Senate Republicans urge closure of Sonoma Developmental Center

California’s Senate Republican leadership is pushing for the closure of two developmental centers that serve the severely disabled, including one near Sonoma where state and local officials are gathering today to advocate keeping the facility running.

Sen. Jeff Stone, R-Riverside County, has introduced legislation calling on the state to shut down the Sonoma Developmental Center and a similar facility in Orange County no later than Dec. 31, 2018, and diverting the money spent to operate the institutions to community-based regional centers.

In an interview Friday, Stone made the case that developmental centers are outdated, a waste of taxpayer money and not the best places to care for the disabled.

“The day of institutionalized care of these vulnerable patients is past its time,” the senator said. “It’s been shown when they (center residents) are in the community, they thrive better, they do better.”

That view has been vociferously challenged over the years by center advocates, who argue the facilities treat the most difficult cases and that they provide a better level of care than what can be found in community-based programs. Nearly half of the residents currently residing in a developmental center have been there more than 30 years, and 18 percent are over the age of 61, according to a state task force report.

Stone’s remarks drew a sharp rebuke Friday from North Coast Senator Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, who said it is “surprising that an individual from Riverside County, who has never participated in dozens of meetings the last several years focused on the developmental centers, and frankly, would be challenged to find Sonoma on the map, is all of a sudden interested in the Sonoma Developmental Center just three months after taking office in Sacramento.”

McGuire made the case that the main driver of the center’s future is its ongoing compliance issues with state and federal regulators.

The center in 2013 voluntarily withdrew federal certification for four units in the intermediate care facility, costing it $13 million annually in federal funding that had to be made up by the state’s general fund. The center currently is fighting to maintain federal certification for the remaining seven units in the intermediate care facility.

Nevertheless, calls have grown louder across the state in recent weeks for developmental centers to be mothballed.

Stone emphasized that the state’s budget for about 1,000 people residing in California’s remaining developmental centers is $500 million, which he said adds up to about $500,000 per resident. His bill, SB 639, would close the facilities and divert the money to community programs, which he said cost about $17,000 annually per patient.

He further advocated the state selling the buildings and land as surplus property and using the proceeds for community-based programs.

Stone acknowledged opposition to his efforts on the part of families who have loved ones at the centers.

“I could certainly understand they’d be resistant to change,” he said. “But if you look at the data, you see how these same people do so much better in community settings.”

Center advocates, however, would scoff at the senator’s notion that developmental center residents could gain employment outside the facilities, depending, he said, on their level of disability. Critics have argued that the vast majority of residents in the facilities have disabilities that are so acute that merely surviving outside the institutions would be in doubt.

“You have some of the most medically-fragile individuals in the entire state health services system calling SDC home,” McGuire said. “You can’t put a price tag on their health and well-being, and you certainly can’t put an arbitrary deadline on this process.”

Stone’s financial calculus also does not appear to take into account the fact that the federal Medicaid program, which is administered in California through Medi-Cal, covers as much as half of the cost for patients who qualify.

SB 639 is one of three bills that have been introduced by Senate Republicans in this legislative session dealing with funding for care for the state’s disabled. Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, held a news conference earlier this month urging passage of the legislation.

The state Legislative Analyst’s Office recommended that the Sonoma center and Fairview Developmental Center in Orange County be closed to save money and follow trends to care for the disabled in community settings. However, the analyst’s report suggested a time frame of ten years to complete the closure process, as opposed to three years advocated by Republican lawmakers.

Sonoma Developmental Center is home to more than 400 patients, and employs about 1,200, making it Sonoma Valley’s largest employer.

The closure recommendations are certain to be a focus of today’s legislative day at the Eldridge center. The event, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Wagner Building, gives residents, their families and friends, staff, and local community members a chance to speak directly to legislators about the center’s future.

State Sen. Mike McGuire and Assembly members Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, are scheduled to attend, as are Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin and Santi Rogers, director of California’s Department of Developmental Services.

The event is hosted by Sonoma’s Parent Hospital Association.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @deadlinederek.