Miller, Somersille and Zoglin pull ahead in El Camino Healthcare District race

Longtime incumbents on the El Camino Healthcare District’s board of directors are headed for victory again on Thursday, with early election results showing both Julia Miller and John Zoglin comfortably positioned to retain their seats.

Mountain View resident Dr. Carol Ann Somersille has teetered between first and second place, and is expected to secure a spot on the board in the race for three seats.

Miller, a former Sunnyvale councilwoman, received the most votes as of 9 a.m. Thursday with with 28,143 votes, followed by Somersille with 28,111 and Zoglin with 27,757. Trailing are Los Altos Hills resident and cardiologist Dr. Jane Lombard with 24,908 votes and Mountain View resident and psychologist Dr. Meghan Fraley with 23,010 votes.

The top three vote-getters will serve on the district’s board of directors. One of the incumbents whose term expires this year, Gary Kalbach, did not run for reelection.

Though the preliminary count will be updated throughout the month, the early results Tuesday night show a striking difference in who voters supported based on city of residence. Somersille was the top vote-getter in nearly all of Mountain View’s precincts, while Zoglin took a commanding lead in large swaths of Los Altos. Julia Miller was the top vote-getter in most of Sunnyvale.

Miller said she was excited to see that she was leading Tuesday tonight and would likely be reelected, and that she believes the hospital and the district could be facing turbulent times if the pandemic continues as it has been. She said she was happy to see the board will have a new face and fresh new ideas with Somersille, but that it’s important the incumbents held onto their seats.

“I think it’s sort of mandatory to have two incumbents reelected, and I’m glad to see the community felt that way also,” Miller said.

Zoglin said in a statement Wednesday that he looked forward to working with Somersille and Miller, particularly as the board revises the way it delivers health care to residents in the district. El Camino Health has significantly expanded its outpatient and urgent care clinics, and could very well rely on health care services on business campuses and via video calls after COVID-19.

“El Camino Health is always about the incredible quality of care delivered by the people closest to our patients — the nurses and physicians as well as the union members who provide the healing environment in which patients thrive,” Zoglin said.

The El Camino Healthcare District, a local public health care agency, has taken on an unusual level of importance this election season amid a historic pandemic. In recent months, the district has leveraged both taxpayer money and the resources of El Camino Hospital to help test residents for COVID-19 and treat those who fall ill. Earlier this year, the district’s board committed $2.5 million to test residents living in the district, which encompasses Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and a portion of Santa Clara and Cupertino.

The district also partnered with local school districts to provide on-site COVID-19 tests to school teachers and staff, aiding in the reopening of public schools.

Outside of the pandemic response, the health care district helps finance public health initiatives through millions of dollars in annual grants, and oversees the operations of El Camino Hospital. Unlike many of the health care districts across the state, El Camino Healthcare District retains oversight of El Camino Health, the nonprofit, private corporation that encompasses El Camino Hospital, a network of clinics and a roughly $1 billion annual budget. Elected district board members typically choose to also serve on the hospital’s board of directors, giving them significant control over El Camino Health.

Though board meetings tend to go unattended by the public and many still find the agency’s purpose obscure, the district remains a powerful entity that directly oversees the governance of an independent hospital with a $1 billion budget. The district has also faced criticism in the past for making major financial decisions without soliciting public input, and for allowing El Camino Health — as a private, nonprofit corporation — to expand its services well outside the health care district’s boundaries.

Miller has, in the past, been cautious about the health care district ceding too much control of the hospital’s governance to outside experts, and on the campaign trail supported a careful balance between the needs of district residents and the goals of the private hospital corporation.

Zoglin, on the other hand, said during the campaign that he was confident that he and fellow district board members are exactly the kind of counterbalance needed to ensure El Camino Healthcare District doesn’t stray from its mission of serving the community.

Somersille, an obstetrician/gynecologist, campaigned on a platform of supporting social justice in health care, and said that the health care district can and should play an active role in addressing health care inequities among women and people of color in the community. She advocated for stronger diversity and inclusion in the district’s decisions, and celebrated the value of a hospital that is still fundamentally owned by the community.

Fraley, though likely headed for defeat, said Wednesday that she looks forward to working with community and the district board on expanding access to mental health services, which are often unavailable or unaffordable to families throughout the Bay Area.

“I am heartened to see the renewed emphasis and prioritization of mental health on the district board, and look forward to the work we will do in our community to expand much needed mental health services,” Fraley said.