Time to Lead, Carefully

The passage of Measure B in Tuesday’s balloting confirms the continued support of the citizens of Sonoma Valley for a local hospital. Even with the uncertainty around the question of public or private and around the choice among sites that are here, there, and in town, the community’s desires are clear for a local hospital, a local emergency room, and top quality care.
Presumably, this is the message that had been awaited by local doctors, by staff at the Sonoma Valley Hospital now, by prospective home buyers, and by businesses wanting to relocate here. Yes, we as a community are willing to support local health care.
The resignation of board member John MacConaghy and the release of CEO Bob Kowal may have been helpful to restoring confidence in the leadership of the Sonoma Valley Health Care District board. We encourage the board to capitalize on the success of the parcel tax by moving forward openly and deliberately. The board is in the delicate position of having its own site proposal as one of three under consideration, while it is also the direct decision-maker, and so it needs to respect public sensitivity to that position.
The strong leadership recently has come from within the community, with the formation of the Sonoma Valley Health Care Coalition. Political opponents Steve Pease (active in the Yes on C campaign a year ago) and Bob Edwards (active in the No on C campaign) united to lead a long, thorough study, culminating in an evaluation of the proposals it found viable: the district’s proposal for a site on Broadway, the Cirrus proposal on Eighth Street East, and the Benson/Goode proposal adjacent to the current location. The coalition has been deferring its final recommendation to the hospital board until Wednesday March 14, after the results of the parcel tax vote were known.
Developing events may make the coalition’s efforts moot, however. As the Sun reported earlier, the district’s Broadway site, which the coalition had been assured was a viable option, turns out to be incomplete, still. We had pondered in a recent editorial whether the hospital district had abandoned that site along with the release of Kowal. Now there is news that the district is looking at another possible location to build the hospital.
The new Leveroni Road site reportedly being negotiated may be ideal, and we’ll look for an expert evaluation, but which expert is it who will do that evaluation? The coalition’s expert Carl Gerlach is now the district’s own employee. And it’s uncertain, perhaps even unlikely, that the coalition has the will and stamina, and the funding, to find and hire a new expert to revise its evaluations.
As we have before, we counsel patience, as this and further developments unfold over the next few months, and confidence, since we believe that our community will resolve the issues and move forward with broad consensus to develop a health care facility to meet the needs of this generation and the next.