Judge Warns County, State Not to Stall on CMS

A Superior Court judge declined Monday to order the state to pay for a court-ordered continuation of health care for San Diego County’s medically indigent, saying he wanted to give state-county negotiations until Friday to bear fruit.

But Judge Harrison Hollywood cautioned against any stalling. His preliminary injunction keeping the County Medical Services (CMS) in operation could be withdrawn at any time, he noted.

“There is a club up here that could be used if I were to want to do that--and then let you take the political heat,” Hollywood said. “I have total control over bringing that (injunction) back again if I feel that the parties are not dealing in good faith.”

County and state officials are dickering over whether a $9-million loan from the state to fund CMS would be forgiven if the county wins its suit. A state attorney also said Monday that other funds might be available, but county officials said the money he listed was not new funding.

Hollywood’s lack of action set the stage for a Board of Supervisors meeting today at which $10 million in cuts to other county programs will be considered.

The county had been hoping the judge would order the state to fully fund CMS, thus avoiding the cuts.

On March 18, Hollywood issued a preliminary injunction preventing the county from ending the program the next day. The program provides life-sustaining medical care to people who have no medical insurance and little income, and so cannot afford medical care.

The county was going to kill the program because state funding for it ran out in December. After Legal Aid Society lawyers sued, the county filed a cross-claim, alleging that it is the state’s responsibility to fully fund CMS.

Hollywood’s deliberations Monday came in the first hearing on the cross-claim.

As he had on March 18, Hollywood noted the essentially political nature of the dispute between the county and the state. He also emphasized his determination not to get caught in the middle.

“This court would never interfere with the political process. I don’t have the jurisdiction to do it, the power or the inclination,” he said.

He suggested that the county had deliberately chosen high-profile, publicly sensitive projects, such as child-abuse prevention, to earmark for the $10 million cut list, setting him up as the scapegoat if the programs are cut.

“You chose probably the most emotional program to eliminate in its entirety,” Hollywood said. “You didn’t choose to reduce it. You chose to eliminate it. That isn’t conducive to good negotiations between the county and the court, or the county and the state.”

Deputy County Counsel Valerie Tehan quickly denied the criticism. She said that, when cuts are needed late in the fiscal year, they must come from the only 6% of the county budget outside of state-mandated programs.

The proposed cuts include:

* Ending various contracts that cover such services as child-abuse prevention and emergency food and shelter.

* Eliminating all mental health contracts in the county, which cover such programs as residential and crisis treatment.

* Closing four parks: Quail Botanical Gardens, Wilderness Gardens Preserve, Lake Morena and Otay Lakes.

* Eliminating special sheriff’s units such as SWAT, underwater search and recovery and bomb detection.

* Ending the district attorney’s unit that seeks special prosecution of major, repeat violators of the law.

* A countywide hiring freeze.