The Palm Drive Healthcare District Election [Archive]

Barry

10-22-2014, 11:23 AM

With Palm Drive Hospital being closed and in bankruptcy for the second time in a few years, one of the most important elections this year for the 2 seats on the board of the Palm Drive Healthcare District. It is the district that levies the parcel tax of $155 and uses that money to support the hospital.

There are 3 people running for the 2 seats. "The Doc and the Cop" (Richard Powers and Dennis Colthust) fully embrace the plan put together by the Palm Drive Health Care Foundation ("Open Our Hospital"). The third candidate, Jim Horn, still has concerns about the plan.

Here's a couple of videos about this election.

The first is a complete video of the Open Our Hospital Town Hall on Oct 2th in Sebastopol where the Palm Drive HC Foundation presented the latest incarnation of their plan including a presentation by Ray Hino the new CEO hired to manage Sonoma West Medical Center (which is the name of a new LLC that would be "hired" to operate the hospital, as I understand it). It's a bit long, but it's worth watching to understand what they are proposing. Of particular interest to Waccos, is that they plan to include "Complementary Medical Services" such as acupuncture, massage, herbal medicine, nutritional therapy, and Hypnotherapy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byaSxRQe1d0

The second is an interview I recorded with Jim Horn where he explains some of his concerns and views.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL6X4hOwkes
( this is the updated video)

You can see a list of other threads concerning Palm Drive Hospital by clicking here (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/tags.php?tag=palmdrivehospitial).

John Eder

10-22-2014, 02:26 PM

[I]“There are 3 people running for the 2 seats. "The Doc and the Cop" (Richard Powers and Dennis Colthust) fully embrace the plan put together by the Palm Drive Health Care Foundation ("Open Our Hospital"). The third candidate, Jim Horn, still has concerns about the plan.”

As clearly elucidated by Jim Horn in his interview, there really is no “plan” at this point. All the public has to base their decisions upon is a well-prepared graphic document with a lot of concepts/ideas and pretty pictures. No financial data has been released by the Foundation, to date, that shows any correlation between the “plan” and financial reality. It is unlikely that the Foundation will release any financial data prior to this election. Is this an intentional withholding of information to avoid a negative reflection on “The Doc and The Cop”? Only Dan Smith and the Foundation can answer that question.

To state that “The Doc and The Cop” fully embrace “the plan” is actually to say that they fully embrace a marketing brochure without substantiation, whereas “The Engineer” displays a more cautious approach that asks, “Please explain how you intend to pay for all of these ideas and concepts.”