Sniping Heavy in Battle for Tobacco Dollars

If it’s a political rally, forum or fund-raiser, chances are good that Neal Andrews and his pink pamphlets will be there.

Andrews is the pugnacious campaign manager for the Coalition Against Measure O, an initiative sponsored by Community Memorial Hospital that would wrest $260 million in tobacco settlement money from the county and give it to area private hospitals.

“We are fighting a guerrilla campaign,” Andrews said. “We will be more flexible, faster, quicker, better than the out-of-town hired guns brought in by Community Memorial.”

That’s a tall order for a group facing a highly scripted foe with the will and resources to steamroll opponents.

The coalition has roughly 100 members representing half a dozen unions, health agencies and minority advocacy groups.

Both sides say they will use the money for health-care programs.

But Community Memorial charges the coalition with working hand-in-glove with the county, doing its bidding now for greater rewards down the road.

Indeed, some coalition members have strong county ties.

Andrews, the principal spokesman for the group, was assistant administrator of Ventura County Medical Center in 1985 and 1986 and is now the unpaid chairman of the county Mental Health Board.

He also once worked as a consultant for Community Memorial Hospital, which he now publicly vilifies.

Fred Woocher, the attorney representing the coalition, had earlier represented the county in its attempt to keep Measure O off the ballot.

Barry Hammitt heads the Service Employees International Union Local 998, which has about 4,200 member employees who work for the county.

Coalition members and county officials scoff at accusations that they expect to be rewarded for supporting the county’s effort to retain the tobacco money--about $10 million a year for the next 25 years.

“They are trying to impugn people with good hearts who have come forward to say Community Memorial is wrong,” said County Supervisor Frank Schillo. CMH’s bid is “worse than big government, it’s big nonprofit flexing its muscle without any accountability.”

If the county gets the money, coalition members say they will line up with other interest groups and make their pitch for a piece of it. But if the hospitals get the money, they say, no one will know how it is used.

It’s an uphill battle.

Community Memorial has retained Fleishman-Hillard, one of the world’s biggest public relations firms, to handle its publicity and Goddard Claussen, a top campaign consulting firm, to design its election campaign strategy. Goddard Claussen was behind the “Harry and Louise” commercials that helped sink First Lady Hillary Clinton’s national health-care plan.

And one of Community Memorial’s lawyers, Steven Merksamer, is the former chief of staff for ex-Gov. George Deukmejian.

As of July, Community Memorial, facing no organized opposition as yet, had spent $520,000 on the campaign.

Radio spots have aired, mailers have been sent and more are on the way.

Andrews describes his enemies pungently.

“Community Memorial has hired all these political maggots who throw money around to corrupt our government processes,” he said. “They will feed on the rotting flesh of corporate gain at our expense.”

Former Associate Becomes Adversary

Michael Bakst, executive director of Community Memorial Hospital, is troubled by Neal Andrews.

When Andrews worked as a consultant for CMH several years ago, Bakst said, Andrews proposed a marketing plan that would help Community Memorial compete against Ventura County Medical Center, where Andrews once was an administrator.

“It was his clear intent to make sure the county hospital would not get market share,” Bakst said.

Community Memorial rejected the plan and the two parted ways, said Bakst.

Andrews declines to discuss his work for any former clients.

“I am a consultant, I deal with strategic business plans with many health-care districts,” he said. “I can’t discuss them in any way. I have worked for many clients in Southern California and private hospitals in Ventura County.”

Bakst said Andrews approached him again a year ago, this time offering his public relations services.

“He said, ‘I can help you enhance the image of your hospital,’ ” Bakst said. “We rejected it outright. I wasn’t crazy about his thoughts on this.”

Bakst questions how Andrews could so easily switch sides between his hospital and the county medical center.

“I think he is trying to make a name for himself with the county,” Bakst said. “He is trying to feather his nest for when this is all over with.”

