From the Mayor of Santa Paula

Last December, the Santa Paula Memorial Hospital declared bankruptcy and suspended its operations. Since then, the City of Santa Paula, and the entire Santa Clara Valley, has been without local hospital services placing the health and safety of over 60,000 residents of East Ventura, Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru at risk. Santa Paula City Councilmembers have diligently worked, often behind the scenes, over the past several months to develop solutions that will re-open the hospital. This past spring, the City Council and Santa Paula Redevelopment Agency created the Santa Paula Community Healthcare Authority to provide additional resources to the efforts to reopen the hospital. Through these efforts, it became clear to my colleagues on the City Council and I that the only viable solution for reopening the Hospital would be to divide the Hospital property into two parcels: one parcel containing the Hospital and a second parcel of undeveloped hospital-owned land that could be sold to a private developer for residential development. The proceeds from the sale of the land in two pieces would generate far more revenue than just trying to sell the property to a qualified health care provider; enough revenue in fact to satisfy the Hospital’s creditors and allow the Hospital to re-open.Under the leadership of Supervisor Kathy Long, the County of Ventura has worked with the City for over a year to develop a plan that would allow the County to assume responsibility for, and re-open, the Hospital. The County runs an excellent health care operation through Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura and clinics throughout the county. The management of the Health Care Agency is considered some of the finest health administrators in the State. A large stumbling block to the County’s efforts has been to identify a reasonable purchase price for the property combined with the needed resources to once again open the hospital. Once the Santa Paula City Council last spring signaled its willingness to consider rezoning the land surrounding the Hospital for residential uses, the costs for purchasing just the Hospital proper became much more realistic for the County of Ventura to consider.The City has worked closely with the County and the committee of creditors of the Hospital to craft an agreement that will allow the County to assume Hospital operations. Reopening a closed hospital is no small effort and the County has been extremely diligent in making sure that this proposition makes sense not only for the residents of the Santa Clara Valley, but to all taxpayers in Ventura County. The County Board of Supervisors is set to vote on a proposed agreement at its Tuesday, September 14, 2004 meeting.On behalf of the City Council and all residents of Santa Paula, I commend the Ventura County Board of Supervisors for not giving up and working hard to develop a plan to re-open Santa Paula Memorial Hospital. After over a year of discussions and negotiations, the time has come for the County on Tuesday to approve the plan and move forward with its implementation. In today’s complex world, it frequently becomes difficult for elected officials to take action that clearly results in a beneficial impact on a large segment of our residents. This is not one of those occasions. This is one of the rare opportunities where the County Supervisors can fulfill their obligations to the public without any question that they are doing the right thing. As an elected official, I know how rewarding such action can be and I salute the Supervisors for making the right choice to reopen the Santa Paula Memorial Hospital.I encourage all residents of the Santa Clara Valley to contact the members of the Board of Supervisors directly before Tuesday’s meeting to thank them for taking action to re-open the Hospital. I also welcome residents to join me and other members of the Santa Paula community at the Board of Supervisor’s meeting on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 at 8:30 AM at the Ventura County Government Center to commend them in person.Action always speaks louder than words.