THIS MIGHT HURT: The County Board of Supervisors has OK'd a one-year fix for the ailing San Joaquin General Hospital, which is struggling with a $32 million deficit.

STOCKTON — The Board of Supervisors wasn't at all happy with County Administrator Manuel Lopez's proposal to get the county out of a $32 million deficit for San Joaquin General Hospital, but the board did vote to move some money and restructure two loans on Tuesday.

"I feel absolute anger and displeasure at this," Supervisor Leroy Ornellas told county staff.

The Board of Supervisors' action is designed as a one-year fix. The board was told on April 1 that it faces a $32 million deficit in the hospital budget by June 30.

"Where are we going to be on July 1 after we adopt the (county) budget?" Supervisor Larry Ruhstaller said.

Supervisors asked Lopez what his solution is to avoid the same problem in future years. Lopez said he didn't have an answer Tuesday, but he's working on a solution.

As of press time, the board's hospital committee, consisting of Ruhstaller and Supervisor Victor Mow, was scheduled to meet with representatives of The Camden Group, a consulting firm analyzing hospital operations and developing a possible financial solution, Thursday, April 24.

Although they discussed San Joaquin General's financial picture three weeks ago, supervisors were still asking Tuesday how the county got into the fiscal mess it's in.

"If we're bleeding to death, is it one gushing artery or a thousand different cuts?" Ruhstaller asked. Consultants are expected to answer that question at a later date.

Supervisors approved the following changes:

■ Transferring $27 million that was to be used for health-related buildings to county hospital operations.

■ Paying off two loans to cover the remaining $5 million, one that the hospital budget loaned Stockton Metropolitan Airport

In 1993, the county issued $106.6 million in certificates of participation to construct a new hospital building.

The first phase was completed in 1997 at $7 million below budget, so the hospital fund used that money for two loans, one for $4 million for county airport improvements and another for $3 million to the county general fund to expand juvenile hall.

Lopez recommends paying off the remaining $270,000 that is owed on the juvenile hall loan and transferring the airport department's loan payments to the county's reserve fund.         The Board of Supervisors would also take $2.9 million in reserve funds to finance hospital operations for the current fiscal year ending June 30.

Ornellas noted that during the recent One Voice lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., he put in a pitch for federal funding to finance a public health lab. Yet on Tuesday, the board removed the $8.5 million the county had already allocated toward the health lab and used it for hospital operations.
 

"I am having a real problem with this," Ornellas said.

Ruhstaller said the Board of Supervisors needs an idea from its staff and consultants on how to avoid a continuation of the deficit in the 2008-09 fiscal year because the board is expected to adopt a new county budget in late June.

"I think we're between a rock and a hard place,"     Mow said, explaining his reluctant support for the restructuring plan.

Ornellas cast the lone dissenting vote, even though he said he hoped the motion passed

In other actions 

■ The San Joaquin Board of Supervisors agreed on Tuesday to interview interim Registrar of Voters Austin Erdman for the purpose of possibly appointing him to the post on a permanent basis. The interview will be held shortly after the June primary election so Erdman can concentrate his energies on the election.

■ The Board of Supervisors voted to pay an extra $208,648 for attorneys and investigators that will represent defendants who cannot be served by the county Public Defender's Office.

David Baird, executive director of the San Joaquin County Bar Association, explained that the Public Defender's Office occasionally has a conflict of interest that requires the Lawyer Referral Service to represent a defendant who doesn't hire a private attorney.

For example, Baird said, if there is a "sweep" with multiple arrests, the public defender can legally represent only one of the suspects. The Lawyer Referral Service must provide attorneys for the remaining defendants, he said.

A conflict of interest may also occur if someone in the Public Defender's office is either a victim or a witness in a case, Baird said.

■ The Board of Supervisors awarded a $188,753 contract to SASCO for a data and telecommunications project for the county Agriculture Center. Construction is expected to be completed by late June.