The San Benito County Board of Supervisors is challenging the language of a ballot measure approved by the San Benito Health Care District Board regarding the sale of Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital. The move comes shortly after the county voted to put its own advisory measure on the Nov. 5 ballot.
The unanimous decision was made during an Aug. 6 board of supervisors special meeting, before the official public inspection period of measures and initiatives begins on Aug. 10. The board of supervisors will submit a writ of mandate to the hospital district board, which “commands lower bodies, including both courts and administrative agencies, to do or not to do certain things.”
The SBHCD on July 25 voted to approve the language of a ballot measure that would ask county voters whether to approve a lease-to-sale agreement with Michigan-based Insight Foundation of America.
The final text, which was amended to reflect Insight’s plans to create a California-based nonprofit to run the Hollister hospital, reads as follows:
“Without increasing taxes and to continue providing local access to lifesaving emergency medical care, surgery, radiology, long-term care, mother/baby care, clinic and physician services at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital, shall San Benito Health Care District’s measure be adopted, leasing (with option to sell) certain District real property assets and selling substantially all other District assets to nonprofit Insight Health Foundation of California, Inc. (or another qualified buyer) for fair market value, determined by independent appraisal, ensuring citizens’ oversight and continued hospital services in San Benito County?”
But the language of the ballot measure drew the attention of not only the board of supervisors, as San Benito County District Attorney Joel Buckingham also voiced his concerns to the board before their closed session to discuss the matter.
Buckingham said he was speaking as a private citizen, and had sent a note to County Counsel David Prentice’s office and SBHCD counsel Heidi Quinn. He thought the language of the hospital board’s measure would mislead the public.
“What the board is presenting to the public is the idea that you will be leasing the hospital and the board will retain the option to sell or not at the conclusion of that lease. That is actually, as I understand it, completely the opposite of what is happening with the transaction,” Buckingham said.
“So, effectively, voters are being given the impression that they will retain the power to decide whether or not the hospital shall be sold at the end of the lease—when the reality is that that choice, or power, will be solely in the hands of Insight,” Buckingham said.
In his Aug. 2 letter, which Buckingham shared with the Free Lance, he details his concerns over the hospital district board’s ability to have a say on the potential buyout of Hazel Hawkins by Insight after an initial five-year lease period.
“I have grave concerns that the ballot question as adopted to read ‘leasing (with option to sell)’ is misleading. Additionally, I have concerns that the statement regarding ‘ensuring citizens’ oversight’ is misleading and/or argumentative,” Buckingham wrote.
The issue with the phrase ‘ensuring citizens’ insight’, according to Buckingham, is that it might erroneously suggest that there will be public oversight on the terms of a buyout agreement.
While the initial term sheet approved by the SBHCD July 25 does not allude to citizen oversight of the buyout terms, it does outline as one of its terms that Insight “maintain a board that shall include a majority of its members as individuals who are independent of the Purchaser’s organization.”
Also included in the term sheet is the stipulation that, after a buyout, “prior to any sale by Insight, Insight shall provide the District with a right of first refusal to repurchase the transferred assets and real estate.”
Buckingham also provided in the letter his version of a revised ballot measure, which reads:
“Shall San Benito Health Care District’s measure be adopted, leasing and granting to nonprofit Insight Health Foundation of California, Inc. the option to buy certain District real property assets and selling substantially all other District assets to Insight (or another qualified buyer) for fair market value, determined by independent appraisal?”
“Certainly, it is within your power to word your ballot question as you may, but that comes with the understanding that registered voters may file with the court a Writ of Mandate to compel that ballot questions be true and impartial,” Bucking added.
SBHCD spokesperson Marcus Young declined a request for comment on the county’s action and on Buckingham’s letter.
According to the county elections website and state elections code, “Any voter of the jurisdiction or the county elections official may seek a writ of mandate or an injunction requiring any or all of the filed measure, or tax rate statements be amended or deleted.”
The 10-day public review period for measures filed for the Nov. 5 election begins on Aug. 10 at 8am.
