Russian River group touts push to sever ties with Palm Drive health district

A group of west Sonoma County taxpayers say they now have almost two-thirds of the voter signatures required to trigger a key review of whether the Palm Drive Health Care District is fulfilling its mandate to provide medical services to taxpayers throughout its sprawling jurisdiction.

The group, which calls itself Taxpayers Against Unfair Taxes, or TAUT, claims the district is falling far short in that mission and embarked on a petition drive two months ago that is aimed at detaching a large geographic area from the taxing district, which provides a $1 million subsidy to the newly opened Sonoma West Medical Center in Sebastopol.

“We’re going to continue to circulate the petition and get our signatures,” said Carolyn Harris, a lead member of TAUT.

On Wednesday, Harris held up a stack of signed petitions while addressing the agency that regulates the boundaries of cities and special districts and would ultimately rule on the detachment issue. The entity is known as the Sonoma County Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO.

After the meeting, Harris said the commission “is compelled to address our petition” if her group can gather signatures from 25 percent of the registered voters, or a little more than 2,000 voters who live in the segment of the district that is proposed for detachment. The area includes residential parcels within the Monte Rio, Guerneville and Forestville school districts, a step that could present a significant challenge to the medical center going forward.

TAUT advocates claim that over the years, residents along the Russian River corridor have received little benefit from the Palm Drive Health Care District.

Meanwhile, district officials say they are trying to correct any past oversight and have entered into several contracts to provide medical services to the Russian River area, including home support, wound care and dental services. Services for seniors are a priority, said Alanna Brogan, executive director of the district.

“Most of the focus has been on the hospital, but I think we have demonstrated the will to provide services in the Russian River area,” Brogan said.

Some Russian River corridor residents had sought to get the hospital district itself to spearhead a review of district services, known as a municipal services review. Such a review is needed for LAFCO members to consider detachment proposals.

But on Monday, the hospital district formally opposed detachment and rejected the call to spend any money on the effort.

Two days later, on Wednesday, LAFCO, which includes Sonoma County Supervisors Efren Carrillo and Susan Gorin as regular members, voted not to go forward with a service review until a detachment application is filed. A successful voter petition would trigger such an application, said Mark Bramfitt, LAFCO executive officer.

“If we get one, an application, and it certainly appears that we will, then LAFCO will do a study,” Bramfitt said.

Harris said TAUT has gathered about 1,200 signatures in just two months and that the group has until February to collect the remaining signatures. There are about 8,000 registered voters in the three school districts, she said.

Harris said the group will continue to gather signatures through the holidays: going door-to-door, posting signs about the issue, setting up petition stations at local businesses and reaching out into the local community.

“We attend all community events,” she said. “We have a street list of all registered voters.”

Detachment supporters have said that the new hospital does not serve the needs of Russian River corridor residents. Some argue that the new Sutter Health hospital in Santa Rosa is much easier to get to than the Sebastopol facility.

Brogan, the hospital district executive director, said she was pleased with LAFCO’s decision to not go forward with the municipal services review, calling it premature as the medical center has just reopened.

“We will need some time to study what the referral pattern will be, in terms of where in the district we’re getting patients from,” she said.

Brogan said the district would need six months to a year to determine whether Russian River residents were utilizing the hospital in significant numbers.

During the LAFCO meeting, there was some dispute over the scope of the review. Bramfitt said the aim of the review would be to determine whether the district was able to financially meet its objectives and obligations to provide medical services.

“Our purview is really to understand whether the district is sustainable,” he said, adding that half the roughly $4 million generated by the taxing district is going to its current debt and that more is likely to be spent on debt after the district emerges from its second bankruptcy.

That bankruptcy is “obviously going to hit them further; they have less and less money to provide services today,” Bramfitt said.

The hospital district’s expanded efforts in the Russian River include partnering with the West County Health Centers, a nonprofit health care group that provides primary medical services.

The contract includes $34,500 for the Russian River Area Resources and Advocates to do health outreach work; $46,675 for in-home support service training; $63,825 for after-hours medical and dental care; and $17,250 for wound care.

At the LAFCO meeting, one detachment supporter said it was too little, too late.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.