Forum fails to quell critics

Some South Laguna residents left Mission Hospital’s first community forum with more questions than they had when they arrived.

The forum, on the Laguna Beach campus Monday, was billed by the Laguna campus Chief of Operations Michael Beck as an opportunity to learn more about the hospital operations and an opportunity to ask some questions. But the answers did not satisfy some of the audience.

“I wasn’t disappointed because my expectations weren’t very high,” South Laguna Civic Assn. President Bill Rihn said.

At the end of the meeting, Rihn said he heard one person ask another, “How did you like the answers?” The response, Rihn said, was “What answers?”

“Our feeling was that the community wasn’t being welcomed, that we were possibly being placated, but it wasn’t working,” said former Mayor Ann Christoph, who lives and owns a business in South Laguna.

About 20 people attended the forum, for which 400 invitations were sent.

Among the questions raised by Rihn and left unanswered to his satisfaction was the names of the members of the Community Advisory Committee. The committee was required by the state attorney general.

The names are being withheld, except for Chairs Tim Carlyle, Dan Kelly and Melissa Masson, all Laguna Beach residents, until committee members give their permission, hospital spokeswoman Kelsey Martinez said.

“This is not the way it should be done,” Christoph told the City Council on Tuesday, noting Thursday that former Mayor Cheryl Kinsman and businessman Mark Christy attended a Planning Commission hearing on hospital signage and identified themselves as committee members.

However, hospital officials said committee meetings will definitely not be open to the public, which really rankled Rihn.

“I believe in transparency and my standards have not been met,” Rihn said.

After Christoph’s remarks during public communications Tuesday, Councilwoman Toni Iseman asked City Atty. Philip Kohn to investigate the legality of closed meetings and disclosure of committee members’ names.

Questions also were submitted at the forum about the rents being charged for the offices in the buildings in front of the hospital, which now has many vacancies due to rent increases, Christoph said.

The audience was told that the federal government required a study of rents and that they be set at market rate.

“Considering all the empty offices, maybe the market rate is too high,” Christoph said.

Christoph, who monitors development in South Laguna, said the office buildings were approved with the understanding that the large number of suites was needed for doctors who would support the operation of the hospital in the long term.

Christoph opined that Mission is systematically getting rid of doctors who have been the life blood of the hospital.

Martinez said Thursday that a newsletter will be mailed in about two weeks providing an update on issues raised at the forum. And another forum is scheduled in December.

Christoph was also less than thrilled about hospital signage approved Wednesday night by the Planning Commission: 2 1/2 -foot high, back-lit letters on the tower.

“The commission voted unanimously in favor of the sign,” Commissioner Anne Johnson said. “We thought the application was well reasoned. However, we did feel that the request for a 6-foot-tall monument sign was a bit much, and the hospital was cooperated with our request to reduce it.”

The Design Review Board was scheduled to hear the hospital’s proposal on exterior color Thursday and a landscape plan is to be submitted.

“All three should have been reviewed simultaneously,” Christoph said. “And the hospital should have met with neighbors and gotten input.

“Everybody wants the hospital to succeed. There is no reason not to have amicable relations with South Laguna residents, but it has been set up from the beginning as confrontational.”