The 57-year-old Andrews, a Ventura resident, said he was disappointed by Bakst’s statements.

“Someone, somewhere sold Bakst a bill of goods that said the county medical center is a threat to his existence,” he said. “However it happened, he’s obsessed. I expect his head to spin around and him to vomit up green slime when he talks about it. What quality private hospital is threatened by the county?”

Far from feathering his nest, Andrews, who owns a health-care consulting business, says he will most likely lose money.

“If anything, there is a substantial business risk to me,” he said. “My friends warned me this would be detrimental to my business in Southern California. I think it would be difficult in the short term to expect a new contract from [area hospitals].”

Either way, Andrews is getting noticed.

When Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader spoke in Ventura this month, Andrews delivered a 20-minute speech beforehand condemning Measure O to the 2,000 audience members. He was invited to do so by Green Party members who oppose the measure.

During his last guerrilla skirmish, he showed up at a luncheon for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) in Oxnard on Monday and began handing out fliers.

A Community Memorial employee attending the event reported the activity to organizers, and Andrews was asked to leave. Police were called after he refused, citing freedom of speech, but he left before they arrived.

“That was the most extreme case so far,” he chuckled.

Turning Outrage Into Action

Unlike Andrews, coalition chairman David Maron is a quiet man. The former director of the Camarillo Health Care District, he now owns a computer business that develops software for health-care companies.

His mother, Dorothy, has sat on the Oxnard Planning Commission and the Oxnard City Council and has worked closely with the local Democratic Party.

“I’ve never done any business with the county, never had any projects with the county,” said the 42-year-old Ventura resident. “None of my clients worked for the county. I have zero to gain from the county.”

He said he got involved out of sheer outrage.

“In reading this initiative, I said, ‘This doesn’t make any sense,’ ” he said. “We have this great tobacco settlement and here comes this private hospital angling for our settlement. I felt Community Memorial was reaching right into my pocket. I was flabbergasted by the audacity. I wasn’t thinking I would lead the crusade. I just wanted to write a check to someone.”

But there was no one to write a check to.

He talked to others who felt the same way.

The day after a judge ruled that the county could not keep the measure off the ballot, as it had tried to do, the coalition formed.

Although it had no money and little in the way of a strategy, members began protesting outside the seven, local private hospitals that would get a share of the $260 million if Measure O prevails.

Then they asked Andrews to join them. He insisted on a contract and a salary. Two months later, Andrews has still seen no money.

“I don’t think I’ll get rich doing this,” he said.

Maron said he’s getting contributions ranging from $10 to $1,000.

“We don’t have to spend the same amount CMH does,” he said. “They have an enormous hurdle to overcome. They have one donor, and we have many sources.”

Barry Hammitt, of the service employees union, is contacting other unions for help in the fight.

Hammitt opposes the measure because he fears that if the county doesn’t get the money, his members could lose their jobs.

“We are trying to put together a revenue stream of support for Ventura County Medical Center,” he said.

He has had his own experiences with Community Memorial. Hammitt said he was thrown out of the hospital while trying to organize employees.

Other coalition members make no secret of their desire to funnel money to their projects.

Debbie Weeks, executive director of the American Lung Assn. of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, hopes to use 15% of the money for tobacco prevention programs. She lets the coalition use her Oxnard office for its meetings.

Ed Nani, president of the Ventura County chapter of the National Assn. for the Mentally Ill, wants money for housing the mentally ill.

“We want to get the mentally ill off the streets and get them proper medication,” Nani said. “That’s our stake in this.”

Said Jim Lott, a spokesman for the seven area hospitals that will get the money if the measure passes: “There are no saints in this. They are just as much a special interest as me. I’d mask it if I could, too, but I have this big hospital label on me.”

For Maron, the issue is simple.

“It’s just greed,” he said. “They are like adolescents playing marbles. They have the most marbles anyway, but if they don’t get them all they throw a tantrum.”