League of Women Voters steps into El Camino fray League of Women Voters steps into El Camino fray (May 27, 2005)

Group requests hearing before board

By Kathy Schrenk

As part of an effort to get people more concerned about the "transparency" of public agencies, the League of Women Voters is pressing the El Camino Hospital District to be more open about its board meetings and financial dealings.

The League is concerned about all public agencies and their openness, said Jane Turnbull, president of the League's Mountain View-Los Altos chapter. But group members are especially concerned about having an open bidding process in the spending of the hospital's $148 million in bond measure money for seismic retrofitting of the Mountain View campus, she said.

The group sent a letter to the hospital district board on Tuesday asking that the hospital and its board's actions "be conducted with at least the degree of openness and public access to information required of a 'local agency'" by the Brown Act and California Public Records Act.

The letter is also signed by representatives of the League of Women Voters of Cupertino-Sunnyvale, a former hospital board member, and current and former El Camino doctors -- including chiefs of staff. Among its other requests, the group asked to have senior hospital managers meet with the League and the people who signed the letter, and for a discussion of the letter to be put on the agenda for the upcoming June 1 hospital board meeting.

Hospital spokesperson Judy Twitchell defended the hospital, saying that it already complies with the Brown Act. "The public and press are welcome to attend board meetings, and they do," she said, adding that the audited financial statements are presented to the board every fall.

Twitchell believes the League's letter could be put on the agenda for June 1 if the deadline for adding items hasn't passed.

"If it's possible I think that the hospital would do it," she said. Twitchell also wants to remind the public that El Camino was named one of the top four hospitals in the country by the Commonwealth Fund.

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