Battle Looms Over County Tobacco Funds

Supervisors on Tuesday asked county attorneys to pursue legal action, including a court injunction, to block a proposed ballot initiative that would strip Ventura County of more than $225 million in tobacco settlement funds and give the money to private health care providers.

The Board of Supervisors decided to fight after County Counsel Jim McBride told the board he believes the initiative improperly usurps their authority.

“It’s unconstitutional,” he said.

The controversy surfaced last week, when the county hospital’s chief competitor announced plans to put a measure on the November ballot that would divert tobacco money to private hospitals around the county.

A spokesman for Community Memorial Hospital, the organization whose executive director, Michael D. Bakst, is behind the tobacco settlement initiative, criticized the supervisors’ actions.

“It’s government by politburo rather than democracy,” said Mark Barnhill. “The will of the people prevails. I don’t know what they could be thinking.”

Meanwhile, Barnhill said, the hospital’s legal experts think the initiative can survive any legal challenge, because California law gives voters the power to direct how taxpayer funds can be spent. McBride would not cite which provisions of law he believed the initiative violates.

Supervisors say Community Memorial wants to run Ventura County Medical Center out of business because it’s a source of competition. They point to Bakst’s successful $1.6-million effort through a 1996 voter initiative to block the medical center’s expansion efforts.