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Opponents of SoHum Measure K Speak Out · KMUD News

• 0:00
  Speaker A: We've covered Measure K in Southern Humboldt at length on KMUD News. That includes direct conversations with those behind the measure in our full length broadcast of the Measure K town hall from the Matteal center in Redway. After presenting the ballot measure and as much information from the health district as possible, we want to turn our coverage to those strongly opposed to Measure K. As a reminder, Measure k is the $25 million bond measure in Southern Humboldt to help build a new hospital for the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District. The bonds would be over a 30 year period and would cost property owners in the district approximately $80 per $100,000 of assessed value per year. KMUD News spoke directly with two longtime community members strongly opposed to the Measure K effort. We'll also play audio of an additional community member expressing dissent at a recent Soham Health Board meeting. We'll start off with Celeste Gialonzo, who worked for the Southern Humboldt Community healthcare district from 1990 to 2006, primarily as a nurse. Celeste is critical of Soham Health's other developments, including on Redwood Drive in Garberville, which she believes has taken focus away from a true hospital funding effort.
• 1:23
  Speaker B: Then I drive around town and luscious property, hospitals buying, Main street, the hospital's buying. Then I see we have a CT scan room, imaging center. I wonder, how do you get an image center without having a hospital? But they did it. I think they put the cart before the horse. When I drive past town and I see that new building being built on the corner where optometry should be, but it's in an rv. Who paid for the rv? Are we in debt for the rv? Who paid for this structure on Main Street? Are we in debt for that? All I see with Measure K is debt.
• 2:10
  Speaker A: Celeste Giulonzo is also skeptical of the proposed Soham Hospital's sheer size and wonders who it's being built for.
• 2:18
  Speaker B: Who's coming to this huge hospital they're creating and you know, I mean, listen to Bob Dylan, you know, strengthen what remains. I mean, yeah, it's a great dream. I love it. It's a great dream. But are they here? Are the people coming here? I mean, that's a huge hospital. And the other hospital that we have right now, what is that going to become? Skilled nursing. Why not still the clinic? It's still okay in there, you know? You know, they just spend our money and think that we're going to pay anytime they tell us to vote yes, no. Got to stand up for our rights. You can't use my money anymore. I work hard for My money.
• 2:59
  Speaker A: Another longtime Southern Humboldt community member opposed to Measure K is Darrell Czerny, the political activist and host of School Days on kmud. Darrell's experience as a Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District governing board member from January of 2007 to Dec 2010 informed his stance on the issue.
• 3:22
  Speaker C: I feel that the board of directors at the hospital, the board of governors of the hospital, has not been honest with the community. Two things they put out there that are completely false is one, they will not issue the bond unless they get matching funds. Nowhere in Measure K does it say that they can take out that $25 million and do whatever they want with it. Building wise. And to give you an example, they've already spent $1.9 million on this, what I would call a boondoggle on Redwood Drive where they bought a house, bought three buildings or a series of buildings for 300,000, and now they're spending millions and millions to renovate it. They basically had to rip the thing apart where they could have just bought an existing structure from the credit union or from Organic Grace that that was in decent condition for maybe $800,000 and not had to spend maybe $4 million to fix it. So financial improprieties, bad management. Why do we need to do this? Taking up parking spots during the tourist season? The problem is that I don't trust the people who are making the decisions. If they can't build a building in the middle of Redwood Drive, I don't trust them to build a hospital.
• 4:34
  Speaker A: Darrell Charney also pointed to Measure K funds not being legally bound to building a new hospital. The Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District governing board recently convened to pledge they would only spend Measure K funds on construction costs and equipment. But that is not part of the measure itself.
• 4:53
  Speaker C: The second thing they're telling people is they will only spend money on a hospital. And that is not in the. That is not in the measure. And they are under no legal obligation to do that. In fact, it's illegal to change a measure once it's passed. And the measure very clearly states that they can spend it on anything. It has to do with structures and that they also can. That they're not under any obligation to do any specific project. That's as clear as day in the measure. And so with a measure written so vaguely and with matching funds being so overpriced, I don't trust the people who are making the decisions. And that's pretty much the reason why, yes, I favor renovating the old hospital. Now, they say they can't retrofit it actually they can. But I would like to see in writing what the estimate was for retrofitting the old hospital. I'd like to see in writing what the money would be for that. And my understanding is that they totally can do that. So let's keep the old one or if we're going to build a new one, a more modest structure that is within our means.
