Voters to Decide Fate of Hospital Expansion : Health care: Judge rules that referendum, not supervisors, will determine if outpatient wing is added at Ventura County Medical Center.

In a stunning blow to Ventura County Medical Center officials, a judge ruled Monday that county voters and not the Board of Supervisors will decide the fate of a $51-million outpatient wing planned for the public hospital.

Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Ronald C. Stevens’ ruling means that a countywide referendum on the project’s financing will go before voters on March 26.

The judge’s decision was cheered by Community Memorial officials, who sponsored a costly signature-gathering campaign to get the referendum placed on the ballot after supervisors voted to issue bond-like certificates to pay for the outpatient wing.

Community Memorial, located two blocks from the county hospital in Ventura, has maintained that the proposed ambulatory care clinic would drive the county deeper into debt and would ultimately be used to lure private patients from other hospitals.

“We’re very gratified that the court in Santa Barbara refused to allow the county to effectively slip this past the voters,” said Michael Bakst, executive director of Community Memorial. “The voters should be allowed to vote on this without the county intervening.”

County officials expressed frustration and disappointment over the judge’s ruling, saying that it will be extremely tough to counter Community Memorial’s efforts to win voter support for its referendum.

“This was a real blow to the county,” said Supervisor Maggie Kildee. “How do you counter lies told by Community Memorial when they have an unlimited amount of money to spend?”

Supervisor Frank Schillo, who along with Supervisor John Flynn was in Washington on business Monday, said in a telephone interview that the judge’s decision “flies in the face of common sense.”

Schillo said the ruling puts millions of dollars in federal funding for the outpatient project in jeopardy, with the money possibly going to another county.

“If we lose that money, it’s gone,” he said. “It’s not replaceable.”

Schillo said he would be willing to support an appeal of the judge’s ruling if the county wishes to take such action.

Kildee and two other board members will meet in closed session this morning to discuss what course the county will pursue. The board was previously scheduled to vote today on whether to place the referendum on the ballot.

County Counsel Noel Klebaum said that the supervisors are limited in their options. He said the board could file an appeal, but that it would take six months or more before the case is heard and it would not preclude the referendum from going on the ballot.

If the appeal were successful, it would simply invalidate the referendum in the event it is approved by voters in March, Klebaum said.

The supervisors could also seek a writ of mandate from the Court of Appeal that would immediately overturn Stevens’ ruling and keep the referendum off the ballot, he said.

But Klebaum said that there is no guarantee that a writ would be granted, whereas an appeal would at least assure the county of a hearing.

John McDermott, a lawyer representing Community Memorial, said that the chances of the county winning an appeal are practically nil.

“I think it will just be slapped down by the courts,” he said. “And in the meantime, an election is going to take place. The voters are going to have their say.”

The county and Community Memorial have been warring over the proposed public hospital project for years. Community Memorial, which lost an earlier lawsuit to derail the project, believes that the ambulatory clinic is intended to expand county operations in order to compete for private patients.

County hospital officials, however, have argued that the clinic is not an expansion, but a consolidation of existing facilities housed in buildings that have fallen into disrepair. They said the consolidation would save the county $1 million a year on rent.

Community Memorial Hospital officials said that they also oppose the project because of potential federal health care cutbacks, which they said could mean that county taxpayers would end up footing the entire bill for the project.

Pierre Durand, director of the county’s Health Care Agency, said the county has no intention of raising property taxes. He said that at least 51% of the cost of the outpatient clinic would be paid for with federal grant money, which is administered by the state, and the rest with improved hospital revenues.

Durand said that the grant money was already committed to the county and he did not believe there was any chance of it being lost to federal cutbacks. Durand said if the county does not receive the grant money, another jurisdiction would.

After losing its own lawsuit against the county hospital, Community Memorial launched its referendum campaign in October.

The county filed a lawsuit to disqualify the referendum last month, saying that the hospital had missed the deadline for filing its petition signatures.

The county maintained in its lawsuit that the Board of Supervisors had given final approval on financing for the project on Dec. 13, 1994, and that Community Memorial had only 30 days from that time to file its referendum signatures.

But Judge Stevens sided with Community Memorial in its argument that the supervisors’ decision was only tentative. In his ruling, Stevens said that the board did not take final action until Oct. 10 of this year when it voted to change underwriters for the certificates of participation needed to pay for the project.