism directed at me. Instead, most who called or wrote were even more upset with Dornan than I was.

Dornan, who threw a temper tantrum on the floor of the House last week, was banned from the premises by Congress until his challenge to Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s (D-Garden Grove) election victory is settled.

One letter worth singling out came from Charles G. Bill of Garden Grove. His complaint: Why does Congress even permit former members access to the House floor?

Writes Bill: “If a congressman is voted out of office by his constituents, they have given an unmistakable signal that they no longer want that person representing them in the House. To me, it is extremely arrogant for the House to have rules that permit a defeated member access.” Bill calls this “disregard for the will of the people.”

I wonder how many other rules the House has about which it has never bothered to ask the public’s opinion.

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Want Some Company? If you’d like your home to be spruced up free as the next House of Design for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the organization welcomes your interest.

Just a few qualifications you might want to jot down before you call: You need 7,000 square feet of house and extensive grounds, and you’ll have to be out of your home for about four months, beginning in February. Mansions only, please.

But if you do have such a home, call the Philharmonic Society at (714) 553-2422. The group is still looking for its house for 1998. Public tours of the House of Design--in which a different designer decorates each room--are the major fund-raiser for the Philharmonic, which provides music education throughout Orange County.

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Wrap-Up: Quite a few readers have inquired about the two Santa Ana community clinics that soon face closure because of a money shortage. The clinics, which I recently wrote about, were set up by FHP International’s foundation but lost their funding when FHP merged this year with PacifiCare. The new foundation chose to channel its resources in other directions.

The clinics have received a temporary bailout. Pearl Jemison-Smith, a member of the clinics’ board, says that Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian this month provided a $20,000 grant to help keep the clinics operational.

Hoag, by the way, is one of the co-sponsors of Friday’s town meeting at the Costa Mesa Senior Center.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com