Three Cambria health district candidates share views at forum

Three candidates for the Cambria Community Healthcare District Board responded to an array of questions during a public forum Sunday night, Oct. 2, at the Joslyn Recreation Center, with the district’s ambulance service, facilities and health survey among the topics addressed.

Incumbent Barbara Bronson Gray joined challengers Shirley Bianchi and Jerry Wood at the table in a discussion moderated by Joslyn Center President Jim Major. (Wood was recently appointed to a vacant seat on the board but is also running for a separate seat.)

Board President Kristi Jenkins, who, along with Bronson Gray, is up for re-election, did not attend the forum.

In an email prior to the forum, Jenkins wrote, “I am not able to attend the forum tonight due to a previous commitment and let the organizers know that the date would not work for me when invited.”

Sunday night’s forum was noteworthy for the amount of agreement among the three candidates, each of whom expressed support for expanding health care services on the North Coast, close oversight of the district’s finances and strong support of the district’s ambulance service.

All three candidates were given five minutes to respond to each of six questions posed by Major, and they also answered questions submitted on index cards by members of the audience. About 50 people attended the forum, which lasted just under two hours.

On the question of expanding services, Bianchi — who served on the county Board of Supervisors for eight years starting in 1998 — spoke of the need for a digital X-ray, medical lab, more primary care physicians and a walk-in clinic.

Wood, a local volunteer who retired after a 37-year career with the Pasadena Fire Department, agreed that “additional private care physicians are needed. My doctor is in Morro Bay; I would love to have a doctor here.” He also said, “We need to serve all the people in the area. … We need to do outreach to people that are not in Cambria, such as (those who live in) San Simeon.”

Health survey

Bronson Gray traced her own support for expanded services to an unsuccessful proposal by Jenkins in 2014 to change the district’s name to the North Coast Emergency Services District. She said that proposal prompted her to ask what services the community wanted the district to provide, a question that, in turn, helped spur the creation of the district’s recent health care survey.

Another stimulus to that move, Bianchi said, was a conversation she had with the Michael McLaughlin, who served on the board until his death Aug. 12 (Wood was appointed to his vacant seat), about the possibility of opening a clinic in Cambria. Bronson Gray then became involved alongside them in an effort to approach a health care provider with the idea.

“That’s how we contacted Dignity Health, and they were kind of hesitant until Barbara mentioned the survey,” Bianchi said. She added that district Administrator Bob Sayers then urged them to contact Tenet and Community Health Centers, as well; Tenet subsequently responded.

“Data works,” Bronson Gray said. “Without that survey, we’d have had nothing in our notebook to give them. … But we have the data. We were professional about it, and it’s really exciting.”

She added that Tenet had put a two-doctor facility at Nacimiento Lake, a community of about 2,000 people, indicating that it would be feasible to do something similar in Cambria, with more than 6,000.

When asked about the survey, Wood said, “I do not know that much about the survey, and what I do know is mostly hearsay.” He added, however, “If it works to get additional health care providers to the district, I’m happy with that.”

Medical building

On the subject of the district’s medical building in the East Village on Main Street, Wood said it is “inadequate for the use it is being put to.”

The district has been exploring whether to sell the 60-year-old building and buy another building and remodel it, renovate the current building, demolish the current structure and build a new one on the existing site, or purchase another site and build a new structure there.

“I would be extremely worried if we were to have a tree fall on that building,” Wood said, “because from what I have determined, there is asbestos in that facility.”

Bronson Gray used a medical analogy in urging a step-by-step approach to the issue: “First you need a diagnosis, then you need a treatment, then you pull out your wallet — or your insurance card — and see if you can afford the care.”

She faulted Jenkins and current trustee Bob Putney, whose seat isn’t up for election, because they “kept putting ongoing maintenance on hold.”

“We’re going to get a building inspector in,” she said. “We’ll find out what (the situation) is, and then we’ll take appropriate action.”

Finances

Bianchi took the opportunity to suggest a possible federal source of finances for the district, which she said would otherwise rely on grant funding, community fundraising and/or a petition to raise property taxes.

She said using a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan would open up “a portal” to funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Once the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan is written, by mid-2017, that would allow the CCHD, in cooperation with the (Cambria Community Services District), to apply for FEMA hazardous mitigation funds,” she said, urging the board to “scan the horizon to see what’s applicable to the district” in terms of funding sources “and not concentrate on just one thing.”

Wood expressed support for that idea.

“We need to work on setting priorities, on which needs to be first, second, third and fourth,” he said, calling the district’s goals “a work in progress” that “need to be ready to be modified.”

Bronson Gray called for strict oversight of the district’s budget, describing herself as “a stickler for line-items in the budget.”

Bianchi expressed support for Bronson Gray during the forum.

“Although Barbara and I are not running as a team, during the campaign, and attending many coffees, we have come to realize that with her extensive knowledge in the provision of health care services and my extensive experience in local government, we can productively combine our knowledge with our common vision — the provision of health care services on the North Coast to fill the gap between what the CHC has to offer, and what our most excellent ambulance service provides,” she said in her opening statement.

Wood closed by saying, “We are all very committed to serving our community. I have been doing that for years.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2016 at 11:46 AM with the headline "Three Cambria health district candidates share views at forum."