Agency OKs Finance Plan for County Hospital Wing : Health care: Officials can now go ahead with the sale of $51 million in bond-like certificates to pay for the five-story addition.

Over objections that local government is encroaching on the domain of private hospitals, a Ventura County agency Tuesday took the last step in authorizing a $51-million financing plan for a new outpatient wing at the county hospital.

Despite an ongoing campaign by neighboring Community Memorial Hospital to block the project, the county’s Public Facilities Corp. voted 4 to 1 to approve financing for the five-story outpatient facility at the Ventura County Medical Center.

The Board of Supervisors already had approved the fund-raising effort. But the county could not legally proceed with an actual financing plan without approval by the agency, established by supervisors in 1974 to handle special county financial projects.

The vote means that the county can now proceed immediately with the sale of $51 million in bond-like certificates to pay for the hospital construction. Unlike bonds, the certificates of participation to be sold by the county do not require voter approval.

The new wing at the county hospital has been at the center of a heated battle between the county and Community Memorial that has already reached the courts and triggered a referendum drive to halt the project.

The private hospital has charged that the new facility would drive the county deeper into debt and would ultimately be used to lure private patients away from other hospitals.

But a majority of the facilities board said the new outpatient wing is not an expansion of the county hospital, but a consolidation of existing services now housed in leased buildings. They said many of these buildings are uninhabitable and that the new hospital wing is long overdue.

“I’m willing to accept the gamble if that’s what you want to call it,” board member Ralph Cormany said. “It will be a benefit to us.”

But board member Norman Blacher said he opposed the sale of the certificates because the county had not done a needs assessment study. He said he also believes the county and Community Memorial had not fully explored other options, such as consolidating services between the two facilities.

“We’ve never had an alternative proposal,” he said. “I’m very unhappy with both sides, and the lack of a willingness to work their differences out.”

Pierre Durand, director of the county Health Care Agency, said he was pleased with the board’s decision. He said the new outpatient wing will ultimately save taxpayers money because the county will no longer have to lease facilities.

“Once you remove all of the emotions,” he said, “this was a sound financial decision for the county of Ventura and the taxpayers.”

Community Memorial officials said they were disappointed with the board’s decision and are moving ahead with plans to block the sale of the certificates for the new hospital wing through other means. The county has not set a date for the sale of the certificates.

The hospital, which recently lost a lawsuit against the county, has filed an appeal. It has also launched a campaign to put a countywide referendum on the ballot in March that would let voters decide the issue.

“The public wants to have some say in the sale of these bonds,” said John Stodder, a spokesman for Community Memorial. “It’s their money that’s being put out there.”

Meanwhile, county supervisors have scheduled a press conference this morning at the Ventura County Government Center to discuss pursuing legal action against Community Memorial for its attempt to place a referendum on the March ballot.

The supervisors have repeatedly voiced concerns that the hospital has used misleading and inaccurate information in its gathering of signatures for its petition drive. The hospital must collect nearly 23,000 signatures by Nov. 9 in order to qualify a referendum for the March ballot.

But County Counsel James McBride said he believes Community Memorial has missed its chance to legally qualify a referendum for the ballot.

Under the law, McBride said, Community Memorial must collect petition signatures within 30 days of the Board of Supervisors’ decision authorizing the sale of the hospital certificates.

Although the board voted recently to change the agency that will insure the certificates, McBride said the supervisors actually authorized their sale last December.

But Stodder of Community Memorial said the hospital’s attorneys believe it has sufficient grounds to move ahead with its referendum.