Proposed Outpatient Wing Attacked : Health: Mailers, sponsored by private hospital, fault method of financing planned for $51-million addition at public facility.

Community Memorial Hospital is sending out a blizzard of political mailers in its escalating effort to block construction of a $51-million outpatient wing at Ventura County Medical Center.

Signed by a group called Taxpayers for Quality Health Care, which is sponsored by the private hospital, the four-page letter first hit mailboxes Tuesday. The Sacramento political consulting firm that designed the mailer would not specify the number of letters sent, but said it had mailed them to thousands of frequent voters across the county.

Community Memorial contends that the public hospital would use the new wing to lure away patients.

The letter asks for campaign donations and urges voters to send their county supervisor an enclosed petition. The petition states that Ventura County residents “deserve the right to vote” on whether the county should issue $51 million in bond-like certificates to pay for the outpatient wing.

The letter says the financing plan violates the spirit of Proposition 13, the landmark 1978 initiative that said government could not raise property taxes without the approval of two-thirds of affected voters.

The hospital financing plan does not involve raising property taxes to repay the debt. Instead, officials say, they will receive federal reimbursements of at least 51% of the project’s cost, with the remainder being covered by operating revenues.

And unlike regular bonds, the “certificates of participation” being used to finance construction require no voter approval because they expose the county to limited liability.

Certificates of participation have been used by counties and public jurisdictions across the state to build schools, courthouses and other public buildings since Proposition 13 passed. The county built the east county sheriff’s facility, its Hall of Administration in Ventura, and other buildings using the certificates. The $27.5 million in certificates used to build the Hall of Administration was paid off earlier this year.

County officials say the financing plan is not an attempt to circumvent voters.

“It is legal and is common throughout California by all governmental jurisdictions,” said Bert Bigler, the county’s chief deputy administrative officer.

But Community Memorial has questioned whether the county can afford the debt. “The problem with it is, it doesn’t mean you don’t have long-term debt and that you don’t have to pay it back,” said John McDermott, an attorney representing the private hospital.

Community Memorial representatives have argued that the new wing is not necessary and amounts to unfair competition. Earlier this month, Community Memorial gathered enough signatures to place a countywide referendum on the new building on the March ballot.

The county says the medical center needs the new outpatient facility to consolidate clinics housed in aging, leased buildings. The outpatient wing, county officials say, will not lure private patients away from Community Memorial because the facility does not add any hospital beds.

County officials said the Community Memorial letter is misleading because it claims that the county may spend $51 million in taxpayer dollars. Dr. Samuel Edwards, the county hospital’s medical director, said the federal government has agreed to reimburse at least 51% of the project’s cost because the hospital treats mainly Medi-Cal patients. Edwards said the hospital would pay off the remaining amount using hospital revenues and money saved by consolidating clinics in the new wing.

The county has filed a lawsuit to block Community Memorial’s ballot initiative; arguments in that case will be heard Friday.