Smoke Gets in Eyes of Tobacco Petition Signers

Ventura resident Carolyn Porter threw her support Wednesday behind a plan to funnel millions of dollars in tobacco settlement money to private health care providers.

Just don’t ask her what was written in the petition.

“I guess I am not too up on it,” she said, explaining that she thought the proposed ballot measure would give money to Ventura County’s public hospital, which it does not.

“Guess I blew that one,” Porter said.

As signature gatherers fanned out across Ventura County to attempt to qualify the measure for the November ballot, many residents expressed confusion about the brewing dispute over who should control $260 million in tobacco settlement money.

The funds, which stem from a massive legal settlement with cigarette makers, are expected to stream into county coffers over the next 25 years.

County leaders believe they should decide how to spend it. But private health-care providers, led by Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, contend they should control the money so it will be spent exclusively on health care.

They are now trying to qualify a measure for the Nov. 7 ballot that would let county voters decide who holds the purse strings.

“We think it is a clear choice,” said Community Memorial spokesman Mark Barnhill, “an initiative that guarantees that money is spent on health care, or the other choice, which is the county’s position that it should be able to spend it on . . . any other non-health-care items that it may wish to pursue.”

But county Supervisor Frank Schillo says there is no way to ensure the hospital lives up to its campaign promises.

“Taking taxpayers’ money for private use with no accountability--that is what it boils down to,” Schillo said. “I have a great deal of respect for the voters and I think they will understand the simplicity of this initiative.”

Not everyone approached by the signature gatherers Wednesday had a clear understanding of the issues, however.

Fillmore residents Edward and Barbara Taylor signed the petition after shopping at the Target store on East Main Street in Ventura, because they felt private nonprofit hospitals need more money.

“Well, I just think they need the money. I think they need it more,” Edward Taylor said.

Ventura resident Tom Snyder believes he understood the proposal--and refused to sign.

“The sense I have of the whole thing is that it’s not designed to put the tobacco money into public health, as much as to direct that money into Community Memorial,” he said.

Snyder said he feels the private hospital has a history of aggressively seeking money for itself--and undercutting Ventura County Medical Center down the street.

“There is a turf war going on here,” he said. “And I think county health care overall is suffering as a result of that turf war.”

In Oxnard, signature gatherers pitched the initiative by telling Wal-Mart shoppers that the measure would give tobacco settlement money to private hospitals.

“They hear it’s cigarette money for health care and they sign it,” said one signature gatherer who declined to give her name. “They’re all for it.”

Some people signed even though they appeared not to have read the petition.

Maria Gonzales of Port Hueneme glanced at a petition, available only in English, and signed it. When asked why she supports the measure, she replied: “I don’t speak English very well.”

Last Friday, county lawyers submitted a 500-word explanation of the initiative to the county clerk’s office, thereby allowing the hospital to launch its campaign this week.

The summary states that the measure would “forever appropriate” an average of $10 million each year in tobacco settlement funds to private hospitals and doctors, as well as skilled nursing and in-home services for the elderly.”

Barnhill said signature gatherers hope to gather about 35,000 names to qualify the measure. Proponents hope to complete their drive by the middle of next month.