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Hospital District snafu
The Daily World story, which is excerpted in this week’s North Coast News:
By Steven Friederich
The Daily World
The voters in Ocean Shores might be the only ones who get to vote on — and ultimately be taxed on — a proposed North Beach Hospital District because of a mistake in the way a legal petition was written and submitted to the county.
The issue will be on the February ballot.
Ballot proponents wanted a potential hospital district to encompass the boundaries of the North Beach School District. However, the boundaries of the school district criss-cross along voting precincts and run afoul of the rules to establish hospital districts. State law requires that the boundaries must be set along the boundaries of voting precincts, Deputy Prosecutor Jim Baker told the county commissioners and the general public on Monday during a public hearing.
As a result, Baker told the commissioners that the county needed to trim the boundaries.
The County Auditor’s Office certified the legal petition to create a new hospital district on the North Beach, saying the organizers had gathered 323 valid signatures to go forward. Auditor Vern Spatz said organizers needed just 270 signatures or at least 10 percent of the voters in their area.
After the boundary issues are settled by the county commissioners, the matter will be on the February ballot. The commissioners must also decide on the number of hospital district commissioners, who would also be up for election on the same February ballot and immediately take office if the hospital district were approved.
After hearing from proponents and opponents to the idea, the county commissioners continued the public hearing until 2 p.m., Monday, Sept. 13, so they could gather more feedback.
“We don’t want to rush this,” County Commissioner Al Carter said.
Baker said it would be against state law for the commissioners to expand the potential hospital district’s boundaries to include the rest of the voting precincts in dispute. The boundaries must be condensed down.
The only exception to the law is if the ballot proponents go door to door and gather permission from all of the property owners within a certain precinct. The Revised Code of Washington specifically states, “no lands shall be included within the boundaries so fixed lying outside the boundaries described in the petition, except upon the written request of the owners of such lands.”
Petition organizer Al Lizakowski of Ocean Shores said he and the other organizers will go door to door and get more signatures, if necessary. But he’s not sure what will happen.
Bottomline? Unless there’s a last-ditch effort by the proponents to gather a whole lot more signatures, the ballot proponent’s attempt to include the precincts of Moclips, Ocean City and Wilderness can’t happen because portions of those precincts do not lie within the North Beach School District.
That means the only voting precincts located entirely within the North Beach School District are those within the city limits of Ocean Shores.
“We did the best we could with the available data,” said petition organizer Randy Peck of Ocean Shores.
State law doesn’t allow the commissioners to just not put the issue on the ballot. Baker noted the legal petition has already been certified for ballot placement by the County Auditor’s Office.
But several Ocean Shores residents on Monday tried to convince the commissioners to opt out the City of Ocean Shores altogether and, thus, eliminate the ballot proposal altogether.
Lillian Broadbent of Ocean Shores said the ballot petition gave the “false impression this (hospital district) would be free to the citizens.”
The hospital district would be another taxing authority and the creation of the hospital district would place an immediate property tax levy on the North Beach residents to fund the studies necessary to create a future hospital or clinic.
“I do not feel in anyway this will pass,” added Linda Miller, of Ocean Shores. “I don’t think it’s viable. I don’t think it’s feasible. I think this petition is misleading.”
“We can’t afford another taxing district right now,” added Richard Anderson, of Ocean Shores. “I believe the county is well-served by Community Hospital in Aberdeen.”
Steven Friederich, a Daily World writer, can be reached at (360) 537-3927 or by e-mail at sfriederich@thedailyworld.com
Let’s be correct on what Mr. Mero presented on May 23, 2010. His presentation, which I have a copy of and am willing to send to anyone that requests it, makes no mention of the precinct splitting issue. On June 11, 2010 I got the following statement from Linda and Bill Miller: Randy, thank you for contacting us, we haven’t seen the petition “yet, we need to read it first and then we can make an informed decision. Lynda and Bill Miller” I then got this statement on Friday, June 18th, 2010: Randy, “hope the signing is going well, have a small problem with the petition, will get back to you on this. Lynda” Nothing after that. No comments, no e-mails, nothing. I keep everything sent to me. On Monday, June 21, 2010 the petition signatures were turned into the Auditor’s office. On June 29th, 2010 we were informed by Julie at the Auditor’s office that we had sufficient signatures and it was being sent to the Prosecutor’s office for review. On July 6, 2010 we heard from Mr. James Baker of the Prosecutor’s office to tell us about the need to file a notice of intent with the “boundary commission” T After discussions on that issue, it was determined that we should wait until the County Commissioners set the boundaries. That happened on July 7th at 8:07 AM. On July 7th at 8:54 AM Mr. Baker contacted us about the splitting the precincts issue. To quote him: ” The Auditor informs me that the boundaries of the North Beach School District split some voter precincts. But RCW 70.44.030 states that the proposed boundaries of a public hospital district cannot split voter precincts. My reading of this section leads me to conclude that the fact the proposed boundaries split voter precincts does not invalidate the petition, but will require the Board of Commissioners to adjust the proposed boundaries in the public hearing process to ensure that no precincts are split. Practically speaking, this means that any partial precincts that are included in the proposed boundaries will have to be deleted by the Commissioners, unless all landowners of lands outside NBSD boundaries sign written consent to be included under RCW 70.44.030.” On July 7, 2010 at 9:05 AM Al wrote Mr. Baker: “Mr. Baker, Thank you once again for your attention to these details. Do you have a good source, possibly available on line where I can compare these two boundaries, or refer me to some available map that I can obtain, to view this conflict? Al Lizakowski” Then on July 12, 2010 at 10:06 AM Mr. Baker wrote: “After doing more checking, I’ve found out that the Boundary Review Board is not involved in reviewing public hospital district boundaries after all. By statute, boundary review boards are authorized to review special district boundary changes or formations. Special districts are defined in RCW 36.93.020(2) (governing boundary review boards) as “any water-sewer district, fire protection district, drainage improvement district, drainage and diking district, flood control district, irrigation district, metropolitan parks district, drainage district, or public utility district engaged in water distribution.” No mention of hospital districts, so no role for the Boundary Review Board.” That is when we and Mr. Baker completely knew basically what the issue was regarding boundaries.
