Money-saving hospital bill clears Senate

With a flourish of his pen, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger can save the Sonoma Valley Hospital – or at least save up to 30 percent of the renovation cost.
SB1699, which passed the Senate Aug. 20 with a 33-0 vote, will help hospital districts like Sonoma Valley’s save time and money by permitting them to contract with a single entity to design and construct a project.
Currently, district hospitals are forced to pay higher construction costs than private hospitals because state law forces them to use the more time-consuming and costly design-bid-build process. SB1699, authored by State Senator Pat Wiggins (D–Santa Rosa), will help make it possible for Sonoma Valley Hospital to carry out its renovation and retrofitting plans.
“The design-build method can be faster, and therefore cheaper than the design-bid-build method,” Wiggins stated, “but it requires a higher level of sophistication since design and construction may occur simultaneously.” “We have that capacity,” said hospital CEO Carl Gerlach at the July 30 meeting of the hospital board of directors.
Gerlach said that should the bill pass, having the design-build capacity would be a key feature of his cost-reduction plan. Noting with optimism that the bill was progressing towards the governor’s desk, he credited Norman Gilroy for his expertise and advocacy in Sacramento. “Norman has been an absolutely brilliant supporter,” he said. “If these things come to pass, I think I’ll name a broom after him.” According to board member Mike Smith, who has also been working to support the legislation, “If it gets passed, it could be a great boon to us.”
Gilroy, in an Aug. 26 e-mail, said the bill’s fate is not yet assured. “There seems to be some concern that the bill might get caught up in the governor’s threat to veto all bills that come to his desk without an agreement on the state budget. [The governor] needs to know that this bill is vital to the continuing health care of the 40,000 people of the Sonoma Valley and will save millions for the local taxpayers here who are faced with footing the bill for the unfunded state seismic safety mandate.”