As some of you know, I was a director of the Palm Drive Health Care District for several years. Last May, I resigned from the board out of frustration with the District’s poor fiscal management and governance. Instead, I decided to work to dissolve the Palm Drive District entirely. By dissolving the District now, we can guarantee that all of our parcel taxes go only to pay off old debt (still over $25 million, which won’t be paid off until 2034) and ensure the District doesn’t borrow even more money in the future—or even worse, fall into a third bankruptcy.
The District was created by voters 20 years ago with one single purpose--to support a community hospital with an emergency room. The current parcel tax, created by voters via Measure W in 2004, had the same purpose. Now, the emergency room (and surgical operating rooms) have been closed for more than a year, and the hospital itself has been sold to a private, for-profit corporation—for far less than it’s worth.
Now, the District has no voter-approved purpose and no voter-approved source of funds. But some District leaders want to keep it going indefinitely, with excessive overhead and the possibility of even more debt.
We need to end the District now. To do that, we need to gather signatures from 10% of the registered voters in the District—about 2400 people. If you agree, you can help us in the following ways:
• Come to one of our community meetings on January 15 at the Sebastopol Public Library. We have meetings scheduled at 11 AM and again at 7 PM. We will present the facts, answer questions, and have petitions available to sign and possibly distribute to others.
• Read about the issues in last week's Sonoma West Times & News: Petition afoot to dissolve Palm Drive Health Care District
• Visit our website at DissolveTheDistrict.com
• Visit our Facebook page , follow us and share with your friends.
• Visit our Twitter page (https://twitter.com/EndTheDistrict) and follow us.
The time has come to End the District. Please help us. Thank you very much.
Jim Horn