We did then see the differences on the GIS website and knew that we have to deal with it after the hearing which was delayed by the election. However, we did contact the Auditor’s office by phone and asked how we can get the owners of the property outside the school district and within the precincts. Messages were left with Julie and Vern. We never got responses.
Finally, after the hearing Monday, when asking Julie for the information again and paying for her to e-mail it. She also mentioned that we could get information from the GIS department. I contacted Mr. Smyth from that department and he sent me files which have allowed me to find out who the property owners in precinct 32, 38 and 48 who are outside the school district. We are going to be contact those owners to meet the requirements of getting written requests for inclusion. Those will be submitted to the county as soon as possible. If that is not feasible in the four weeks we have, those areas can request to be annex into the district per RCW 70.44.210. That possibly could be a ballot measure for Feb. 2011 running at the same time as the current ballot measure.
Our goal is to include the whole North Beach because all of us benefit.
The story about Mark Reed in the paper deals with their NEW 19 million dollar hospital in Elma. They are going it alone without a corporate partner like other areas. Also, Forks has a population of 3900 people. Florence OR has 8745 people. We have 7200 in the North Beach School District. However, we have our own city saying we have about 11,000 people here a day.
Randy and Mr. Lizakowski, and Mr. Engle were all at the Meeting of Concerned Citizens that took place on May 23 and covered the topic of a North Beach Hospital d District. A Presentation was made by Jeff Mero, Executive Director of the Association of Washington Public Hospital District, he also handed out information which clearly stated the INFORMATION ABOUT SPLITTING OF PRECINCTS NOT BEING ALLOWED FOR THE FORMATION OF A HOSPITAL DISTRICT. The next day I applied to the Auditors Office for a map, where I was sent to the proper office where I was able to purchase an overlaid map of the North Beach School District showing an overlay of the voting precints. This is the same map that was published in the Aug 31 edition of the Daily News. I e-mailed Randy about the discrepanacy but never heard back. I also communicated to the Mayor and City Council the information that this was an illegal district. Mr. Lee, Critical Access Program Manager of Washington Department of Health also spoke and handed out literature that spoke of the many issues and possible pitfalls arising out of the creation of a Hospital District. The Fact that the organizers of this petition drive ignored those facts that were given are what led to this problem. Every One who lives in Ocean shores is aware of the ongoing Medical Issues, most people receive their Health Care in Aberdeen or Olympia. Mark Reed serves a population of 13,000 people, while we would have only 7,000. Mr. Lee stated that it would take at least 12,000 population to make a Hospital District to have a chance to survive financially. In fact there is a interesting story about Mark Reeds problems and the ongoing financial need to Levy the people in their Hospital District also in the August 31 issue of Daily World. Mark Reed is 50 years old and has been in the black, not incurring debt, for only the past two years. While this is a interesting proposition this is not the right time and we would need many more citizens to make the Hospital fiscally possible. We are talking about a New Taxing district here with a long term debt obligation, this requires serious thought. The people responsible for this petition Drive are to be commended for their effort and thought about the health problems of this community. But now is not the time for dreams but rather reality.
Under the RCWs there are many ways to petition government to establish an entity. We looked at those. Even an attorney looked at what we drafted and said it was fine. It was not until after we submitted the document to the county did we find out that there were specific hospital district formation restrictions as to precincts. There was no map of the school district that overlayed the precincts. You have one or the other. The County GIS map shows the school district. The GIS area shows the individual precincts. However there was no unified map available. In fact, the County GIS staff had to create the one for the Commissioners. We are taking steps to include the rest of the area in the final ballot measure as prescribed by law. The whole point of putting the issue before the people was to get the information out in the form of forums and discussions. People here have complained for years about medical services. Doctors come from all over to Grays Harbor now on scheduled days. What we are trying to get is more of that service here. That is where you start. Ultimately it can be a hospital. If one looks at other communities like Forks, Friday Harbor, and Elma where Mark Reed is moving, they too have similar or smaller populations. They too are 21 miles from a major hospital. In fact, when Mark Reed moves they will be 21 miles from Aberdeen and 29 miles from Olympia. They are currently 21 miles away. We are 21 miles from Aberdeen. Ask the people who spoke against this petition where they go for medical care. Which hospital they go to. SeaMar is a start. However, it is a primary care physician working M-F 8 to 5. They are not specialists which could be brought in with the help of a Hospital District.
I can’t believe it! This could be funny if it wasn’t something that again could have the potential for increasing my tax load even more. These organizers, depite their claim that they”did the best they could with the available data”, obviously did NOT do their homework on this boundary matter prior to running off and getting this thing put on the Febuary ballot. Every one will pass the buck on who should have done what on this whole thing, but to what avail? Commissioner Carter seems to think it is funny by his comment on what will happen when they bring the discussions out here to Ocean Shores for public input. I for one support the views of the residents L. Broadbent,L.Miller, and R. Anderson and commend them being an active part of this discussion. Additionally, If these organizers would do a little more homework, they would find out that a certificate of need issued by Washington State DSHS, is required to build any type of hospital in the state of Washington. The last hospital built was Legacy Emannual Hospital, Samoncreek in Vancouver Washington completed 2 years ago. Prior to that, no new hospitals had been built in Washingtion State since the 1970’s