Hospital bond Measure F fails

When the final results were in, those against numbered 3,590, and those in favor numbered 5,770. That was 61.6 percent of the vote – a majority, but not enough. The hospital bond measure had failed.
After four months of effort, the wait for the results had seemed like a nail-biting eternity–to those for as well as those against the measure. At 8 p.m. with 13 of 30 precincts counted, Sonoma County Tax Authority Executive Director Fred Levin said he felt the race would be “pretty close” but he was not hoping for the measure to pass. “It would be a disservice to the taxpayers of Sonoma Valley if this thing did pass,” he said.
Art Fichtenberg, who, with Peggy Bair, was co-chair of the campaign for the measure, said at about 9 p.m. that he was on pins and needles. “The polling we did was optimistic,” he said, and explained that the low-key campaign had been recommended. “We conducted a ‘targeted’ campaign,” he said. This meant that rather than trying to go out and sell the concept to people, “the goal was to find people who support your views and encourage them to come out to vote.” This soft sell approach, as the poll numbers lingered unnervingly close, might have seemed to an observer an inadvisable course. “But,” he said, “Measure C stirred up a lot of negative energy. We didn’t want to incur more hurt feelings. We wanted to conduct a healing process.” There were No signs everywhere, but not a Yes to be seen. They hadn’t wanted to push.
Then, by 10:15 p.m., the results were in. “I think we lost,” said Bob Rice, hospital spokesman. “I was surprised,” he said, “I thought it would be closer.” His concern then went to the hospital staff. “Clearly, the wind is out of everyone’s sails,” he said. “To me the hardest part is the blow to the morale to the 400-odd people who work there. But we’re in economically challenged times. So to get people to get a two thirds vote on anything is very tough. Sixty two percent did vote for us. It’s a majority, but just not enough.”
While the disappointment was clear, he said he was going to get a good night’s sleep and go to work in the morning and be ready to continue to tackle the challenges at hand. “We still need an emergency room. I think that’s the mandate. We got some success with the turnaround, and hopefully, that continues. We have some pretty pressing needs, so we’ll have to look to grants, philanthropy.” He thought a minute and then said what one would expect the CEO Carl Gerlach, himself would say, “It’s not the end of the world. I think you just keep trying.”