• 6:05
  Speaker A: Darrell detailed his concerns on additional projects by the Southern Humboldt community Healthcare District, including a recently approved $10 million private bond sale in part to help with continuing project costs along with district operations.
• 6:21
  Speaker C: Well, they just took out a $10 million bond slash loan to finance what's happening in Redwood Drive as well as general operating expenses. So they're not making enough money to sustain themselves. And before this measure even guest goes to a vote, they've taken out a $10 million debt to generate revenue. Right now we've got plenty of facilities right there in the existing structure. I've been there, I've worked there. I know. And if they want to have more facilities, they could have simply bought a building that didn't need a $4.5 million renovation because it was falling apart. Everybody knew just the place had been condemned by the county for mold. And then they took it apart and everything's falling apart right down to the floor of which there is no floor there at the moment. It's basically a giant sandbox. So they could have bought $800,000 and if they needed the room, the credit union building that is not in use or organic grace. But no, they went ahead and paid cash without a building inspection.
• 7:29
  Speaker A: Darrell Charney says that expanding the number of employees in the health district has not directly benefited the local economy.
• 7:37
  Speaker C: Well, when I was in the district up until 2010 as a board member, they had about 75 employees. Now we have about 180, and about 80 something of those are from out of town. So they are not here locally, they're not hiring locally. They are hiring from out of town. So it's not helping the local economy in that way. It is also not the job of the hospital to improve the local economy. It is the job of the hospital to provide health care. And that should be their number one priority. So dangling the carrot of it's going to improve the local economy is the same as dangling the carrot of legal cannabis and getting a permit is going to improve the local economy. These are false promises.
• 8:20
  Speaker A: More voices against measure K have made their points known at the health district's governing board meetings. One of those voices is Patty Butler, a CPA based in Redway. Patti took issue with the recent Soham Health Board resolution to only use Measure K funds for new hospital construction. She also raised concerns at the cost of getting the measure on the ballot. Here's some of her remarks from the recent Soham Health special governing board meeting.
• 8:48
  Speaker D: Measure K is costing the district over $200,000 to do. The bond documents are 11 pages and I assume each board member read those 1, 2, 3, 4 times before you voted on it. If you My opinion is if you wanted or intended the bond money to be used exclusively for the building of a new hospital, you could have or should have stated that in the context of the measure. But you didn't. You didn't want to. Now it's on the ballot. No exclusive use in the in the measure on the ballot. It can't be changed. Now. This seems to be some sort of last minute language change which isn't technically going to happen. And like I said, this resolution is not binding. I think it's just a process and quite frankly people are classifying this as a political stunt. The board wasn't willing to put this in the measure in the first place. And I guess there's a bigger question as you didn't do it then, why would you do it now? And again, it's not binding. I think you are going to be operating off of what the measure on the ballot is which says what you can use the money for.
• 10:01
  Speaker A: You've just heard from Celeste Galanzo, Darrell Czerny and Patty Butler, 3 Southern Humboldt Community members who oppose Measure K and its issuance of $25 million in municipal bonds to build a new hospital. What is notable about all three speakers is their inherent distrust of our local health district and its intentions. For Darrell and Celeste, while their direct involvement with Soham Health ended a decade or two ago, their feelings and recognition of consistent funding patterns remain. Supporters of Measure K point to the need for a new hospital, and so Hum Health maintains that it is not feasible to seismically retrofit the current Gerald Phelps facility. The health district also argues that projects on Redwood Drive are revenue generating and will help fund the district's future. Ultimately, voters inside the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District will have to decide It'll take a 2/3 majority vote in order to pass Measure K in Southern Humboldt on November 3rd. For KMUD news, I'm April Lewis.