Public set to weigh in

Barbara Diamond

City and South Coast Medical Center officials want to know exactly

what the community will support to keep the hospital in town.

The City Council approved a public poll on Tuesday to gauge which,

if any, additional uses residents will accept to keep the hospital

from leaving town. The cost of the poll is estimated to be between

$15,000 and $20,000, and will be split between the city and the

hospital.

“I firmly believe keeping the hospital is the number one issue in

town,” Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman said. “But I would like to get the

public’s opinion in a truly scientific poll.”

A joint city/hospital task force recommended the poll.

“We thank the city for its interest in the hospital and for

working diligently with us,” hospital President Gary Irish said.

The joint task force was formed after city officials reviewed in

September a study of city health care needs commissioned in response

to news stories that the hospital was considering a move to San Juan

Capistrano.

Even consideration of a move shocked city officials and residents.

“This is an example of what the city does and should not do,”

Kinsman said. “We take institutions like the Festival of Arts and the

hospital for granted. They’ve always been there and we think they

always will be there.”

Kinsman, Councilwoman Jane Egly, former Councilman Paul Freeman

and Assistant City Manager John Pietig represent the city on the task

force. Irish, and board members Kathleen Blackburn, Harold Kaufman,

Tim McMahon and Bruce Christian represent the hospital.

“We have been meeting once a month since October,” Pietig said.

The task force has discussed the difficulties in keeping a

financially viable hospital in Laguna while absorbing the estimated

$72 million to retro-fit the hospital to state mandated seismic

standards and upgrade infrastructure, while still operating under the

constraints of the campus.

However, relocating is also costly, probably more than $100

million. Land, financing and entitlements must be secured. And

selling the medical center is no piece of cake because of zoning and

limited uses.

“The hospital is now considering options for improving the

existing facility,” Pietig said.

A common, but untested, belief that the community might support

some additional uses at the site would be explored in the poll.

“Questions have not yet been formulated,” Pietig said.

One possible question is whether South Laguna would rise up in

wrath at the notion of rezoning the land behind the hospital for new

uses

“The city should stand firmly behind efforts to keep the

hospital,” South Laguna resident Will Harrison said. “In the last 18

months, my partner has gone twice to the emergency room for

life-threatening causes.

“The hospital is eight minutes from my house and I would hate to

lose that.”

State law does not allow a stand-alone emergency room. Without

hospital facilities, the city would be left at best with a walk-in

clinic.

The hospital opened in 1959.

Laguna Beach residents in the 1950s thought a hospital was so

important that they raised the money to build it on donated land,

prompted by the death of a police officer who died from a gunshot

wound while being transported out of town to the nearest medical

facility.

The hospital’s importance to the community will be tested by the

poll. Results should be available by the end of April to the council,

the hospital and the public.